Back pain! :(

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Ok, It has been a long time since I last wrote on this forum but today I had an awful day. Since the end of last year I´m suffering from back pain. It goes on like this: When I had the super uper depression I was on ahh how it was called? Effexor with the maximum does. During that year I put 30 kg = 66 ponds. (a lot!) I ate a lot because the agnst was awful. Then I went to this doctor who said: "You should Stop eating!and lose weight otherwise you will be diabetic in the futre. Well, this was the opening chapter or someting like that. Now knowing that I should lose weith or be deabetic my mon hired a personal trainner especialized in training people with disabilities and set up a exercise plan in my home. We tried to emule the exercises of the gym in my house with elastics and all kind of stuff. The train progresses fine and it was fun and lost some weigh. There were 2 trains in the moring and I did other exercises on the treadmill or walking with my dog. The train achieved some results and I was stronger and losing weight.
(there was this intermezzo) I travelled with a group of friends and they said I was slowing them so I sit on a bench and wait they return from their stroll. Then one friend said that when I wanted to exercise I should always try to walk faster and put a good pace. And then I did that. When I walked with the dog I walked as faster as I could so that the exercise was more intense. But after walking comes.... running. It felt like walking fast was too slow so I started to jog for a few minutes, go back to walk to recover the breath, and jog a little more. The time I jog in the firsts exercises was actually very low.
The was the set.
I asked my personal trainer: " I am jogging is it ok that I jog?" I was worried beacuse I was overweight. He said that I should: "jog a little and then go back to walking, and do this over and over. The amount of time that you will run is dictated by your body and it is you that has to grasp it. Ok, then there I go run, walk, run walk with the dog 3 times a week. Each time I could run faster and arrive at home in a shorter amount of time. Ahh and my neighborhood is hilly. Then one day I felt a little disconfort in my back while I was jogging and thought: "that should be normal." and kept training.
The other day I woke up with a terrible back pain, it was in the lumbar region and I felt like my weight was crusing that part of the column. I couldn´t carry weight anymore and couldn´t go for long walks.

The first thing that I tried were stretches (also with my personal traiener) but that didn´t work. So we went to a orthopedist. He said my posture was bad and I took an x-ray of the column. He took the x-ray. He saw the x-ray. I always knew I had lordosis. He said that the lordosis was worse probrably because I gained so much weight. The curve of the column was bigger and that the end one vertebrae was too much close to the other and was compressing the nerve. Solution: Global Posture Re-education (RPG), and: no exercise, and: anti-inflammatory pills for one week. See you in three months.

Well I didn´t like much the guy and the physiotherapist but I decided to give it a shoot. In the RPG we did every time passive exercises most pushing or stretching in the RPG bed. She said that I was too stiff when I walked and that didn´t helped the musculature because it didn´t stimulate it. I have to say that in the beginning there was little or no progress at all. On the other hand with the personal trainer we moved from stretching to exercising the very region that was hurting. With this combo and with me walking more loosely we had some progress over the time. Each week I could carry more weigh and walk for longer periods without feeling pain. It allowed to work as a translator in a cybercafé for some time. The guy from the cybercafe would put a book under the monitor so that it could be higher.

After 3 weeks I went back to the doctor and said that I would give to the treatment the rate 6.5 in easing the pain. He said that this was good and that I should do RPG for more three months and then we would see what to do. If the problem persisted we would do a ultrasonography.

But... We decided to change doctors and visit a physiatrist that works with rehabilitation in a Hospital and that her seemed treatment was better. I was open minded so I decided to go. Well, all that she said was lose weight and lose the meds. And she gave me guidelines for RPG once a week and physiotherapy three times a week, and meditation group (non-religious) once a week. There was the little inconvinient that there was a queue for the physiotherapy and I would have to wait for 2 months and the girl form the RPG was on vacation.

Well, after that I think that after leaving the previous treatment and the fact that at the moment I didn´t have any alternative treatment made my pain get worse. I alread had the first sesion of the new RPG last week but only time will tell if it helps.

Apart from that, two weeks ago I went to the Lollapalooza festival where and walked a lot. without resting. The next week I felt my backs burning like hell! It did so for a week with constant pain. But Moonday this week it got a little better, but I´m still on forced vacation. Can´t draw (hobby), can´t work (as translator), can´t drive (it hurts), can´t take the bus. Yeah it is pretty awful. I just rented some DVDs and began watching them. Staying watching tv or on the computer in the right position makes the pain go away and it is better now.

And finally, I think that there is an emotional component of the pain. Whenever I think in something difficunt to accomplish it hurts. I mean: work! (pain), going out! (pain), meting other people! (pain).


Finally, I didn´t have anything else to do so I wrote a long text. Any insights or suggestions or similar experiences are welcome.

One way to deal with lordosis may be to consult an osteopath. Of course it all depends on circumstances.

Well, I'm not really an expert on this sorta thing. It could be you have a vitamin deficiency, or you're simply not getting enough protein to keep up with your new workload.

Failing that, one exercise that could help you is reverse hyperextensions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIP-c1IUbR0 Louis Simmons, owner of Westside Barbell Club, injured his back in the 70s, he actually broke a vertebra twice. But he invented that exercise to decompress the spine. It's a bit hard to do without that kinda machine, but yeah. If you can figure out a way to do it, it might be good.

I can't say I know much about that......But I can relate to having back pain, and that has been ever since I can remember. As a kid I always had lower back pain and terrible leg cramps and was never as flexible as other kids when it came to stretches in P.E. Then years later I had an x-ray because my mom was working for a chiropractor and it showed the spinal columns or whatever those bones are called are too close together in my lower back......which apparently does contribute to general muscle stiffness and aches. Anyways turns out my mom decided she didn't want to work for that chiopractor because she thought he was scamming people.......I imagine the x-ray was still accurate but obviously since my mom developed a negative opinion she never bothered having my back pain issues looked into further.

So yeah if anything it's gotten worse.......typically the reason I get up in the morning is back pain, even if I am laying on a good comfortable mattress(yes including the ones that supposedly help back pain) my back hurts every morning so I have to get up and try and stretch some as it's too uncomfortable to lay there any longer.

Honestly I find cannabis helpful for this, otherwise I imagine I could go to a doctor and get vicodin or something...can't afford a doctor though and I don't especially want to depend on opiates. Other then that I've heard yoga type stretches can help, I've done that a few times and it provides a little relief but I think I'd have to do it more consistently to see any real improvement if there even would be. But basically its really slow stretching combined with certain breathing and concentration techniques to help you relax. But yeah that's about the extent of my knowledge of back pain.

Also personal opinion but jogging a bit, switching back to walking and repeating the process to me sounds like it might be kind of unhealthy...like it might be kind of a shock to your body to keep switching, I've always heard it's best to walk, run or jog at a steady pace for that sort of exercise.

I can tip about Tempur mattresses. It's of course something that lessen the symptoms, not the cause.

Lose weight.

It's unlikely that you'll find anything here that professionals haven't told you already.

30kg is a LOT. Shed the weight and everything will be better.

Good luck!

EDIT: I feel I should give a suggestion, at least: walking still produces impact, even on a treadmill.
Try suggesting a bicycle program to your personal trainer. Cycling does not cause impact, and with a personal, you should be able to mantain goos posture, to protect your knees etc.

From a website (I can't quote just yet):
I believe that cycling can help back sufferers in two ways.

1) If you are in a time of good health, cycling may be able to keep you fit and more able to prevent times of pain.
I find, my back can easily become stiff or tense. This will often then be the start of another time when back pain occurs.



2) During a time when your back is painful, cycling may be able to speed your recovery.
There are times when my back is painful, but I am able to still get on to my bike. If I can, I will go for a gentle ride. In my case it seems that this will quite often help me recover.

posture

the cure to back pain is standing up straight