"Treat the disease, you win some, you lose some. Treat the patient, you always win."
~Patch Adams~



Sunday, July 14, 2013

Ouch!

Good morning, everyone, wanted you to know I have not forgotten you.  I had a flare up my back spasms on Friday (I swear, I was really doing ok, went to the gym to do my back strengthening exercises and everything!).  I got in the shower about 5 pm, bent down to put some sugar scrub on my heels, and wham------the spasming started.  It was awful, took me 20 minutes to get dried off and into my jammies and sit on the bed.  I was finally able to get to the freezer a little later for a large ice pack for my back (to relieve the inflammation), and laid very still on my back in bed for quite a while.  For the firs 24 hours I could only take a very few steps, painfully, using my cane.  Today as I write this (Sunday noonish), I am better, still painful but not like it was. I am up walking every hour to stay as mobile as possible, and if one of my swimming buddies is available later, I would like to get in our condo pool and just walk around for a few minutes to stretch and stay limber.

Other than the fact I still need to lose more weight, I really am doing the right things for taking care of my back, I'm aware of ergonomics, I do back strengthening exercises at the gym, I swim/water aerobics (good for core strength), take fish oil to hold down inflammation, Vitamin D for bone health (along with my hormones), I stretch daily, and so on.  Sometimes these things just happen, frustrating as that is.  I am super blessed to have great friends taking care of me; one sent her husband yesterday to stock my house with groceries (that was on my Saturday morning to do list, wouldn't you know), and another friend brought me dinner, a yummy bagel to snack on, and spent several hours keeping me company yesterday! Other friends have been checking on me.  I'm going to nap this afternoon, but try to stay awake as much as I can otherwise so I sleep better tonight.

I am (hopefully) going to go through my newsfeed today (fortunately I have an iPad so I can do computer stuff laying down) and see if there are any good hormone/menopause articles to share with you, and I will mark them and post them this week.  Getting very hot here in the Southeast, as I know it is in other parts of the country, so please make sure to stay hydrated (another tip recommended to alleviate muscle spasms, you better believe I am sucking down water like crazy!) and keep cool as much as possible.

See you soon!