Waits and Sees

I had to look back at my last post to see what I posted last. Oops.

Last week, I spent most of my free time lying in bed. I wasn't the happiest about that but I did manage to catch up on some tv.

I got to see my doctor on Thursday and he gave me another prescription for my painkillers. However, these ones...well...they're definitely more powerful than the last ones. Those were 375mg, these are 550mg. So when I take one, I don't have much pain for about 10-12 hours. But once they wear off, I'm hurting again. Which sucks.

I also got some bad news. It seems that my acupuncture is no longer covered. Or rather, I used up all the money I had an advance for. Myself and the acupuncturist have been in contact with the lawyer people and insisting that I need more treatments, especially considering my recent flare ups. No word yet. The acupuncturist and my doctor also recommended seeing a chiropractor or physio therapist on top of it. So we'll see how that goes.

If I can't get an advance, I'd have to take a loan (with a 20% interest rate) and I may not be able to claim it because I've already had an advance and I need to prove that it was only for therapy and really, it just seems complicated. So I'm not really sure what's going to happen if I can't afford my treatments anymore.

And I noticed that my back hurt more today after work a lot more compared to the weekend. But that might just be because I was a lot more active today than over the long weekend. Something else to monitor.

Well, that's all for now. Let's see what happens when I get words back from all.

Sunday Spasms

So, I'm writing this from my phone. Hopefully the post will be formatted properly and all that. It will take longer to write though, so here we go.

Today...well...it was worse. It started off OK. Some pain but nothing that an anaprox didn't take care of. My high notes were there during choir, though I did feel them a little weak. I wasn't expecting perfection with that anyways. But after...then we had some problems.

The spasms started again and I didn't like that at all. It's like this sudden sharp pain on the left side of my lower back and it radiates out and pulses and squeezes the muscles around it. It doesn't last long, just a few seconds, but it hurts. And my body moves too, depending on what position I'm sitting right now. I might curl up or straighten up or sit back or lurch forward.

After Mothers Day lunch with my family, I came home and laid down for a bit and put some Rub A535 on my back. That helped enough to survive the rehearsal before the service. But by the service end, I was in no shape. My high notes were pretty much 50/50. Either I had them or I didn't. I couldn't do proper singing breathing either. I didn't have great control. I had to sit down for the last part of the service.

At least there was a cushion on the pew. And luckily that cushion lined up with where i was feeling the pain. So when the spasm came, it was kind of contained and didn't hurt as much. Of course, the pain decided to take revenge by crawling up my spine, ever so slowly.

It sucks. It all sucks. I'm hoping to get a doctors appointment this week, if nothing else, to get a new prescription for the pain killers.

Again, I'm contemplating if my career choice is a back hazard. I'll see how it goes tomorrow and if it feels any better or worse.

For now, I'm back to spending the night in bed. I have acupuncture Tuesday, so hopefully that'll help again too.

It is just so frustrating to have to go through this again when I was doing so well. And now I'm having troubles with my singing, my walking, my free time (rather be in Azeroth than in bed!), my self confidence and my emotions.

I just want my back to be all better.

I'm Back

Hey everyone! Guess you thought I forgot about this, considering my last entry was in February. It's not that I didn't forget, I just didn't have much to update. I guess that in itself would have been an update, but that's besides the point.

So what's happened the last few months? Not much. I got a new job. It's closer to home and I'm paid more, so that's a bonus. I also don't have to take a bus to work anymore, so definitely a plus there, considering my luck with buses.

As for my back, things were going pretty good. I have been seeing my acupuncturist about once a week and while she was away on vacation for a week, I noticed that the pain would start to come back after about a week and a half. So, we tried me going every week and a half or about 10 days or so. Things seemed fine. Though there was some change. The pain originally was in my lower back. While there is still some there, it has greatly decreased. However, the pain increased in my upper back and shoulders. This is common because one part of the back is trying to do the work the other part did and...well....after a while it starts to hurt. And that's what's happening to my back.

But overall, it's doing alright. Or rather...WAS doing alright. I'm not sure what's happening now. I had a treatment last Friday and I didn't feel the best coming out. That happens sometimes so I didn't think anything of it. But it didn't go away. In fact, the pain got worse. Tuesday, I had to get a cab home from work. Wednesday, I didn't have my high notes because I couldn't get in the right position to do it. It was then that I knew that I had to see the acupuncturist as soon as possible. My next appointment wasn't until Tuesday. Luckily, she was able to see me yesterday evening.

And it felt great coming out. There was little pain and all was good.

And it was pretty good this morning. But, as the day wore on, I'm in pain again. I really don't know why I'm flaring up like I am. I wish I knew, but I don't. And it seems like my body wants to fall apart some because my acid reflux has been coming back a bit too.

There is a part of me that is wondering if my job is detrimental to my back. Standing, playing, working with kids, I'm wondering if it really is causing problems. If that's the case, what am I supposed to do? Most good paying jobs require some amount of training/education in that field. I don't have much other training/education in anything besides teaching. So I could go back to school to do something where I can sit more. But I can't afford that, so that's probably not good. Going to a lower paying job isn't looking like a good option either. So I guess I have to settle for what I'm doing now and just take it easy some.

I'll try to keep this updated a bit, but I can't really promise much. It's not uncommon for me to start a blog, update it and then forget about it.