Bend in the Weather (Entries tagged as health)

Helping to solve the pain in the back

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:50:00 +1100

Pain is something over the years I've learnt to live with. Well 'live' is probably a little strong, 'cope with' is probably a more accurate description.

I've been diagnosed about 10 years ago with Scheuermann's Disease, and whilst it does sound scary, it basically isn't life threatening or something contagious. Throw in for good measure a dose of Scoliosis, and you can see my back health is more like a car crash.

I've also managed to injure my back about 8 years ago quite seriously that has never recovered. As a result of the 3, I'm in some level of pain almost all the time. It ranges from mildly annoying, to painful enough that it takes your breath away. Pain over such a long period of time does wear you down mentally, as it's a constant mental battle in order to keep the wolves at back so you can attempt some resemblance of a normal life.

Unfortunately the nature of my job (System Admin) means I spend long hours sitting. This has a tendency to stiffen up my back. Car rides longer than two hours can be extremely painful.

Over the years I've tried a number of different therapies to try and alleviate the pain so that I can enjoy life more. This has ranged from:

Chiropractic Manipulation
Acupuncture
Sports massage/Deep tissue massages
Chinese Massage
Gym work
Swimming
Explored medical surgical procedures

Each has worked to a certain level, yet nothing that moved beyond a little relief. In some cases it only aggreviated the pain and stiffness.

After a while, it feels like a long painful lesson in futility.

Over the years I've managed to ride this storm of pain through a variety of methods.... not all are recommended however.
This has included dosing up on heavy sedatives and 'sleeping through' the pain (not recommended), using alcohol to numb the body (also not recommended), heat packs, heat rubs, and regular stretching and movement throughout the day. Unfortunately up until this point, medicine has failed to find a 'solution' to my problem.... and resulted in several of these unorthodox approaches.

Family members for some time have been harassing me to visit their Chiropractor over the years. I'd been to 'bone crunchers' before and whilst I had some initial relief, it normally saw me being sore for 3-4 days afterwards, and no lasting relief. I was sceptical to say the least. They calmly reassured me that she didn't use such 'arcane' measures.

My back hasn't been improving over the years. I'm often numb down one side, and often experience pins and needles in my fingers. It's not uncommon to be in pain from my neck, shoulders, back, arms, and buttocks in one sitting. (no pun intended).

I really had started to believe it was my lot in life, that I was destined to experience pain and increasing pain the older I got. I really wasn't looking forward to 20-30 years time. Whilst I'm in my 30's, and it's just bearable.. I had asked myself - "How the hell am I going to cope with this when I'm 50 or 60?"

In order just to shut-up my harassing family, I thought I would visit this person they kept demanding I go see. (Yeah I am stubborn -- deal with it!)
I was expecting to visit a few times, find that it's nothing different to the numerous other paths I had taken and I could cross that off the list as well (and shut them up in the process!)

I rang to make an appointment, and found I couldn't get in for some 6 weeks. She was away at a conference. Normally I would kindly tell the receptionist don't worry and I'll call back (and probably not). For some reason I didn't... Five and a half weeks past... and I didn't give it much thought and I saw the appointment blinking in my calendar. I watched in dread as the day loomed.

The day arrived, and I thought I would go along with an open mind.
I'm glad I did.

To say I've never done anything like it would be an understatement. What she had to say made a lot of sense. Through body manipulation and specially designed stretches I was starting to feel immediate results. That's not saying it was easy, in fact it's damn hard work.

After discussing further with her over the hour consultation I learnt she had been studying Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabization (DNS - and not that DNS!). She had just returned from Prague where the leading expert in the field (Professor Kolar) had been presenting on it.

It's intensive therapy over a period of approximately 6-12 weeks, and exercises 3-4 times a day, and sessions 1-2 times a week during that period.
I've just returned from my third session this afternoon, and whilst I'm sore for the treatment (lasts a few hours). I have been having some fantastic results.

This weekend saw me travel 7 hours in a car (something I would never consider beforehand), with the only side-effect being fatigue, lifted a freezer, and shoveling a metre of crushed rock. Only weeks ago, any one of these activities would have resulted in me being laid up on my back for a day or two, and struggle through pain for several weeks later.

I'm no expert in Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabization, but from a lay-person undertaking it - it's basically 'brain training' and teaching your brain to move your muscles correctly. Often when we injure ourselves we limp or compensate. If it's a prolonged injury, this limping remains, even after the initial injury has healed. This compensation puts undue stress on other parts of our body, not designed to handle that load. DNS reverses this 'limping' and reverts the body back to it's natural position (millions of years of evolution can't be wrong!). It's this re-training of the brain out of the compensation state and into a normal healthy state that DNS addresses.

It does address 'core strength' that we often here about, but goes well beyond it. It's techniques that the patient can use for life.

So if you do have ongoing back pain, and have felt like you've tried everything without much success, I would highly recommend you do the research and find a practitioner in your area of Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabization. What have you got to lose except maybe that painful back.

It's working for me!

Finally recovered.

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:37:00 +1000

It took over two weeks of agony but I finally got over my wisdom teeth removal.

In the process it took many visits back to a heartless surgeon, and only the persistence of my family that saw me through.

The result - massive doses of painkillers, anti-inflammatories and even valium to see me through.
Why the valium you might ask?! It was used primarily as a muscle relaxant.

In the process of removing my wisdoms and the pre-molar (5 teeth in total), the surgeon tore the ligaments in my lower jaw and in the process dislocated my jaw.

A couple of visits to a physiotherapist that specialises in jaw conditions, and the valium saw me recover.

The actual holes left from the extractions were never a problem (though the cleaning process and mouth washes are a drag, they weren't painful after the first few days). The rough treatment whilst under a general is what did all the damage.

If you need your wisdom teeth out, some words of advice:

Ensure you get it done under a general if more than one.
Remove them in your teens or early twenties. Leaving them longer the teeth roots are much larger, harder to extract and the actual jaw bone is more solid. This makes for a difficult extraction.
Expect to be out of action for some time. Have plenty of heavy painkillers on the ready. You'll need them at least for the first few days (ie: A Panadeine Forte or likewise)
If you don't see any improvement, keep pestering your dental surgeon, don't get flipped off. Their charged to look after your well-being - before, during and after your procedure.
If you still have problems with your surgeon who is more than likely quite flippant; go back to your GP and inform him... it's not uncommon for these 'supposed surgeons', to not give a rats ass after they are paid and the surgery is performed
A second opinion is always a wise choice if you're not happy with your treatment. Surgeons have no loyalty to you, so don't feel you owe them any.

Going through the ordeal, I would never recommend the surgeon I had. (Heartless money grabbing self-righteous bitch is too kind a phrase to describe her).

If you're in Western suburbs of Melbourne, and needing such work done... let me know. I'll ensure you don't end up with her and actually are seen by someone who I would class as competent.

I hope I never see her again. It won't be by choice if I ever do.

At wits end

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:53:00 +1000

It's now approaching 3:00am...

It's almost 7 days since I had 5 teeth surgically removed, yet the pain seems to be increasing not decreasing.

Two nights this week has seen me head in to the emergency department looking for some form of pain relief.

Currently the Panadeine Forte only manages to take the tip of the edge off the pain. I now have pain from my lower jaw that heads right up to my temple on the left side.

I've gone back to the surgeon twice already, yet I'm told that 'all looks good'. However, from speaking to others the pain normally subsides by now or at least is on the decrease. The pain itself doesn't appear to be in the gum, it appears more in the jaw bone itself.

So I'm back to see the surgeon again tomorrow. I'm wondering if x-rays should be looked at now (could my jaw have been fractured in the process of the tooth removal?). Do I have an infection in the bone?! Do pain killers no-longer have any effect on me?!?!

Something is seriously amiss... I'm going to perch at the surgeon's office and not leave until some further investigation is done. It's crazy, this pain is about 3 times that of the pain I had pre-surgery.

I can't even knock myself out with some heavy shots of alcohol due to the large amounts of codeine I've taken; for fear of the possibility of respiratory failure. (Hence why you should never drink and take heavy pain killers). I'm wondering if it's prudent to come off them (the drugs) and soley use alcohol for pain relief?!? At least I could pass out and get some sleep.

I haven't had a decent night's sleep for over 3 weeks now, and tonight appears it's going to be one more night that I either sit killing some time in front of the computer, or lie awake in bed watching the digits on the clock tick past.

I originally intended on heading back to work on Wednesday (that boat has already sailed). I am hoping I can get back on Monday, though some serious head-way is going to need to be made if that has any likelihood of happening.

Dear lazyweb, if any of you out there have some ideas how to relieve some serious pain I'm all open to suggestions. To be honest, I'm pretty desperate.... feel free to leave a comment. As the topic states... I'm at my wits end.

It lives! (aka out of surgery)

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 09:12:00 +1000

Yesterday I had surgery under a General Anesthesia to remove 5 teeth (4 wisdom teeth, and a baby pre-molar that never got a secondary tooth; but had decided it had hung around long enough ).

The day surgery saw us arrive at 12:30pm to 'sign-in' though I didn't actually get the pre-med until just after 5:00pm. So a mind numbing wait of 4.5 hours was undertaken. (Even worse was the fact that my last food and any form of liquid was 7:30am, and it seemed the only thing showing on the blaring waiting room TV was food shows. ). That resulted in a nice headache by mid-afternoon as my blood sugar levels dropped.

The surgery itself was a success, I left the operating theatre just after 7pm, and it took just over an hour in the recovery room. There I was treated to food that makes everything better (icecream and jelly), as well as a glass of apple juice and another of water.

Pauline took good care of me, and kept me company during the long wait before hand (though she ignored my pleads to head off and not blow her whole afternoon waiting around in the waiting room). Whilst I was in surgery she headed home (only 5 mins down the road) to attempt a bite to eat (that didn't happen as they called her back as she was about to commence eating), but she did have time to wash some bed sheets, feed the dogs and get ready for my return (buying/making some additional yummy goodies that I could eat/drink).

Swelling is well down (I expected to look like a bullfrog this morning, but it's quite minimal). I'll continue using ice-packs on either side of my face every few hours, to lessen it further.

It appears that besides the general, that the surgeons also applied a local to my bottom jaw, to aid in pain relief. The local worked extremely well, although it gave the sensation I had a bear's tongue and not my own for most of last night.

Since waking this morning, the local has long worn off, and I'm in relatively good spirits. I'm using the Panadine Forte for pain relief (in fact the pain is minimal at this stage -- which is brilliant!).

I came home brandishing a swag of mouth rinses, painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs for the next few days; I should be hopefully back to full steam in a short time.

This will be a weekend of rest and time to re-assess early next week. I'll potter online a little, but it's more from boredom than a burning desire to be on the computer (I'm not much value above useless at present!).

A big thanks to all the well-wishes I've received over the past few weeks... it's great to know others are thinking of you. Thankfully this saga appears to be quickly drawing to a near and I'll be my annoying, harassing and cheeky self in no-time (so beware!).

Out of action for the time being

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:02:00 +1000

I will be out of action for just under week as I go in to have 5 teeth removed.

I must say a big thanks to Pauline for pampering me leading up to it. (and the big slushy cook-up she's undertaking!) I think I've got soup for a year!
She's also pureed up a roast, so that will be an exciting 'experience' through a straw.
With those and jellies, and tinned fruit on the ready it should be a pleasant culinary experience. I guess I can probably throw in some warm custard as well.

I go in tomorrow, so I'll be drugged up heavily over the weekend (I am going to attempt to sleep through the weekend), but hope to make a speedy recovery (fingers crossed). I'm hoping I can be back to work on Wednesday if all goes well... though I'll see how we go.

It will be great to get off the painkillers after this all... sucking heavy painkillers every few hours hasn't been fun over the past fortnight.

I have learnt some great tips on dealing with mouth/teeth pain along the way:

Use regular salt mouth washes every few hours. Directions: One tablespoon of table salt, to a glass of warm water. Rinse your mouth with it, and spit. Repeat until the glass is empty.
(Believe it or not, after the 3^rd time -- you get used to it.)
Applying either two whole cloves (place between gum and cheek above the tooth in question), or clove oil onto the affected tooth/gum is a great natural painkiller. It works extremely well!
Keep out of wind or any chilly air. This also includes whilst sleeping, you may need to warm the room you are sleeping in to avoid a painful night sleep.
Cold drinks nuked for 10-20 seconds in the microwave ensures a pleasant experience, works with water and fruit juices especially well.
Use a dental mouth wash like Listerine or the like after eating if painful, as it will numb the area.

It's been a revelation to me, as I have only ever had one filling in my life, and never suffered toothache before. Hopefully some of these remedies/tips I've discovered over the past couple of weeks will be of benefit to someone else.

Down but not out.

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:37:00 +1000

Some of you have probably noticed I haven't been around as much as usual in the recent week.

Last Saturday night I discovered a large painful lump in my mouth, just under my eye tooth facing towards my tongue. To say it scared the life outta me is probably is an understatement.

I headed off to the doctor to get it checked out on Sunday, and he immediately referred me off to an Oral and maxillofacial Surgeon on the Monday.

She examined me and all my tooth and diagnosed it as a Tori (Lingual) Mandibularis which is basically a bone growth that attaches to your gum. It unfortunately can get quite inflamed and sore if bumped or eating hard food. This is probably what caused the initial pain. The thing isn't small either, and is probably about the size of a peanut M&M (for comparison).

Whilst there she gave me my entire mouth a good once over. She noted that I was in immediate need to remove my two left wisdom teeth, and wanted me to go off for an xray. (The xray is to confirm how close the facial nerve is to the roots of the wisdom teeth.) Something you don't want to hit!

So off for x-rays on Wednesday and back to see her for the results on Friday.

It appears that all 4 of my wisdom teeth need to come out, in addition the upper left maxillary first pre-molar. The pre-molar is still my baby tooth (I didn't get any secondary tooth -- and it's long past it's expiry and it's root systems have long given way.) This is also the cause of the severe tooth/gum pain I've been experience (but first put down to the tori). A closer inspection of the x-ray has revealed that 3 out of the 4 first pre-molars are baby teeth! One I've already had removed as a teen (upper right), so that probably leaves one in my bottom that will need attention in the future.

I've been scheduled in for surgery under a General Anesthesia for the removal of all 5 teeth on Friday (11^th July). The surgeon explained that having my wisdoms out latter in life normally ensures the gum bone is much tougher and the root systems much more advanced than that of a late-teen (when many people have them removed). This is why she recommends a general over doing them with a local in the chair. (I'm all for knocking me out for the procedure!) Luckily for me the facial nerve is quite a distance away from the tooth so it shouldn't pose any problem.

So at present -- it's been a week of heavy painkillers to take the edge off the pain, that with salt mouth washes and only luke-warm drinks to avoid aggravating it further.

Pauline's also grabbing some full cloves as we've been told that placing them on the tooth also works well for pain relief. At this stage, I'll try anything. Dosing up on codiene based pain killers for any length of time is never the best solution.

So whilst I'll be out of it for a little while, I am hoping after the operation I'll be back to my normal self shortly there after. I've been advised that it will take about 5 days to recover post-op, but I'll pay it by ear. I've already missed a fair bit of work this week. Luckily it falls on a Friday so I'll at least have the weekend to help in the recovery.

So it looks like soups, pureed meals, tinned fruit and jelly will be on the menu later this week! I wonder what a steak and 3 vegies are like through a straw?!

Update: The tori will stay in place. It's apparently extremely painful to remove (they have to drill/chip it away from the bone of the gum), and something they only wish to do as a last resort. The hole created is normally quite large and requires weeks to heal. So this will stay in place. As such I'll have to just be more careful with a toothbrush (so I don't crash into it when brushing) and when eating hard food. It basically just feels like stubbing your toe badly when hitting the tori...besides the unpleasant pain, it's not much to worry about.

Still alive!

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 16:34:14 +1000

It's been a while since my last blog entry.

There has been a few reasons.

Haven't been on my computer much.
Had the flu for three weeks.
Purchased a 42" Plasma TV and setup a HTPC to keep all our movies/music/photos on!
Had a few weeks of on-call support for work.

Rest assurred -- I'm still alive!

I'll be posting more this week, including:

An update on Duke (our new dog!) -- with more photos (coming -- I promise!)
Details of our HTPC
Details of the new computer I've just bought -- with hardware virtualization -- allowing me to run Windows and Linux at the same time with no performance loss!
A post on the new version of SuSE Linux 10.1 -- that will be the main driving OS of the new workstation (and powering Xen).
A posting on the new 2.0 Beta of Firefox.... that now includes a spell checker and anti-phising tools!

If there is anything else you would like me to write about ... let me know!

Little to no sleep...

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 22:32:00 +1000

Well the page at 1:35am this morning turned out to be a marathon.

One of our production machines crashed... a result of a failed memory board.
Tried bringing the sucker up until around 4:00am, without much success - it would come up briefly and then crash again.

Couldn't do much more by 4:00am and so it was off to get some sleep.

Woke at 7:00am to the mobile going off, and have been on the phone/computer since 8:30am.

It's 1:30pm now... so I'm managed around 3 hours sleep.

Mobile is still going off, and I will probably have another 1-2 hours for this to be finally wrapped up (business has to ensure the machine/applications are all working).

I think it's time to crash on the couch in front of the TV for an hour..

Craziness

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 16:27:16 +1100

Work is insane.... there is no other word that describes it.

Currently job loads are probably up 300-400% from 'normal operations'.   Though no additional resources have been brought in.... it's just "Get the job done".

That type of management can survive for a short period, but can never be sustained.   People are pulling 40+ hours at home ON TOP of their usual 40-60 hour week in the office.

I've told them I'm not doing on-call... the management thought they could pull a swifty and pay me half of what the fulltime employees get, and no penalty rates for afterhours, weekend and public holiday work.

Looks like that's one that has back-fired in their face.   I've flatly refused to do any on-call/overtime until something reasonable is put on the table.

Unfortunately it means the FTE have to carry the load and they are already at breaking point... so I am expecting it will hit the fan big time next week....

For a 24x7 operation it's about time they cough up the $$$s and run seperate shifts... you can't expect people who work all day to then turn around and work all night and are then expected to return to work the next day! I don't know what they are thinking...

So for the interim... I'm doing the usual 40 hour week... which suits be fine.   I can finally catch up on my sleep and remember what bed is!

The Fishing Trip

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 00:06:36 +1100

Saturday I headed down to Geelong and went fishing with my father.
It's always a good time to spend some quality 'bonding' time together and something we both don't do enough of.

I'm no fisherman, and have as much fishing skill and the hunchback has sex appeal!
However, my Dad is an awesome fisherman! I always learn something when I go out with him.

So I got down to Geelong around 11am and we headed out shortly afterwards. Dad took me down to St. Leonards and we fished off the pier.

It was quite a non-descript day, with a gentle breeze most of the day, not cold and not warm, and reasonably overcast most of the day with the clouds rolling in from the west most of the day, whilst the sun occasionally broke through just to keep us all warm and hopeful for more.

A bunch of kids were spear-fishing near the pier and made the experience even more difficult. Whether they were scaring the fish away, making enough noise to wake the dead, or just a nuisance always not far of getting tangled in your line. Those fishing on the pier tolerated them, though could be seen cursing them under their breath.

We ate our sandwiches on the pier, swigged a cold drink and some coffee and had a perfect vantage point to watch the Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) enter the heads of Port Phillip Bay and head towards Melbourne.

The fish came and went, with a few nibbles here, and a few there. Though no-one caught anything of note most of the day.   I caught a 29cm whiting that we ended up bringing home. (Pauline cooked it up for lunch on Sunday!)

By 4:30pm we'd had our fill and decided to call it a day.   I looked a little read, but nothing too bad.
I stayed at my folks until about 7:00pm and then headed back home. It was a fun day.

By that evening... the sunburn had come out. I started to look like a living tomato and had been burnt on my legs, neck, ears, face, fore-arms and hands.   As Pauline so delicately put it "Who get's burnt on the back of their hands?!"    Apparently I do!

Sunday has seen me in pain from the experience.   I'm not sure if this will blister, though it's likely to peel. I should have slipped, slopped, slapped.... though I did have a shirt, hat and sunnies on and I imagine would have suffered a lot more without them. In hindsight a good dose of sun-cream might have been an even better idea!

Ahhh well... a little bit of pain and discomfort for a few days.... still doesn't take away from the great time I had with my dad.