This won't be an exciting post, but is more for journaling purposes.
In January, 2018, I started having back pain at night. During the day, it would usually go away, but at night it would get really bad. I had to get up, walk around, put icy hot on my back and then try to go back to sleep. I tried prescription strength Ibuprofen, did nothing. I tried taking some leftover pain meds from my c-section (was it oxycodon? I can't remember anymore) and that didn't touch the pain either. The only thing that helped was movement and icy hot. It got to the point where it was so bad that I couldn't even move my arms because it just hurt so bad so I had to get Nate up to put the Icy hot on me. It was mid back and ribs. It hurt to breath. It hurt to move, but it also hurt to stay put. And I knew that eventually, with movement, it would help so I got up anyway even though it hurt so bad. Ethan was still waking up at night, but I didn't mind because I had to get up anyway. I finally discovered that if I slept sitting up, the pain was manageable, so I started sleeping on the couch. I tried the chiropractor, felt worse after. I tried yoga, which had always helped in the past, I felt worse after. I bought a book about the Gokhale method (about correct posture) which I think would be really good, but I just can't seem to figure out exactly how to do it and it's so hard to remember to do it often enough. So I started the process of going to the doctor. I wanted to go to an arthritis doctor, but I first had to go to a family doctor. He immediately said that that kind of doctor only works with rheumatoid arthritis, which I don't have. So I guess it was good I wasn't able to make an appointment there. He did some blood tests and everything came back fine except it did show a higher count of something that meant there was inflammation. He gave me an anti inflammatory prescription and a pain one. The anti inflammatory was one where I took like 7 pills the first day, then 6, then 5, and so on until it was none. When I took the 5-7 pills, it helped a lot, but it came right back when I had to lower the dosage. The pain prescription did nothing. He seemed at a loss so he sent me to a pain specialist and the pain specialist ordered an MRI and that came back showing I had arthritis. He suggested physical therapy and possibly some cortizone shots.
Meanwhile, I posted on Facebook about my pain. I was just really struggling with it. Then a member that was in our ward before the boundary change reached out and said it sounded like the same thing that had happened to her! She said that foot zoning helped her. It helped her so much that she was taking classes to become a foot zoner and offered to do it for me for free. I decided to try it out. It was very relaxing. She said I needed to drink more water. Also, when she was massaging my legs, there was a huge amount of pain in these certain areas and she said those areas are connected to the back so it made sense that those hurt. Well, I wanted to go back to her, but it took almost 2 hours one evening so I just never asked her again because of how time consuming it was. And it was at her house and she had made her husband take the kids out, so it didn't seem very convenient.
Anyway, I started Physical Therapy and the therapist right away discovered I had a short leg! He measured it and realized it was not because of any twisting, it was just short genetically. He gave me a "lift" to put in my shoe to even up my back and spine, gave me exercises, did some electronic pulsing therapy and ice. It felt so good to have an answer! How many doctors and chiropractors have I been to and no one ever noticed this? We made goals at the first visit and I said my goal was to sleep through the night and to not have to sleep on the couch. Anyway, I went in twice a week for almost the whole summer and it slowly got better. I did finally get to those goals. I never did go in to get cortizone shots from the pain specialist.
Now it is a year later and I do have to sleep on 2 pillows and I can only sleep on my back and on the right side (the left side still will cause me pain). I still do the exercises from PT pretty much every day and I have also started doing a weight training plan at home. I just feel like I really need to strengthen my body. I also really need to fix my posture, but I am honestly not sure how to do it since I just never think about it. But anyway, that is where I am now. But I was in extreme pain for a good 4-6 months and sleeping on the couch so this is so much better!
Then Nate. Ever since his gall bladder surgery, he has had major stomach issues (diarrhea) that can sometimes get in the way of life. After I started feeling better and was going to PT, Nate finally made an appointment to get that figured out. They tried him out on one medication that did nothing so he went back and they gave him another. He is still taking this medication. I guess it helps to get rid of the bile, which is what the gall bladder was supposed to be doing. It helps, but he still has good days and bad days. It also helps if he doesn't over eat, so he is trying to be more careful of that. But it can be quite frustrating that there doesn't seem to be anything that makes it go away.
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