Pain and body updates
This is mostly for myself, as a note of what I know/understand currently and how things are going.
Some of you may know that ever so gradually over the past x years, I've been experiencing increasing body pain, some of it is tension/computer/work related. But a bunch I can't explain, I don't mention it often because I don't quite know how to process it. I'm not ill, not in chronic pain or otherwise in any kind of serious situation exactly. But it's consistent and affects me to a greater or lesser degree some days.
Some days I'm fine.
Other days I'll be moving like my whole body feels bruised.
If I've done any long period of standing or walking around, my hips will ache and my feet will hurt. It's likely that the bruised feeling will persist for another day or two, sometimes worse on the second day.
It's not really muscular, although tension seems to be present underneath it. Physio identified it as over-sensitive nerve related pain. He said that I'd get more benefit from massage than from him, that trying to do some de-sensitisation was one approach.
I appreciated his approach and telling me that except for the pain and tension, my joints and general body movement and flexibility is all perfectly healthy. I'd been confused about that.
Massage has been *very* helpful, but where the nerve sensitivity is, very painful. The reduction in tension in the days following massage has been incredible, and it gives me some insight as to how much pain there is that I'm just accustomed to.
Masseuse L told me Saturday that there is improvement happening, that my body is gradually less tense, the solid clusters of knots and tension are fewer and less persistent than they were. Also as we work on the de-sensitisation, more work has been able to be done on the nerve-sensitive areas where there is still massive amounts of tension.
It helps to hear her impressions because it's difficult from my perspective being 'in the zone' of it so to speak. It gives me hope that the relief will grow proportionally as muscles are gradually re-aligned and overall less fraught with tension.
I think that except for exceptional weeks where I am especially tense, I am taking less pain killers overall, using heat and movement and stretching more to alleviate in conjunction with drugs, also more conscious of doing things that are good for or limiting things that aggravate (if possible).
Things I have noticed that trigger flares of the pain, standing for longer than 30mins - 1hr in a still kind of position (in line, at a concert or party etc), walking for an extended period in everyday shoes, no matter how supportive or comfortable. Some more ability for exercise walks because the shoes are different, but there's often still some pain - especially if I'm doing more than one 3-6km walk a week.
I've noticed a significant improvement with getting new memory foam pillows, neck is *so much* better than it has been. Expect that more relief will happen once I upgrade the mattress on my bed, though unless it kind of falls into my lap that's not planned atm.
My ability to have more range of shoes that I can wear for longer periods without pain has increased! This is fantastic as before the massages started I found that no matter what shoes I was wearing, the pain would be there to a greater or lesser degree. Now, it's definitely when I feel I've 'pushed it' by standing for too long or walking for too long/often.
I do a lot of incidental walking, generally speaking. I've cut down on some of it because there is still some issue with pain/shoes/tension but generally that's better as well.
Plan currently is:
* To keep up with massage
* Go to dentist to see if upper neck/lower skull tension is in any way teeth related
* Try acupuncture and see if that helps the over-sensitive nerves.
* Find new exercise options that aren't long walks to lessen the impact on my body but where I am still consciously building a positive enjoyment of exercise. Plans here include swimming/water walking/water aerobics and also yoga.
I must keep reminding myself that it *is* better than it was, that it is still improving and that I am getting much better at working *with* my body and not against it and better at expecting 100% functionality and using pain killers to facilitate this.
It still feels odd though. As things improve I'm more aware of the pain and it's intensity as there are more periods of the absence of pain. I'm learning and doing the best that I can for the moment.
This entry was originally posted at http://transcendancing.dreamwidth.org/835964.html
Some of you may know that ever so gradually over the past x years, I've been experiencing increasing body pain, some of it is tension/computer/work related. But a bunch I can't explain, I don't mention it often because I don't quite know how to process it. I'm not ill, not in chronic pain or otherwise in any kind of serious situation exactly. But it's consistent and affects me to a greater or lesser degree some days.
Some days I'm fine.
Other days I'll be moving like my whole body feels bruised.
If I've done any long period of standing or walking around, my hips will ache and my feet will hurt. It's likely that the bruised feeling will persist for another day or two, sometimes worse on the second day.
It's not really muscular, although tension seems to be present underneath it. Physio identified it as over-sensitive nerve related pain. He said that I'd get more benefit from massage than from him, that trying to do some de-sensitisation was one approach.
I appreciated his approach and telling me that except for the pain and tension, my joints and general body movement and flexibility is all perfectly healthy. I'd been confused about that.
Massage has been *very* helpful, but where the nerve sensitivity is, very painful. The reduction in tension in the days following massage has been incredible, and it gives me some insight as to how much pain there is that I'm just accustomed to.
Masseuse L told me Saturday that there is improvement happening, that my body is gradually less tense, the solid clusters of knots and tension are fewer and less persistent than they were. Also as we work on the de-sensitisation, more work has been able to be done on the nerve-sensitive areas where there is still massive amounts of tension.
It helps to hear her impressions because it's difficult from my perspective being 'in the zone' of it so to speak. It gives me hope that the relief will grow proportionally as muscles are gradually re-aligned and overall less fraught with tension.
I think that except for exceptional weeks where I am especially tense, I am taking less pain killers overall, using heat and movement and stretching more to alleviate in conjunction with drugs, also more conscious of doing things that are good for or limiting things that aggravate (if possible).
Things I have noticed that trigger flares of the pain, standing for longer than 30mins - 1hr in a still kind of position (in line, at a concert or party etc), walking for an extended period in everyday shoes, no matter how supportive or comfortable. Some more ability for exercise walks because the shoes are different, but there's often still some pain - especially if I'm doing more than one 3-6km walk a week.
I've noticed a significant improvement with getting new memory foam pillows, neck is *so much* better than it has been. Expect that more relief will happen once I upgrade the mattress on my bed, though unless it kind of falls into my lap that's not planned atm.
My ability to have more range of shoes that I can wear for longer periods without pain has increased! This is fantastic as before the massages started I found that no matter what shoes I was wearing, the pain would be there to a greater or lesser degree. Now, it's definitely when I feel I've 'pushed it' by standing for too long or walking for too long/often.
I do a lot of incidental walking, generally speaking. I've cut down on some of it because there is still some issue with pain/shoes/tension but generally that's better as well.
Plan currently is:
* To keep up with massage
* Go to dentist to see if upper neck/lower skull tension is in any way teeth related
* Try acupuncture and see if that helps the over-sensitive nerves.
* Find new exercise options that aren't long walks to lessen the impact on my body but where I am still consciously building a positive enjoyment of exercise. Plans here include swimming/water walking/water aerobics and also yoga.
I must keep reminding myself that it *is* better than it was, that it is still improving and that I am getting much better at working *with* my body and not against it and better at expecting 100% functionality and using pain killers to facilitate this.
It still feels odd though. As things improve I'm more aware of the pain and it's intensity as there are more periods of the absence of pain. I'm learning and doing the best that I can for the moment.
This entry was originally posted at http://transcendancing.dreamwidth.org/835964.html