The demons in my leg
I had my first physical therapy session for the sciatica yesterday. I've never had PT before and it was interesting, if not very fun. First, the therapist had to do an evaluation, which was the unfun part of it. I could not help unvoluntarily yelping several times as he pushed on parts of my back and made me do things like bend sideways, touch my toes, etc. The diagnosis from the doctor I went to see last week for X-rays is a herniated spinal disc. Sciatica is merely (if one could call it that!) a symptom of other conditions.
But after the pain came the good part: he put electrodes on parts on my back to deliver a mild shock over a period of ten minutes. While I was getting this done, he showed me some exercises to do. He warned me that the exercises take 20 minutes and must be done every day, but I assured him that it wouldn't be a problem for me to do that since I'm usually awake all night fighting with the pain. He also did a weird pulling-on-my-legs thing that really helped, too.
But the pain is never very bad (in comparison, anyway) during the day as during the night when I would pretty much do anything including selling my soul to make it stop! In fact after wrestling with pain for every night but one for over a month now, I see the pain as a demon torturing my leg! Which is why that astrology reading was so funny to me when it talked about "demons"!
Anyway, I left the PT office pain-free and highly hopeful, even though I had to make appointments for twice a week for quite a few weeks. The initial hope faded somewhat when the therapist's recommended sleeping position didn't work and the pain was so bad I could barely get up out of bed again to make it stop. So I tried sleeping on my stomach and still my leg was getting what I call "the tingles" which proceeds a full-blown pain attack. So I got up and sat on a chair for the rest of the night. It was OK, I got some but not a lot of sleep.
My leg is bothering me right now but I suppose that's why they have you go back so many times. Have you ever gone to a physical therapist? Did you have good results?
But after the pain came the good part: he put electrodes on parts on my back to deliver a mild shock over a period of ten minutes. While I was getting this done, he showed me some exercises to do. He warned me that the exercises take 20 minutes and must be done every day, but I assured him that it wouldn't be a problem for me to do that since I'm usually awake all night fighting with the pain. He also did a weird pulling-on-my-legs thing that really helped, too.
But the pain is never very bad (in comparison, anyway) during the day as during the night when I would pretty much do anything including selling my soul to make it stop! In fact after wrestling with pain for every night but one for over a month now, I see the pain as a demon torturing my leg! Which is why that astrology reading was so funny to me when it talked about "demons"!
Anyway, I left the PT office pain-free and highly hopeful, even though I had to make appointments for twice a week for quite a few weeks. The initial hope faded somewhat when the therapist's recommended sleeping position didn't work and the pain was so bad I could barely get up out of bed again to make it stop. So I tried sleeping on my stomach and still my leg was getting what I call "the tingles" which proceeds a full-blown pain attack. So I got up and sat on a chair for the rest of the night. It was OK, I got some but not a lot of sleep.
My leg is bothering me right now but I suppose that's why they have you go back so many times. Have you ever gone to a physical therapist? Did you have good results?
