The BBC - the Bad Back Club!

[Maggie1]

Ow! Backs gone again.
Been off for a few days with my asthma and have basically been sat, feet up with laptop on my knees.
Felt a niggle yesterday and stupidly ignored it. By bed time I couldn't move.
I don't have any decent painkillers and will have to ring the doctors for the 2nd time in 3 days.

Get a hot water bottle on it and sit properly

[Benny&Co]

Oh no Saz, poor you

Can your OH go out to the pharmacy for you?

I'd try alternating a hottie with an ice pack, or ice cubes/frozen veg wrapped in a towel.

Just make sure your skin temperature has returned to normal inbetween. I managed to burn myself once

Really hope things ease up for you Saz

[mrs boodles]

Take it easy Saz

[jemberelli]

Blimey, sounds like backs everywhere are going dodgy! I hope you are in less pain now Saz. I went for my MRI on 29 Dec and got the results back last week. There is nothing that can be sorted and so I just have to continue with the Tramadol but I did at least get the doc to refer me to a physio so just waiting for the appointment. Sending back rubs to all that need one! xxx

[Benny&Co]

Blimey, sounds like backs everywhere are going dodgy! I hope you are in less pain now Saz. I went for my MRI on 29 Dec and got the results back last week. There is nothing that can be sorted and so I just have to continue with the Tramadol but I did at least get the doc to refer me to a physio so just waiting for the appointment. Sending back rubs to all that need one! xxx

Oh Jembi, poor you

What did the MRI show?

Are you tolerating the tramadol okay?

Sending you lots of gentle

[Benny&Co]

I'm having a bit of a dodgy week, back wise.

My old neck shoulder, right hand side was sore the other day and now today, my injury/left side/piriformis/hip is playing up.

Will try my usual tool box of home treatments and if all else fails will see my physio again.

Haven't been for a while, so had a good run I guess.

[jemberelli]

The MRI didn't show anything untoward I don't think. He did say that there were a couple of something or others that I didn't quite hear but he didn't go into detail and said there was nothing further to be done other than trying physio and carrying on with the painkillers. The tramadol are fine now thanks Bev, no side effects, just a bit of a woozy head if I am hungry or tired.

I hope your box of tricks works for you Bev, keeping my fingers crossed xxx

[jemberelli]

Hopefully the lak of activity here means that people's backs have been behaving! Mine has been an absolute nightmare for the past few months but yesterday I finally found out how backs work, why mine has been so bad and what can be done to 'fix' it

The physio was lovely, very patient and extremely informative. The upshot is, basically, that the muscles surrounding my back muscles have been working incorrectly for over 20 years as a result of the trauma and now they need to be retrained. She is referring me to the bad back gym class that takes place on a Thursday - she said it will be a lot of hard work and very painful but should sort it out eventually! Halellujah - finally someone has explained things and offered a solution instead of just throwing painkillers at me

Hope everyone else is doing ok

[Benny&Co]

Hopefully the lak of activity here means that people's backs have been behaving! Mine has been an absolute nightmare for the past few months but yesterday I finally found out how backs work, why mine has been so bad and what can be done to 'fix' it

The physio was lovely, very patient and extremely informative. The upshot is, basically, that the muscles surrounding my back muscles have been working incorrectly for over 20 years as a result of the trauma and now they need to be retrained. She is referring me to the bad back gym class that takes place on a Thursday - she said it will be a lot of hard work and very painful but should sort it out eventually! Halellujah - finally someone has explained things and offered a solution instead of just throwing painkillers at me

Hope everyone else is doing ok

Oh Jembi, I'm so pleased for you and I guess you'll have started your bad back classes now? Hope they're going well.

I know what you mean about your physio being lovely and very informative - she sounds like mine who is absolutely lovely and I come out feeling very positive

[Benny&Co]

Well after much nagging from my Hubbly, today I've seen my lovely physio lady and golly-gee she's given me a right good going over.

The coughing bug I've had recently and which is still lingering has made everything worse.

As it happened I had a back massage and Indian head massage yesterday, so my aches and pains weren't as bad this morning, but I still went and glad I did as she found lots of tissue inflammation and painful areas.

Have strict instructions to take things easy today and drink lots of water

[mrs boodles]

Hope you feel better soon and not so much hurting take care.

[jemberelli]

Ah I hope your aches & pains are improving Bev

mrs Boodles, I have not yet heard anything from the physios - all my positive feelings have diminished because I am still just popping the tramadol which don't seem to be doing much. Mum says if I don't hear from them soon she will pay for me to go private so will see what happens. There must be a lot of people with bad backs if there is still no space for me in the gym class!

[Benny&Co]

Hope you feel better soon and not so much hurting take care.

Thanks MrsBoodlybobs, I'm aching today and definitely feel like I've had a good going-over, but hopefully it's all good aches

[Benny&Co]

Ah I hope your aches & pains are improving Bev

mrs Boodles, I have not yet heard anything from the physios - all my positive feelings have diminished because I am still just popping the tramadol which don't seem to be doing much. Mum says if I don't hear from them soon she will pay for me to go private so will see what happens. There must be a lot of people with bad backs if there is still no space for me in the gym class!

Oh Jembi, sorry to hear about that, so they didn't get back to you about the classes? that's not good

Unfortunately I had a similar experience with the NHS physio's too - who actually made my back injury worse! So I gave up with them and continued seeing my private physiotherapist and osteopath.

[Benny&Co]

Hello everyone

How are we all doing? Okay I hope.

A bit of a down post from me unfortunately.

My back injury has flared up again - absolutely gutted as I've been pain free since March.

Seems the new job has really taken it's toll and possibly A&E isn't for me

Saw my lovely Physiotherapist last week and as expected given the pain I was in, everything was up the spout and in spasm again.

I was with her again yesterday and things are a bit better and moving in the right direction, but she said there's still lots of muscle tension all over my back because everything is compensating for the left side, where the injury is.

At work I have got Occupational Health involved and they have been very supportive, along with my matrons too.

I have been offered a three month secondment to NICU, where I'll be looking after little babies who have been born too early or are in need of assistance. This is subject to OH clearing me for this tomorrow

I'm not to do any manual handling whatsoever, so today I will go in and do whatever they can find me as I don't want to take sick leave.

I'm beginning to wonder why I applied to A&E, but I guess you live and learn don't you. I really fancy the NICU and hopefully it'll give my back the chance to recover.

They've been so good to me and have said that if I don't like NICU I can move to another department that's suitable for me.