Sunday, July 08, 2007

Update

Well, the back is still quite bad, but it is a bit better than it was at the time of my last post. I spent 48 hours in bed, and then emerged late afternoon yesterday. Took the dog for a short walk, and had to go to a barbecue, which was very painful indeed. Today, I took the dog for a longer walk (which took me about twice as long as it should have, as I was shuffling along), and we got caught in a thunderstorm. Then I slept for three hours this afternoon; I guess it takes a lot of energy, to manage this. NOw, it's 7pm and I feel ready for bed again.

I'd have assumed that three days into it, things would have improved more than they have. I start to get a little nervous about whether I've done more damage than I thought. But I do think that once I started taking arnica late last night, things began to improve a wee bit more rapidly than they had been doing. Still, progress is slow.

Otherwise, when I've not been sleeping I've been emailing and writing my syllabi for the fall. Trying to come up with interesting assignments. Not getting very far on that count.

And so it goes. Perhaps tomorrow I will actually try to get into a chiro not for manipulation but for ultrasound and/or electric stimulation. Anything to speed up this healing!

3 comments:

medieval woman said...

(*thinking healthy thoughts!*)

Anonymous said...

So sorry to hear about your back problems, Hilaire. I definitely sympathize, as I'm also semi-regularly plagued with the same sort of thing (aggravated from an old boating injury and, no doubt, stress). Maggie May is right - if it's muscular, then lots of rest, and lots of muscle relaxants (with lots of water!). I was out for about 10 days with a similar injury last fall, and applying heat and taking muscle relaxants (e.g. extra strength Robaxcet or Life brand equivalent) on a very regular basis provided some relief. Massage therapy, once I was able to gain a bit of mobility, also really helped speed up the healing process. I've been doing pilates about 3x/week over the past year and half, and find that my back muscles have become much stronger as a result. Now, if/when I aggravate my back, the healing time has been cut in about half. Sending you good thoughts for a speedy recovery!!

Hilaire said...

Thanks MW! And thanks, Heather. It definitely helps to hear people's stories about how long they take to heal...they help confirm that what I'm going through is probably just run-of-the-mill back disaster. It's actually a bit better, today, so I'm getting there!