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CynthiaWVirginia -> RE: please help afraid of losing job (6/3/2010 5:40:57 PM)
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defiantbadgirl, I've had a lot of experience with this and have done the whole nine yards with acupuncture, chirpractic, stretching, flexaril and other muscle relaxants, as I have two old lower back fractures (sacrum as wall as coccyx). Pinched nerves happen, and this causes muscles to spasm and tighten up painfully short and stiff. The only thing that worked for me (with flexaril, I still spasmed, but...didn't care) was something rather prosaic.
Not a hot water bottle, but a heating pad. I put a hand towel over it, lie down on it so it hits the small of my back even if I also have to have it resting on a thin pillow. I alternated between medium and high and fried that muscle until it was soft. If I got small pink spots from burning a little, they faded within a few hours and I didn't care. A chiropractor also told me that lying down on a hard surface will help, like a carpeted floor. Your head can't be propped up high with pillows, but only maybe a thin one, and a small towel rolled up to support the neck. Back flat to the floor, heels flat to the floor, and knees pointing toward the ceiling. This helped for my ex-husband too. I'd also recommend Asprcreme slathered all over your lower back...it helps kill some pain and it's not a counter irritant. My skin is too sensitive for counter irritants like menthols.
After the muscle has given up the spastic fight, you can gently stretch out your back. One good one is to remain on the floor, straighten one leg flat to the floor, keep the other knee raised and gently (without any bouncing) curl your lower body only while trying to keep your upper back flat to the floor. I make my knee almost touch the carpet. Right knee will curl to the left, and vice versa. If you do this slowly and enjoy the slow unwinding of the tight muscle, you will sometimes here a pop from your spine, where it had been stuck tight and just loosened up again. Sometimes you get lucky and that tightness is what was pinching that nerve.
One of the exercize programs I love is very slow and gentle, and doesn't make you sore...and is okay even for people in their 70's. For back problems, I eliminate the jogging and hopping in place, and replace it with hour long walks 3 days per week. The men's side has jumping jacks, which I'd disallow for any man with back problems. It was printed in a book for families in the RCAF, lol, I love old used bookstores.
As for abdominal exercizes, if crunches are bad, maybe look into isometric exercize. You can do tightening and releasing of abdominal muscles even while watching tv, to help pass the time during boring commercials.
I was also told to rest one foot on a 4 or so inch thick hardback book, if I'm standing, and to alternate feet occasionally. It helped.
Icing the lower back never worked for me, as I wasn't so much trying to prevent swelling as trying to loosen up those rock hard tense muscles.
Another stretching exercize I do is to just lean forward and hang there for a while. My back muscles loosen up in spurts, and I drop lower and lower to the floor as they take their time loosening up. Sometimes I hear a thunk in my spine, but...it's all good. I've never had it be a bad thunk, if you know what I mean.
Having a small child walk on the upper part of your back can be safe, but not for the lower part at the curve. Some who have needed some counterpressure have put a 3 inch diameter, not too hard ball into a stocking or something similar, and make the ball be half way inside. One hand can have control of each side so you can position the ball, then carefully lie back onto a bed and see if you can get any relief.
Chiropractic adjustments have gone better for me when the muscle wasn't spastic, but nice and warm and loose. I don't like that little hand held clicky some use, but when they move a bent knee, position the leg just so, and push. The relief is incredible on good days, but on days with no popping, ugh.
A lot more people have some pesky curvature of the spine than we think.
Oh, one of the remedial exercizes in that RCAF exercize book is the pelvic tilt. You can probably look that up online if you don't already know how. Years ago, it helped me a lot. I had to do this AFTER I'd heated up the muscle and forced it to loosen up. Doing it while it was tight and spastic only made things worse for me.
Best of luck with this.
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Edited to add that I hate taking any pills. These were given to me by a family doctor, I spasmed anyway but didn't care, and couldn't even drive my car while on them for that week. I stopped after a week because all I could do is sit on the couch and almost drool onto my lap. I was supposed to be on the pills for several weeks, and preferred my own method with the heating pad. My old one had died and so I bought another one. The heat has to be high enough that the pain messages stop...and all your nerves can scream at you is I'M HOT!!!! I do this for hours while I watch a movie or two, and then I get up and do stretching exercizes.
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