On 4/23/2010 9:06 AM, Pete C. wrote:
>
> Cleatarrior wrote:
>>
>> On 4/22/2010 10:59 PM, Nunya Bidnits wrote:
>>> > wrote in message
>>> ...
>>>> On 4/22/2010 8:33 AM, Nunya Bidnits wrote:
>>>>> > wrote in message
>>>>> news >>>>>> In >,
>>>>>> > wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I'll second that book recommendation. The exercises in it will help
>>>>>>>> take a
>>>>>>>> lot of stress off of nerve bundles that are getting irritated or
>>>>>>>> pinched.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I've had a ruptured disk at c-5/c-6 which almost put me into surgery
>>>>>>>> three
>>>>>>>> different times, probably would have if I hadn't been so resistant to
>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>> medieval concept of cutting up my backbone and shoving in pieces of
>>>>>>>> cadaver
>>>>>>>> bone. Being careful of posture, rearranging things I use frequently to
>>>>>>>> avoid
>>>>>>>> encouraging bad posture (computer monitor height, for example), and
>>>>>>>> doing
>>>>>>>> the kinds of exercises found in that book are what kept me from being
>>>>>>>> cut. I
>>>>>>>> also found that a good muscle relaxant at night along with moist heat
>>>>>>>> goes a
>>>>>>>> lot further towards waking up without pain than any narcotic-type
>>>>>>>> painkillers. I'm now 20 years past the precipitating event which
>>>>>>>> caused
>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>> damage, and I can manage the situation and control it before it gets
>>>>>>>> out of
>>>>>>>> hand, and I still haven't been cut.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> MartyB
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Ditto the moist heat, and...Doanes Pills...Walgreens has a cheaper
>>>>>>> store
>>>>>>> brand. Dunno why they work, but they do.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Traction (decompression) therapy is also a good thing. My Ortho' told me
>>>>>> that that and the McKenzie exercises were my best bet to avoid surgery.
>>>>>> The neck steroid injections were administered by a pain specialist. MD
>>>>>> surgeon/anesthesiologist.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Not as bad as they sound. He was generous with the Lidocaine, and they
>>>>>> do offer sedation if you want it. I didn't.
>>>>>> --
>>>>>
>>>>> I had traction but not the injections. I got onto the moist heat thing
>>>>> when
>>>>> I realized how much the hot pack treatments helped during PT. You can't
>>>>> beat
>>>>> those hot wet sandbags they use for deep heat therapy.
>>>>>
>>>>> The best muscle relaxant IMO, if your doc will fork it over, is valium,
>>>>> just
>>>>> for long enough to get things settled down, i.e., 3-6 weeks. Fortunately
>>>>> I
>>>>> haven't had a bout that severe in ten years. Now if it starts to flare, a
>>>>> couple days of cyclobenzaprine and some hot wet towels will do the trick.
>>>>>
>>>>> I was told by the first neuro I saw that the body will heal itself in
>>>>> many
>>>>> cases if you can tolerate and manage the pain while it happens, and that
>>>>> many of the surgeries are done to relieve pain more than to prevent
>>>>> serious
>>>>> damage. Quote "I'd like to stay out of your neck." It's hard to accept
>>>>> when
>>>>> you're dealing with raw nerve pain shooting through your shoulder and
>>>>> down
>>>>> through your arm and elbow, but in hindsight it was the wisest thing
>>>>> anyone
>>>>> told me in nearly 20 years of dealing with it.
>>>>>
>>>>> I can't say it's completely healed but it's certainly not anywhere near
>>>>> the
>>>>> problem it used to be. It was so bad I couldn't even ride in a car
>>>>> without
>>>>> cringing in pain every time it hit a small bump.
>>>>>
>>>>> I figure it will probably go bad again sooner or later, but I'm betting
>>>>> on a
>>>>> less medieval surgical option being available by that time. They have a
>>>>> less
>>>>> invasive laproscopic procedure with much less chance of post surgical
>>>>> complications, but they wouldn't consider using it in the C vertebrae
>>>>> because of the close proximity to the spinal cord. Hopefully if I have to
>>>>> get cut someday, they will have refined this procedure. I know they
>>>>> already
>>>>> have an artificial material to replace the cadaver bone insertion but I
>>>>> don't know much more about it than that.
>>>>>
>>>>> MartyB
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> Hydrocodone is a Godsend, but it puts me clean out to sleep.
>>>>
>>>> Ymmv.
>>>
>>> Been there, done that. I finally figured out that in knocked me out to the
>>> point that I got all scrunched up in my sleep and didn't care. So I would
>>> wake up in the AM with everything already in an uproar.
>>
>> Wow, that's a reverse gear for sure.
>>>
>>> The muscle relaxant doesn't knock you out nearly as much. One thing that
>>> really helps is to be able to just lay flat on my back with the moist heat
>>> underneath, and maintain that posture in my sleep if possible. That position
>>> is the most pain free anyway, especially with the arm on the bad side up
>>> over my head. That's where there is the least pressure on the nerve root.
>>> With the muscle relaxants and feweer pain meds, eventually none, there was
>>> just enough of an edge left to the pain if I moved around that I seemed to
>>> maintain that position all night.
>>>
>>> MartyB
>>
>> Can we get a factory recall on the back please ;-)
>
> You can blame it on evolution. If the back generally holds out for the
> duration of a person's reproductive years, back problems that generally
> develop after those reproductive years will never be evolved away.

This a potent argument for senior sex...%-)