Joe’s BodyBlog

So I went back to my doctor yesterday and we came to realization that I was putting off the inevitable, it was time to do an epidural spinal injection or steroids and pain medication. I had put this off for months but I had to admit I was ready for some medical intervention. We did my exam and strength tests and I was actually worse than I was two months ago. The writing was clear I needed so help. So at 8:00 am this morning I had it done. My right leg is numb, mostly in my foot, but that will go away over the next couple of hours. I don’t have any pain in my back or leg anymore which is part of what I needed. Of course I had a crappy night last night, my back from mid traps down to my buttocks was spasming all night and into the morning, but not anymore…

So we will see if the inflammation goes down allows me the chance to move forward with my recovery from this issue. My doctor feels that I should consider Spinal Decompression before ever talking about surgery, but he is hoping from his clinical experience that I won’t have to go down that road. He has down thousands of these injections for people worse off than I am and they have all done very well. The fact that I don’t have any nerve impingement with my disks is a huge benefit. For the next couple of weeks, I am to take it easy but still stretch and work my back. Cardio and Yoga are fine. They just don’t want me lifting heavy or even at all just yet. I am not about to push this, but I still need to work… Someday very soon my blog will be filled with progress, not whining …

Anyone ever had this done? Anyone ever heard of it. I have seen a few commercials (info mercials) on it lately since a couple of Doctors and Chiropractors around this area are offering it. I did some google searches, and read some reports, but then yesterday I went and did a free evaluation. I had my MRI (on disk) in hand to see if I was a candidate, which I am. But the thing that kills me is that this therapy is FDA Approved but not covered by insurance, so anything I do has to be out of my pocket. I just got done paying off my lasik, so it is hard to figure on doing this even with all the issues I have had with my back. One thing for sure the doctor is a good salesmen..

Anyhow the out of pocket price for this treatment is very expensive, most likely around $5000 when I am done. I consider it a alternative to surgery, so if things don’t progress I will consider. I am feeling pretty crappy lately since I haven’t progressed, but I just keep working on it. I am going to see my Doctor tomorrow morning and I will speak with him more about this. I see him at the Carolina Hurricanes games all the time since his seat is across the isle from mine, so I did talk with him a little about it last night (just to let him know I was coming in). I didn’t want to get into it with him since he is out in a social setting, I am not going to mix business like that. Although he told me it was fine, I just wouldn’t do it. One thing he did say that got my attention was that I might want to consider….(drum roll) spinal decompression….. So tomorrow will be interesting I am sure.

Right now I have a plan. Continue my PT, add my inversion table when it gets here (it shipped today) and listen to what my surgeon thinks might be a good non surgical course. Based on our conversation from last night I expect he will suggest a Epidural Cortisone shot, but I consider that a last resort… but I seem to have many of those…

I have been on Travel all week for work. Been working out while I am traveling but it is hard since I have to do things out of my routine. Glad I have been at least able to get in some workouts. My back still isn’t improving but I just keep pushing through it. I have been at a conference all week, staying with my boss and having to travel on the DC Metro. I am just glad that Gold’s opened a gym right around the corner from his house, otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten any workouts in.

My insurance is making me have a new PT prescription written by my doctor, so I have to go in next week and talk with him about my lack of back progress. I know he is going to recommend that he give me a steroid injection to relieve the pain and maybe to get the muscles to relax (since they haven’t yet) but I am going to resist. I am also trying to get an appointment with a Dr. that does Spinal Decompression to see if I am a candidate for it.  I am just trying very hard to heal my back with non invasive therapies.

The thing that travel can do, if you let it, is kill your diet. I am happy to report that I have been pretty good this week. My boss eats EVERY junk item that comes by him, and I have held my ground. I am proud of myself for that. The interesting thing is all of my co-workers have noticed that I look leaner, which makes me feel good. Then they bring the M&M’s out. As a group these guys are bad, they have M&M’s in a jar for the whole office, and one of my co-workers knows I love Peanut Butter, so he left a bag of them on my desk… I was weak, but since then I have been good…

So what is they say, you have to walk before you can run or you have to build a solid foundation before you try to push it to the next level? These says are very cliche yes, but think about it, they are true. Look at me, I am prone to injury why? I have had to think about this a lot over the last couple of months and I have found the answer. I am lacking the base core strength in my body (All over) to be able to push myself. But at the same time, I need to start pushing what I am doing. It is a delicate balance of course. But I am sure I can do it.

I decided to try out the PT’s advice and try to exhaust my back and lower body with a weight workout and see what happens. I did this yesterday morning, and it didn’t take much to exhaust me, but I completed the planned workout. Today I am a little sore, not bad. I did a great great after I was done working out. I also made sure to warm up. These are the small steps I am taking to finally get myself moving forward and passed this latest injury. I know this will be a long road, but like I have said before I have to break this up into a bunch of small goals to help me mentally deal with this. My immediate goal is to get myself working out on a regular pattern as part of my life again. This includes my back rehab, but also doing more. I have to gain strength and endurance and the only way to do that is to be able to push myself. Let’s see how this works for a little while. I have a 4 week plan, trying to build my base again. Then after 4 weeks I will see where I am and if I can push it up a little.

Building blocks… have to build a solid foundation, that is the plan and goal!

Ok maybe I am not fighting mad, but I think I am getting depressed in regards to my back. Muscular pain every day really is hard on my mind. My wife and I were talking about this the other day and she asked me point blank is I thought I was getting depressed and I was honest and said yes. When the issue isn’t something someone can clearly "fix", with a scalpel, or drug or whatever, and you have constant pain you tend to search for the magic bullet to help you out, but there might not be one. The extra Yoga has helped, and it helps especially in the morning when the pain is at it’s worst. I tend to tighten up when I sleep. My bed shouldn’t be the issue, it is 5 years old, but it is a top of the line pillow top bed. I may need a new one, but I am not sure.

One suggestion that has been made to me from one of my Doctors is a "steroid" injection into the joint to help with the pain that runs down my leg. My issue with that is what I have read (and the Doctor agreed) that this type of injection is usually meant for nerve issues, so the pain will go away, but the underlying problem (muscle tightness) won’t. Why bother then? I have to admit, with all this crap on TV and the Radio about HGH and Steroids helping with healing (and then the issues with athletes..) I have been tempted to talk to him again about this. But again, would this treat the underlying issue? Something I should ask him I guess. The PT I am seeing gave me three suggestions to help my back, 1) Exhaust my legs and lower back with a High Rep low weight workout, understanding that I will be sore after, but it might break the cycle I am on. 2) Continue with the Yoga, Pilates, and stretching I am doing and 3) Invest in an inversion table (my wife laughed when I toled her about that one), he has seen many patients do well after getting one of these and using them daily. I went and checked one out yesterday - just a matter of time now until I buy it.
But here are all the things I am doing to treat my back. I see a Orthopedic Back Specialist, His Physical Therapist, Acupuncture, Chiropractor and massage therapists. Then everyday I do the following: AM Wake up, slowly move around so the blood gets flowing to my back. Then once I am awake, I start my Yoga and Pilates routine. It takes me about 1 hours. Eat and get ready for work. During the work day, I stretch multiple times a day, getting away from the PC and getting myself moving and I walk for at least 15 minutes. After work and before I eat dinner I do my Yoga again (some of the moves I have to do on an empty stomach).

So I am thinking, my back is holding me up from my goals, but I may need to move past some of the pain issues so that my muscles can get going again. If one of the suggestions was to exhaust myself with a workout, why not go for it? I mean workout that is. I have dropped it and I think that is getting me depressed. I need to go so slow getting myself back that it kills me. I mean baby steps with every lift, checking my form and absolutely checking my EGO about the amount of weight.  How do I pick my exercises? Not to hard I mean I know what is sore and what I need to stretch… so I just need to do it.

So like Nike suggests - Just Do It!

So over the weekend I added some more Yoga to my back routine. I know what my problem is (besides the fact I sit at a computer all day ), it is my hip muscles, the hip flexors, adductors and abductors and lastly the iliopsoas muscles. Sitting at a computer all day shortens these muscles and causing my pelvis to tilt creating a muscle imbalance. I am incorporating more yoga poses that deal specifically with this muscle imbalance, they also lengthen those muscles. But just lengthen these muscles won’t help, I have to strengthen them as well, so I am doing pilates work and other poses from Yoga that does the strengthening for me. This makes my Yoga a pilates routine all most 1 hour long. My day is very busy as it is, but my health has to come first so since this is working for me that is what I am doing right now. I think a few weeks of these added poses/exercises will do wonders for me. I already noticed a difference from doing them over the weekend. This is especially true with one particular pose, I don’t know the name of it (I am still learning all of this), but it is very good at stretching my hips and upper quads which brings relief to my lower back. At first I thought I would never get into the pose, then I couldn’t get out of it… When I did finally get out, I was sore for a little while, but later on I felt really good. So I feel really positive that these new poses are what I need to add to help me out. My goal is to get back to weights and change my Yoga routine to a couple of days a week instead of every day by the end of Feb/early March. Fingers crossed that it will happen!!.

I am stuck in a Fitness and Health conundrum. I need to work out to help my back, but I am limited in working out because of my back. Finding the balance is beyond extremely important right now, it is imperative. I have been spending the past two months looking to the health professionals I have been seeing for some answers, but it is time for me to look at myself. I have to make the changes, I have to find the balance and I have to persevere with my fitness and health. So like I have said before I am breaking the months between now and my 40^th birthday into small goal chunks to reach my ultimate goal of being in the best shape of my life by my 40^th birthday and with that being able to see my abs. :)

So over the next day or two (at most) I will devise my new routine and include in it my time for my back specific exercises to help with the stretching and soreness I have to deal with day in and day out. The yoga and pilates have been really helping, but since I have been in pain for 6 months minus the occasional days of feeling good like right after a treatment (Chiropractic Care, Acupuncture, PT or now Massage), I feel I have to get myself out of this rut. My brother is a huge proponent of Inversion Tables. I have used his before when I visit him and they really do work, they stretch and relieve the issues especially in the low back and hip area, which happens to be my problem area.  I haven’t bought one yet mostly because of the cost, but meanwhile I have spent more than one would cost if I just bought the damn thing. So I expect to just do it and then deal with the fight at home about the expense and where to store the thing later.

In the meantime I have to move forward. I have goals to meet!

So I had PT this am for my back. I expressed my concern/frustration to my therapist about not really progressing and the fact that I haven’t been able to lift, just doing my back PT and cardio. My concern really stems from the fact that not being able to lift is limiting my recovery and it is hurting my knee since it never got to 100% after my micro fracture surgery. So we are working out a plan to help me get back to lifting and work my back as well as my knee. I also informed him that my massage I had the other day did wonders for my back, and he told me that the clinic has a license massage therapist on staff so I should check my benefits to see if it is covered. Turns out it is, so I am going to work that into my recovery. I am still losing weight, even after cheating like a mad man for the Super Bowl, so that makes me happy. I am down 1 more pound to 192… Yeah!

Oh and the alternative therapies I was going to ask about… turns out that the Radio Frequency stuff is for Nerve issue, where they actually burn the nerve endings and that I don’t need. Prolotherapy is for joint issues which is also not my problem, my problem is all muscular. That is why massage is going to be very important!

Ok so I had a really good weekend, I worked out, I got a 80 minute full body massage with hot stones for my back (that was amazing btw) and then I watched the NY Giants win the super bowl. That was great. The message really help with my low back pain. I am pretty sore today from it, but I am starting to feel like myself again. I have PT tomorrow so hopefully I can start lifting again. My workouts have been very limiting since my back is in such pain, but at least I can do cardio, then my stretching, yoga and pilates… Just have to keep working through all of this.

During my PT tomorrow I am going to talk with my Therapist and then my Doctor about looking at some alternative treatments like Radio Frequency or Prilotherapy. I don’t want steroids, but the clinic I go to is pretty hip on different methods of treating low back pain. Here is the funny thing, my Doctor is a huge Patriots fan, and last week I saw him at the Carolina Hurricanes game last week where he gave me so much crap about the Giants. He wanted to put money on it, but wasn’t willing to give me the points, so I backed off. I had faith in my team, but he wanted to put some serious cash on it, I wasn’t going to do that without the points. Tomorrow will be interesting.

Boy was I a crabby whiner yesterday, but man did that rant feel good. I went home from work and took a few minutes to sit in the hot tub and calm my back down. It was killing me yesterday, and I even snapped at my wife in the morning when I was getting my lunch together for work. She made a comment about how slow I was moving and I nearly tore her head off. She didn’t get mad at me for it, she knows when I am short like that there is something wrong with me, that just isn’t my personality. the other thing I did after my bath was take a muscle relaxer. I don’t like doing it on a regular basis, but sometimes I have too. I had a good nights sleep and went to the Chiropractor this am, got a very good adjustment. I feel better today, and I am looking forward to working out later and even over the weekend. I have a deep tissue massage schedule for Sunday, then after that I get to watch the Giants in the Super Bowl! I hope they win, no body is giving them a chance, but true Giants fans have to,after all we bleed Giant Blue!