No, I'm pretty sure you're right. Lying flat definitely doesn't relax my back--though lying on my back on the floor with my legs bent at 90 degrees and my calves resting on the seat of a chair does a pretty good job. Depending on where the pain/spasming is, lying on your stomach is sometimes better, too.
My own experience of back injuries is that in the initial phase where you keep reinjuring something that's torn or inflamed, you do have to lie down a lot . However chronic back problems are probably more helped by exercise / therapy. That said I'm not having much luck with the latter.
All the physiotherapists I know are big believers in Pilates for bad backs. Where they run classes themselves they can modify them for people's vulnerabilities. They also though non-woo in general have a fair bit of time for acupuncture. I haven't tried that but dry needling was pretty effective on muscles which were all knotted up.
In this case, I think maybe asking a second doctor for his or her opinion might be better than asking the Mineshaft. Hope you feel better soon.
My own experience is that a bit of initial rest then exercise works for me. Walking regularly throughout the day, plus a couple of hours of twisting weekly.*
* kickboxing is hell on my knees and hips, but usually sorts out my back pain a treat. Always feel much better after than before.
I wouldn't prescribe kickboxing for back pain, naturally. Just that doing things that keep my upper body mobile seems to help.
Oh yeah, in the acute phase my exercise therapy included techniques in how to get off a bed or couch w/o hurting myself. (roll onto side. use arms to pull self to edge if necessary. ease legs over edge & slowly transfer weight to floor) It all seemed pathetically wimpy but they still lecture me if I get off the treatment table in the ordinary sitting-up fashion.
yeah, I'ma see another doctor. I just thought I'd call on the collective wisdom ATM. lots of people hurt their backs...also people can vote on fancy swedish axes versus chainsaws.
6: I know, fuck getting out of bed. I can't sit up worth shit. it's a good thing I run a furniture store.
Axes make a better gift than chainsaws, and those axes look sweeet. When your brother needs a chainsaw, he'll buy one for himself and get on with it.
9: I agree. Plus, axes just say "holidays" in a way that a chainsaw doesn't. Norman Rockwell wouldn't paint a family walking through the woods to find a tree and have dad carrying a chainsaw.
There are different kinds of back injuries and different phases of each injury, so you MD may be right. Or not. With all due respect, I'm not sure I would solicit or take medical advice from the Unfoggetariat.
I never knew there were so many different axes that I wanted until I looked at that link in the OP.
the Gränsfors Bruks hatchet/axe/splitting maul combo, although I annoyingly can't find the froe for sale
Online store for the US dist. says it's in stock.
For me, the most inert position when my back is out is to have a strong triangle pillow under my knees, and a reading pillow propping my torso up. Ie the Kraftmatic Adjustable Bed position is ideal for me.
I thought studies had shown this was bullshit and long periods of time lying in bed are not good for back injuries after all.
I have a strong conviction that you should move as much as possible when recovering from an injury, using pain as the guideline - ie doing as full a range of motion as possible, without feeling acute pain. So bedridden should be reserved for those occasions when every last twitch is excruciating.
6: Emir's really right about how to get out of bed. I do better on days that I start with the right sort. How sad is that?
I'm not sure I would solicit or take medical advice from the Unfoggetariat.
Fine, you and your prolapsed colon are on your own.
Also, I want fire resistant socks. Now that I know they are available, I want to be prepared.
Fine, you and your prolapsed colon are on your own.
At least you've got each other, though.
sweet, gswift, thanks! there's a kind of dry wood/carpentry axe that looks pretty awesome too, and actually useful in cabin-assembly.
18: for the apocalyptic fire zombies.
He's going to be standing there with his axe waiting for the zombies to get close and wishing he had the revolver-shotgun.
SAVING YOUR SOLES
FROM THE FIERY FURNACE
22: you're probably right, emerson. revolver-shotgun is the way to go.
I've never seen a revolver-shotgun, but I certainly would jump at the chance if it appeared.
linked in the first comment in the "hey gswift...etc." thread. holds 12 fucking shells in this huge revolving barrel! truly great. the kind of gun which could only be produced by people with a deep-seated fear of being overrun by justifiably pissed off other people who vastly outnumber them, namely the south african military. thus the zombie effectiveness.
on the gift, yeah, the axes are cooler. plus I can get more nice axes for my money than I can shotguns.
just texted with my crazy friend and he's not feeling suicidal at all anymore, no worries there, just that he'll find jail tough after he kills somebody, now that he's used to chain smoking expensive cigars. (he is being facetious. kind of). on account of that he wants to kill people so bad. dude, just go to afghanistan for another month and a half and kill people there, ain't nobody stopping you.
Pain is weakness leaving the body! It's supposed to hurt! That's how you know God loves you!
I know a girl who teaches Pilates. She says she often has to make adjustments/divergences in class to accommodate women who have had Caesarian births, but she's never mentioned back injuries, oddly.
26.1: I've never seen on IRL. The video is nice, but I'm thinking this may be the kind of thing where you really have to be there to get the full experience.
I've only been talking or texting with him once every 3 days or so, I'm not hanging out with him. funny that he could wind me up so bad in such a limited amount of communication, but the veiled death threats are more effective than they should be. naturally I'm fucking with his head at every opportunity, but I feel he has me at an unfair disadvantage.
28: the recoil looks kind of vicious. I guess when you're looking to clear the area in front of you of zombies you don't care about details like that.
Does whatever elite unite of killers your friend is a part of have a drama club?
If the recoil is bad, you get two of them and fire them in opposite directions at the same time. Science!
33: I knew Chow Yun-Fat was onto something in those early John Woo movies.
31: god, I know. he just never talks to anyone about anything like this except me. otherwise he appears outwardly completely stoic, edging into robot drained of human empathy with thousand-yard stare. I am a sympathetic listener. some stories are so hilarious I can see the need to tell someone; similarly some are so disturbing I can see the need etc., it's just that it shouldn't be me. he can talk to his fucking cow-orkers! to be fair sometimes it is interesting. just straight-up reporting on his mental state that he's inwardly truly overwhelmed with a desire to kill people...that I don't need to know.
we've got to save the babies!!!
Damn right we do. Chow rules. He saves the hell out of those babies.
he just never talks to anyone about anything like this except me.
I am the least perceptive and sensitive person in the world, but this seems like a red something. Light? Flag?
then again it must be horrible; it's bad enough to obsessively think about offing yourself 100 times a day. going around genuinely murderous can't be very nice. still: need to know basis, that I didn't need to know.
It's a serious post, and so I feel kind of bad about thinking, whenever I see it in the sidebar, of the immortal words of the founder: "Give them a light, and they'll follow it anywhere."
39: OTOH, not to badmouth your friend (Oh, I'm totally going to badmouth your friend), he's being manipulative. He wants your attention and engagement, so he's yanking your chain any way that works. I'm not saying that he's not sitting on obsessively murderous feelings, but I am guessing that if he's got enough insight into you to know that telling you about them elicits sympathy and attention, you're going to hear a lot more about them.
He's got troubles, certainly, but I don't think you're in a place where you can do him any good without hurting yourself.
Piano catapult, useful for intimidating zombies.
A good fashion accessory to go with an axe would be a pair of steel-toe boots. How coordinated is the giftee?
I'm not saying that he's not sitting on obsessively murderous feelings...
At least he's got that going for him.
I pretty much decided to go for the Gränsfors Bruks hatchet/axe/splitting maul combo, although I annoyingly can't find the froe for sale. The chainsaw still tempts. But thanks Natilo!
Woot! Hook 'em Natilo!
Re: Back pain
My physical therapists have suggested that lying down on one's stomach and doing the press-up position where your legs stay flat and your back curves downward is probably the most effective way to re-jigger your back muscles. YMMV of course.
Also, my friend with the heroin told me, before he stopped speaking to me, about a PT place that was sort of halfway between a gym and physical therapy. He said they had lots of very specialized machines to isolate just your back muscles. He said it hurt pretty bad the first month, but after you made it through that, the improvement was massive. I don't know if there's a specific brand name associated with that regimen or if any of that is accessible in Narnia, but it might not hurt to ask around.
I got my dad the Gränsfors Bruks Scandinavian Forest Axe a few years ago and he really liked it. He used it to strip branches off downed trees - quieter (yay!) and far far slower (boo!) than a chainsaw.
FWIW, I found that classic powerlifting exercises helped immensely with my back pain--especially squats and deadlifts. Good form is critical, but radically increasing the strength of the muscles from your calves through upper back makes a difference in how your back feels. Who knew? (Not sure how they'd work for someone with arthritis of the knee, YMMV, etc.)
to be fair sometimes it is interesting. just straight-up reporting on his mental state that he's inwardly truly overwhelmed with a desire to kill people...that I don't need to know.
One could argue, on the other hand, that this is indeed a very useful piece of information for you to have.
The battle axes for sale on the internet look cool, but they don't seem to be designed for use. My understanding is that battle axes should be robust and have some heft, for crashing through armor. Maybe a real battle axe wouldn't look all that great hanging on the wall.
Speaking only for me and my aged body - the whole core body strength thing really helps to avoid my back injuries. When I do strain something, though (twice in two years) what works in one or two days is: flexerol to stop the spasms, ibuprofen to reduce the inflammation, and whatever position it takes to relieve the angry muscle(s). Once the bad stuff is over, gently resuming activities and monitoring for fatigue works well.
I discovered that the slightly higher heel on my hiking boots was causing a big problem in my posture, so I ditched those boots.
It turns out that standing on buses actually strengthens my core muscles, at least a bit. Who knew?
Standing on the bus while using both hands to comment on the internet is very dificult.
Maybe a real battle axe wouldn't look all that great hanging on the wall.
"If in the first act you have hung a battle axe on the wall, then in the following one it should split someone's skull. Otherwise don't put it there."
"If in the first act you have hung a battle axe on the wall, then in the following one it should split someone's skull. Otherwise don't put it there."
"If in the first act you have put a red shirt on the away team, it must be killed by the end of the third act."
53 is good, except that the red shirts never live past the first act.
To 51: True, and, in my opinion, nearly as good for the "core muscles" as riding a horse while using both hands to hold the reins, which always struck me as a very difficult and odd posture to have. I generally had one hand on the saddle horn and one on my hat.
There's no place to park a horse near my office, so I usually drive or take the bus.
Even when there are spaces, it can be a real pain to parallel-park a horse without denting it.
To the OP, Alameida: If I remember correctly, you mentioned recently that you had some kind of twinging/shooting pain down your leg in the last week or two. If that's so, you should be sure to mention that to your doctor, or the second doc for the second opinion.
Everybody's right that the Unfoggedtariat isn't the place to go for medical advice. That said [ahem], when I developed a back problem several years ago, it seemed to go like this: either it's a muscle type of thing (spasms, strain), or it's structural (with the spine).
The doc started with an x-ray (showed nothing), then we went to anti-inflammatories. No improvement after 6 weeks. Then an MRI, which lo, did show something the x-rays hadn't: it was/is structural, a slow disintegration of two of my vertebrae, which causes a partially herniated disc between those two vertebrae, and since you have some pretty big nerves running down your spine, the nerve that goes down my right leg is sometimes pinched, hence the twinge/pain/numbness down that leg on occasion. Ta-da!
Anyway, it's all about distinguishing between the just-muscles thing vs. the spinal thing, from what I could tell. Who knows what yours is. My own prescription is strengthening of the core muscles in order to minimize stress on the vertebrae when bending, sitting up, and all that nature of thing.
I think you can't go wrong with the core-strengthening thing regardless.
41: no, I'm not standing up for him, he's being an asshole. yeah he's unhappy, but he's just manipulating me into paying attention to him. he needs to talk to a fucking psychiatrist. he is really tripped out at the moment, in a flying-off-the-handle way. hopefully the psychiatrist will sedate/anti-psychotic dose him massively. I can't imagine there's anything else you're supposed to do when a person comes in to tell you they want to kill everyone. it does seem like the kind of thing you might lie about, but still. he doesn't have a psychiatrist now, which is obviously stupid. what with the waves of crazy emanating off him. he's not going to enough meetings either, now that I've decided to talk shit about him.
51: IYKWIMAITTYD.
on reflection, the meetings complaint is actually a milder criticism than "he needs to be given anti-psychotic drugs so he doesn't go kill his ex-wife. and children. and other people," and thus doesn't need any extra excusing.
one of my sponsees is celebrating 2 years sober today! woo hook'em team not-fucked-up-wasted!
Further to 61: Just found out that a teenager I used to know has six months sober! Truly, and I'm not using this word lightly, a miracle.
I really really really really hope he keeps going to meetings.
I can't imagine there's anything else you're supposed to do when a person comes in to tell you they want to kill everyone.
Hospitalize.
61, 62: Six months is huge, as is two whole years! I'm so proud of what Val and Alex's parents are doing for themselves in terms of making mature decisions that move them down the path to regaining custody and that makes me so happy for them.
On a different note, though, I treated myself to a tiny glass of port and topped it off so I could enjoy a truly decadent bath once the majority of the kids were sleeping, only to find once I was in the water and taking my first sip that I'd accidentally poured in tempranillo, which was I suppose interesting but not what I'd expected at all.
if ever there were a person in the world who deserved a relaxing bath and a glass of port, it is you, thorn. I don't actually know what tempranillo is, but I'm going to hope it proved a serviceable, if surprising, alternative.
reading on it sounds good, if insufficiently sweet for a person hoping for a sip of port. I always liked to put sugar in my cognac; I'm crazy like that. when I wasn't just drinking it straight from the bottle, frankly a more common state of affairs towards the end. witt: congrats to your teenaged friend! making it past the 6-month mark is a good predictor of success IME. those were the longest 6 months of my entire life. endless deserts of time stretched around me in every direction. I'm wishing the best for Val and Alex's parents too.
63, 64: yeah, provides incentive to lie about how you're feeling, doesn't it? narnian psychiatrists can just institutionalize you against your will (as mine informed me recently. and really, I should have just gone into the ward, it was stupid). however, the legacy of colonialism means narnians are prejudiced in favor of white people, and thus less likely to do something drastic like that. plus you wouldn't want to be in the room with him while you told him, so the whole thing would be awkward.
I am not generally good at pouring small glasses of port and in the future will avoid accidental mixing. Lee wants me to tell unfogged that she's perving on Vanessa Wlliams, which pertinent in tht V is on Bravo tonight is not in fact news. But it's her birthday in an hour and I'll indulge her desire for public declarations of adoration.
65.2 is probably the funniest thing I've read all day. Sorry to laugh at your misfortune.
If company is any consolation to misery, I recently tried a long-anticipated bottle of rhubarb wine from West Virgina. It tasted, unfortunately, exactly as I expected.
happy birthday lee! perv on with your bad self!
70: I laughed too, which is why I shared it here. I also did what anyone would do and just pretended it was a new wine I'd never had before and drank it. You know, almost painfully bright with syrupy undertones, rich and acidic, that sort of thing. Only a few sips were really unpleasant and a few were actually nice, so there could have been many much worse combos.
start offering it at parties as your signature cocktail, the "brier rose." prickly but intoxicating.
67: Isn't there some link between a very sweet tooth and a propensity to become overly fond of alcohol and other mood-altering substances?
My sympathy for those close to people suffering from alcoholism. My younger brother, my only remaining sibling, is staunchly in the 'alcohol is medicine so watch me die slowly before you do' camp, and there is not a darn thing I can do about it. When I visit, his mind slowly turns to mush as the day progresses, so in the evenings all he can do is agree or disagree with whatever I say.
sorry tripp, that always sucks to watch. 74: I wouldn't be surprised. I was also a heroin addict for a time, something that famously gives you a sweet tooth. I just drank a delicious cup of coffee with sugar and condensed milk. one must retain a vice.
71: I assume that Thorn's Lee is neither Ted Nugent, the current Aga Khan nor me, so, science says, must be Taylor Swift.
you merely assume thorn's lee isn't you? I would think you'd have direct knowledge of the situation.