Shot Followup

I made Hubs go with me to my followup appointment because I was sad and needed support.  My SI felt AMAZAZING on Tuesday.  I classified it at a level 1 on the pain scale because it didn't really hurt, but I could still tell it was there.  So it wasn't 100%, but it was something I could definitely work with.  I went to Good Doc and jumped around and told him about how great this was and YAY!

Wednesday brought me back to Earth.  I awoke and could feel sharp pain.  Since the pain had changed after the shot to that achiness, I was scared something was amiss.  My first PT appointment with Megan went well, but my back continued to get worse throughout the day.  At night I cried, a little because it hurt, but a lot because I was so disheartened.  I moped around on Thursday and got a massage.

Yesterday I had a followup appointment with Dr. Sean's PA.  She was only about 45 minutes late.  I understand sometimes things come up, because I have a job where that happens.  I have never been more than 10 minutes late to an appointment with a "client."  Sometimes I have to cancel appointments, but I always think it's better to do that, rather than have someone sit around, waiting.  Then of course, I totally felt she was rushing through my appointment.  I had questions, though, and I wasn't letting her leave until I got them all answered.

The PA said when someone has pain for so long, sometimes one injection isn't enough to get rid of the inflammation.  She told me I have another option, and I forgot what it was called.  Basically, they would sedate me slightly and do a minor surgery where the doc would burn off the nerves that go to the si joint that are causing pain.  They grow back in about 6 months.  First though, I can try another injection, which is scheduled for next week.  I asked if they put different amounts of medicine in, or use a stronger type, and she said no.

Well, here's to hoping.

Oh, about Wednesday...  The PT did her initial evaluation and gave me 2 exercises to do.  The first I call "fat-skinny."  I don't know what it's called in real life.  Basically, I get on all fours and keep my back flat. Then I let my stomach hang out and suck it back in.  2 rounds of 20 reps, 2-3 times per day.  The other is "nerve flossing," where I lie on my back, hold my right bent leg behind the knee, then straighten it and stop before there's pain.  I'm not sure she realizes I don't have nerve pain, but whatever.  I'll see whatever other crazy stuff she has me do on Monday.

Shot +1

Yesterday, I decided to go ahead and get scheduled for physical therapy.  I've never done physical therapy though, so I did not realize I should have a doctor's order.  I also don't know if that means my doctor wanted me to wait until after my follow-up appointment in a week, or if he forgot to give me an order or what.  I called his office at around 2:30 yesterday to find out.  Can you believe he and his nurse were already gone?  Good for them.  Being in public service, I'm happy when people can take time, especially for holidays to spend with their family.  As for me, I will have to wait until Tuesday for answers to my questions.

In the meantime, I feel okay, but not spectacular.  I think I overdid yesterday because by the evening, I was in quite a lot of pain.  I'm going to take it a little easier today.

I started back to my previous exercises yesterday, but only did 2 rounds of 10 each.  My goal was 3 rounds throughout the day and 2 half mile walks, but I was hurting too much later.  I did get in crunches, leg lifts, v-ups, reverse back extensions, back extensions, supermans, spinal balance, tail wag, donkey-pee, and bridges.  I threw in some squats, pushups, and ring rows for good measure.  And took the dogs on a half mile walk in the morning.

Mostly it was all the running around I did yesterday that wore me out.  Perhaps I'll do some housework today and keep it light.  It's 48 hours after my injections, so I can apply heat today.  I think that will be in the form of a relaxing bath later with my new eucalyptus bath salts.

Day after Tomorrow

I'm getting shots in my SI Joint.

I went to see Dr. Sean, a pain management specialist.  He is a sweet guy and was really good at explaining stuff.  It was most of the stuff that has been explained to me before about my back, but he threw in some extra info that made me say, "ah ha," a few times.  The Doc. also talks really really fast, so it wasn't as though he was boring me.  He agrees that my pain looks like SI Joint less than herniated discs.  He also said my MRI shows pretty significant damage to one of my discs.

The plan for Thursday is to get up at the crack of dawn and go to his office for my injection(s).  He is going to shoot some numbing stuff into the joint, and if there is instant relief, he will know that is where the problem lies.  If there is no relief, this would indicate that my disc is the problem, and he will do an epidural at the offending spinal locale.

Following that party, I will do physical therapy, the importance of which had not been explained to me in detail before (or perhaps, I just understood the new doc's explanation better).  Dr. Sean said that due to the weakness in my core/spinal muscles, my other muscles contract to try to compensate, causing unnatural tension and the ensuing discomfort and pain in my SI joint.  In order to alleviate the over-compensation, I need the physical therapy to isolate and strengthen those core muscles.

I've already started with a few of my previous PT exercises.  After the family crisis, I didn't sleep, eat, or do much of anything besides get through the day for a few weeks.  I'm doing much better now, and am ready to get back on track.

New Core

I added and changed some of my previous core exercises.  This is what I have been doing this week:

1) bridges x20
I did the full yoga bridge things for a few days.  Yesterday, I tried and failed because I hurt too badly and my form was off.  So I did the mini-bridges.  I thought it would be better to do the easier ones right, rather than do the more difficult ones wrong.

2) crunch/leg lifts/banana x20 each
I've still been doing these.  They are getting easier.

3) reverse crunch/reverse leg extension/supermans x20 each
I did full on 12 reverse leg extensions in a row before my back spasmed.  That's way up from the 3 or 4 I started with!

4) Donkey Pee
x40 alternating sides (20 each side)

5) Side Bridges x20 each side

6) Pikes x20

7) Ball Roll x20

8) Spinal Balance
x40 alternating sides (20 each side)

Also, yoga'd twice last week.  I skipped yesterday and rolled around on the floor in pain instead.  Today, I have an appointment with the Good Doc.  Tomorrow I see the specialist...finally.

Core-Slash-Ab Exercises

If you don't read the title and giggle, it's because your husband and his best (dude) friend don't do P90X ab ripper and make jokes about it all the time.

I'm going to tell you what core exercises I'm doing this week.  The piddly little ones GD gave me, and the ones C.C. also showed me.  I should make a video of me doing them, but there would be too much hot pink/lime green/spandex, and I would be laughing the entire time.

1) bridges
On back, knees bent, feet on floor.  Lift hips to make straight line from knees to shoulders.

2) mini-crunches
On back, knees bent, feet on floor.  Mini crunch.

3) leg lifts
On back, hands under tailbone.  Lift straight legs.

4) v-ups
Mini-crunch and leg lift at the same time.  The guy in the video goes a lot higher than what I can.

5) mini-back extensions
Lie on belly.  Lift chest off ground.

6) mini-reverse back extensions
Lie on belly.  Lift legs off ground.

7) mini superman lifts
Lie on belly.  Lift chest and legs off ground.

8) donkey pee
On all fours.  Donkey kick a leg behind you (knee bent, thigh parallel to floor, foot parallel to ceiling).  From there, move leg out to side like a dog peeing.  Put that leg down and do the other side.  Donkey kick + dog pee = donkey pee.  This is from C.C., so blame him for the name.

9) booty shaker
C.C. called this the tail wagger or something like that.  On all fours, scrunch your side and pull your butt and head toward each other.  It helps to look for your butt over your shoulder.  Then look at the other side.

Oh, and in all of the exercises, you have to keep your core tight.  Not like you are straining or anything, but not sagging around everywhere.  Sometimes I forget on the last 2.

I've been doing 20 of each exercise, one set in the morning and one at night.  Some of them hurt me more than others, so I rest during those sets (mostly just reverse back extension and superman).  I'll be able to do 4 or 5 reps, then get a spasm, shriek a little, and have to rest for a bit before doing 4 or 5 more.  Hey, it's better than when I started out a few days ago and could only do 3 at a time.  As they get easier, I can increase the range of motion and then add the swiss ball to increase difficulty.  Right now I'm working on being gentle.  grrr.

My favorites

Sometimes I meet certain people (or as I get to know said people better), and I think "So&So is my favorite."  Today I had two favorites: Good Doc (G.D.) and my favorite crossfit coach (C.C.).  He's always my favorite though.

I visited GD this morning after my stupid dogs kept me awake all night.  After I had fallen asleep, Sonny barked twice.  They never bark at night, so it kind of freaked me out.  I had to grab some defense and clear the house.  Later, I awoke to the sound of licking.  It had to have been the loudest licking in the history of licking because I heard it though my ear plugs.  I yelled at them, and Hubs let them out of the room.  When Hubs came to bed, Lucy stuck her nose in my back and woke me up again.  I wouldn't be opposed to moving their happy little doggy beds outside the room.  Somebody else is though.

GD said I looked very yellow.  I think he was talking about my energy which is kind of different and whatever.  He ultrasounded me and did some flexion and distraction.  Then he evaluated my pt exercises.  Apparently I sucked at them, but he gave me a new one to do.  Lie on the ol' back and lift the hips up to make a bridge.

As I was about to walk out, GD said something like, "I only gave you one new exercise, right?"

"Yeah.  The bridge thing."

"Right.  Because you didn't do your other ones last week."

This is my artistic rendition of how I felt about that comment:

*By the way, I was wearing a headwrap/band thing because I had just rolled out of bed and it keeps my hair sticking out in a similar direction and not all in my eyeballs.  Serious face.  I full-on protested because GD basically called me a liar.  I hate liars.  With a little head-weaving confrontation, he backed right down though.  I couldn't believe he accused me of not doing my stuff!  I busted my butt (which hurt like a hot knife slicing through it at times) to get all my stupid leg lifts and kegels in!  I should have gotten extra credit for going to yoga and freaking learning how to stretch my hamstrings in ways that don't hurt my back!

So how is GD still a fave?  It was a joke gone wrong.  He really is a good dude and probably didn't expect me to react like I did.  In his defense, I'm sure 99% of the people he sees don't actually do their homework, and he probably has to chastise a lot of adults who act like children about it.  He's a super nice dude though, and he does good things for my back.  On that note, I'm going to do my exercises.  That GD isn't going to know what hit him next week.  (probably all a part of his plan, right?)

So then I visited CC's class.  I don't know how to describe CC, except to tell you he's my fave.  He knows all about body stuff and movement and is good at everything involved with those.  Maybe I like him so much because that's how I hope I am about my stuff (which is not bodies and athletic stuff).  In addition to giving me more core exercises, CC poked around on my hip and back and told me my pain does not sound to him like typical disc hernation pain.  Possibly that even though the MRI shows those disc problems, the pain may still be from something else.  Which I can see because really, it feels like how SI Joint dysfunction is described.  So now I'm all confused.

There'd be days like these, my mama said...

I know I slept last night because there were some crazy dreams going on about people who I wouldn't normally have seen last night.  No, I don't have THOSE kind of dreams, at least not with anyone you want in them.  I felt like I was awake all night trying to go to sleep and hurting so bad.  Ah, well.  I'll sleep tonight.

I hurt yesterday and today more than usual.  Besides lack of sleep, I wonder if I'm becoming extra sensitive to the weather.  The fellas and I were leaving lunch, and as I sat in the back seat, pain shot through me, and I had to take a walk around the parking lot.  Of course, they are actually 12 year olds, so one of them started making fart noises at me.  Yes, these are your tax dollars at work, people.

There have been several changes to my routine, so I don't know if I should blame weather, physical therapy, or even the yoga I did Friday morning.  I do yoga for the stretching and balance stuff, not the ohm.  Before my injury, yoga kicked my butt.  Now it knocks me flat on said butt.  I was going to start with swimming yesterday, but the thought of an over-crowded pool on a Saturday (with awesome weather) made me think twice.

Kegels?!

I know what you're thinking.  Kegels? Who even does those anymore?  Well they aren't to make me a better pee-er, but apparently they do work a muscle down there that is attached to the spine.  And we are ALL ABOUT THE SPINE!  According to Good Doc, I'm to do 200 of them each day.  This doctor visit involved a lot of giggling.  I didn't know how to do kegels properly, so the man had to explain...  giggles.

In addition to kegels, I am to do 3 sets of 10 leg lifts twice per day.  Lying flat on my back, the leg lift sequence goes: fat tummy (giggles), kegel, suck in tummy, lift legs.  Cool.  Got it.

So that isn't much, but the focus is on some core muscles.  The Good Doc will add more next visit.

This visit, he ultrasounded my back and did some manual stretches.  He stretched out my hamstrings, which I've struggled to do on my own.  That felt awesome, so I said, "My husband has to do this for me at home, right?"

Good Doc:  "Absolutely! And you guys can probably barter some kind of payment!"

Me:  "Heck yeah! I gots skillz!"

Good Doc turned red... giggles!  "Well, I meant maybe you could cook him his favorite dinner!"

Me:  "Right.  Like I feel like standing in the kitchen!"  ...giggles.

The Good Doc also said that my pain is probably more from the bulginess of the disc running into the nerve, so I'm pretty much allowed to do anything that doesn't hurt.  Unfortunately, a lot of things still hurt me, like running, jumping, you know, the fun stuff.  I asked if it was cool for me to do yoga and go swimming, and he was all about that.

Sweet!  I have been doctor approved to attempt movement!  Yoga and swimming are good because I stick with things better when I have to leave the house to work out.  The same old thing day after day, week after week gets BORING!  (If you're into that, try P90X.  Blech.)  We have a really really super duper cheap membership to a local community center/gym because Hubs works for that city.  Unlike some other community centers, they don't charge extra for most classes like yoga and water bootcamp.  But really, I'm going to start slow with the swimming thing.  Well.  And yoga.  I'm not good at either.