in the library during rainstorm, fiddling with lj customization

[fflo]

I tried on a few of the new styles. Notably, the ones I'm most drawn to are urban:

 


Yeah, that's New York there last.

The city itch---which has been calling me at least to visit one---seems in some contrast with my lately kinda getting down in the gut some stuff I dig and have been fighting for about my "lifestyle" as it is these days, with the house & yard & cetera. But that doesn't mean they're not related. You never know how these things work.

(I settled for new colors for the blog for now; whaddaya think?)


Have been plagued by nasty upper back pain problem for days. Okay, it's into weeks. Am getting ever so slightly nervous I could be at the beginning of another 12-year chronic difficulty if I don't play my cards right, at this potentially critical juncture, if it is indeed one. I like my new muscles-work body! And I like workin' 'em! These things I shout to the universe. The building opens back up today, and I'm not there, dang it. A long visit with squirrelykat's Jacuzzi Sunday (at the catsitting gig) was a good thing, and maybe even just the ticket, but not just the thing if just the thing is the key to the whole shebang. Survey:

[Poll #814722]

Comments

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

As far as I know, chiropractic treatment of your lower back is not particularly likely to hurt anything other than your wallet. But chiropractic treatment of your neck area seems to carry some risk of causing (http://www.chirobase.org/15News/neurol.html) strokes (http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/chirostroke.html). I wouldn't recommend applying casual, "why not?"-toned phrases like "certainly worth a try" to a treatment that so many clinical neurologists consider to be "one of the leading causes of stroke in the under 45-age group."

[fflo.livejournal.com]

I hear ya, QBC. I've actually been to a chiropractor before, and don't rule it out, even after reading more on that particular controversy, but I'm still making up my mind how to deal with it & appreciate people's input.

[vjsmom.livejournal.com]

Do you have any plans to see an orthopedist? You might want to see someone who'll order an X ray or CT-scan (I don't know if chiropractors do, as a rule). There could be something going on that could be made worse by a chiropractor.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Just saw this comment--- s's referencing the thread in her blog did it, as I (think I) somehow messed up my notifications when re-doing things the other day.

I have a GP appt next week anyway, and I'm kinda hoping to hold out until then, perhaps with some work from the kind dreampower, who's kindly volunteered to work on me, bless her heart. I think chiropractors do x-ray ya, generally.

I'm sure some of my resistance is just not wanting to subject myself to more medical professionals unless it's really necessary.

I am with the girls on this one...

[sprig5.livejournal.com]

...QBC and VJM, that is. Very much so.

this won;'t be eloquent.....

Couldn't take the quiz, but my Grandma on my mom's side (Viola Anna Alvina, and I will give neither of her surnames, 1903-1986) told me over and over when I was a child that when she was a child, one of her legs was longer than the other until she went to a chiropractor. The chiropractor did something--I can't remember what, because it upset me and grossed me out when my Grossmutter would tell me--and then her legs were the same length! My mother scoffed when I repeated the story to her.

Anyway, until recently, that was my only knowledge of chiropractors really. Yes, my parents would never have considered going to one, to put it kindly, although they didn;t make any comment when I went to one recently.

About 2 years ago, I began to seriously try to find a solution for the headaches that had been plaguing me regularly since I was 15, and the neck pain that was starting to become more regular. I went to a neurologist who did cat-scan, MRI. These came out OK except for some bulged neck vertebrae, from violin or computer staring, I guess (a later dr. said most people have some amt of this bulging). the neuro did drug therapy. The drug therapy did not seem to really help, and the neuro stayed with one particular drug (topomax) too long, upping the dose to see if it would work.. one night I actually got lost while driving around an area where I used to live. This neuro, oddly enough, had a chiropractor working WITH him in his practice, and referred me to him. The guy was nice, and gave me neck exercises, and would periodically crack my neck (no other description for it I guess). But mostly he did this electrical stimulation of points on my neck and back. That seemed to help a little.

This neuro's office was poorly run, and more often than not I had to wait way too long for my appts, and saw that other people did too. I got so fed up I chose another neuro. The new neuro looked over all my records, politely said she preferred physical therapy and did not refer to chiros. She sent me to phys therapy which involved exercises and people who practically massaged my neck. I seemed to be able to ward off a certain type of headache now, a muscular-based one that would radiate up from my neck and back and shoulders, with exercise. But there was another type of headache, migraine, that could only be warded off with imitrex, and I was taking it far too often.

Meanwhile, I was seeing woman who had some terrible personal crises in her family, and who decided to get therapy. I was invited in by the therapist, who reasoned that getting to know me would help her treat my partner. In short, I ended up being told I have depression with an overlay of anxiety, and it turns out that SSRIs are preventing most of my headaches now. I still get migraines, but they are not as frequent or severe, and I can actually make them go away...whereas, before, for years, I lived in fear of headaches, and would pop Allergy Sinus tylenol alot, and I would have one day every month or two where I had to stay in bed all day in pain, and there was nothing I could do. I rarely get neck and back pain anymore, unless I do somethign in particular to precipitate it. these are huge changes, and I have to say that imitrex and antidepressants are the biggest things that helped these changes come about.

Anyway, in short. Chiropractics did not help me. And esp after reading what QBC had to say, I'm glad it didn;t hurt me.

Re: I am with the girls on this one...

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Real glad to hear you've had some serious improvement. I knew, of course, that you'd had health issues, but it just sounds as if it was just miserable.

I was in PT for a little while when I first got to A2. My eventual relief from the chronic problem that had me there, and had taken me to the chiropractor years earlier, coincided with my getting the sleep apnea treatment. It's my take that I heal better now. Anyway, it's my experience that right around then I finally recovered, in a way that felt miraculous, from that thing that had been doggin' me for a dozen years.

[sprig5.livejournal.com]

oh, the poll let me submit just now. Off to bed now.

[kohkae.livejournal.com]

Where in the upper back are you having it? Neck area or between shoulders blades? Down the middle or off to one side? Can you remember when it started?

I agree with queerbychoice - don't let a chiropractor come anywhere in the vicinity of your neck!

[fflo.livejournal.com]

It's under a shoulder blade, upper right back. There's some thought that a rib might be involved. A few days of taking it fairly easy seem to have benefitted things, to the point that I might actually be able to get some decent exercise again this weekend (crossing fingers) without exascerbating it (crossing fingers & toes) or ending up laid out again (resisting crossing everything I've got, as that might be unwise under the circumstances).

It started almost three weeks ago, but wasn't real bad until last week; this past weekend at times I could barely walk, and I still feel prone to sudden agony should I upset the gods of Which Way You Can Move, fickle as they have been of late.

So kind of you to solicit details! You'll be a fine old lady, willing to swap tales of aches & pains. I've been quite self-conscious that nobody wants to hear this kinda thing, particularly for days on end--- and a little taken aback that so many are expressing ongoing concern about it, here & in person.

[kohkae.livejournal.com]

I know this is a bit of a delayed response....I love the details! You should hear all the juicy stories of illness and gore I've been hearing from my sis-in-law since she's been working in ICU.

I hope your pain has improved. It doesn't really sound like a back problem. Probably best to skip a chiropractor in my humble opinion.

I asked that same sis-in-law. She agreed about it most likely being muscle/rib oriented, but also said if it recurs, comes and goes, etc. over a period of time you should consider a lung or liver cause.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Consensus is beginning to develop that it's a pulled/strained muscle that's (a) big and (b) slow to heal cuz it gets used to much in everyday ways. It improves and then gets irritated and troubling again for a while, but it hasn't impinged on my simple perambulation much for a week now.

And, yeah, I guess of all my friends I'd put you near the top of the list of the Least Squeamish!