Sunday, March 26, 2006

I have to see that guy more often.

It all started last week - I got that sciatica pain (right at the top of the butt) that normally goes away if I can just get everything to adjust. Normally, all I have to do is swing my hips around and it goes away, but not this time. This time, as the pain continued and I kept swinging my hips around to try and make it stop, more and more things started to hurt - by the end of this week, whenever I moved wrong, one of my hips would make this horrible popping noise which hurt enough to make me yelp like a puppy.

Last night, I called my chiropractor and begged him to see me after I got off work (he'll see me on a Saturday night if I can convince him that it's really an emergency). When I got there, his comment was "Wow - you're really fucked up" and then he proceeded to make it better.

I love my chiropractor. I hadn't realized how bad I'd felt until I felt better.

The problem with working long hours (and having 10 hour turnaround every night) is that it's impossible to get anything done - I come home, go right to sleep, get up and go right to work. So, when I do get a day off, I don't rest - I have to fit a week's worth of life into 12 or so hours - laundry, stuff around the house, grocery shopping, car stuff, etc.. Plus, I feel guilty when I don't work out, so I usually try to go to the gym.

According to the chiropractor, I've been running myself into the ground (not to mention eating too much crap and drinking too much coffee) and am 'toxic' and dehydrated, which has led to some sort of musculoskeletal freakout. When I told him I'd had plans to swim today, he hit the roof. "No swimming, no gym, no bike riding! I want you to rest tomorrow - stay home, stay off your feet."

"I can't stay in bed all day" I protested.

"Well, you should, but try to keep the activity to a minimum tomorrow. You have got to rest."

So, although I didn't work out, I did have to run some errands, so I was on my feet for a few hours. I hope this means I'm not going to hurt like hell for the rest of the week - this morning was the first day this week I've not had any pain, although my feet started to hurt near the end of the day.

Pilot season's almost over, and in a couple of weeks there won't be any work at all, and I can rest like hell then, but I have to work as much as I can while I've got the chance. I just need that smartass spine-mangler (and I say that with love) to get me through the next couple of weeks.

He's also put me on a special diet - no meat, no sugar, limited caffeine, and lots of water. This is going to suck at work. One can only pee so often before it starts to become an issue with one's boss (not to mention the problems finding something edible on the crafty table).

Tomorrow is some additional shooting for the last movie (so it should only be a 12 hour day), and then I'm back on the pilot for the rest of the week.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oog, feel better. :-(

Doom/Blondie said...

i fucked my sciatic nerve - then I discovered codeine...

which, to my shame, took quite a grip on me.

be careful.

6 months on and my back is almost okay again.

Peggy Archer said...

Dave - I feel better today. He really did a good job. The question is how I'm going to feel near the end of the week.

Doom/Blondie - yikes! Sorry to hear about that. I'm always kinda freaked out about taking those kinds of medications.

Anonymous said...

Are you wearing those new shoes already? Maybe now that your feet are changing, that's going to send a ricochet of effects up your to your pelvis and spine. Might have exacerbated the sciatic thing...

Hate to tell you something you probably hear a lot of, but....yoga would be good for you. Keep that plantar fascitis in check, make your SacroIlliac joint happier, etc. etc.

Hope you feel better and stay that way... love the blog....

Anonymous said...

Now watch - you'll have time to take a break and go stri crazy from the peace. ;)

Anonymous said...

I'm more than a little skeptical of chiropractors. I went to see one near me a couple of years ago when I was plagued by numbness and tingling in my fingers. LESS THAN 30 SECONDS after he first met me, without any sort of examination, he had a diagnosis: "It's definitely in your neck." He then insisted that I come for "alignments" at least three or four times a week and didn't seem to care when I told him that my commuting schedule would limit me to one visit a week.
To make a long story short, I went to see a regular M.D. and then got a referral to an orthopedic surgeon. The latter doctor did a careful examination of my hands and wrists, and took a series of X-rays, before diagnosing the problem as carpal tunnel syndrome. And he cautioned me that the diagnosis was tentative until I could see a neurologist for some sort of electric nerve testing. It had *nothing* to do with my neck. The orthopedic surgeon had me wear wrist braces at night for the time being, and the condition soon cleared up. Had I listened to the quack, er, chiropractor, I would have wasted my time and the insurance company's money on wholly useless "alignments," and without the wrist braces the condition probably would have gotten worse. No thanks.

Peter
Iron Rails & Iron Weights

Roger said...

Back when I was assisting and schlepping around Panavision cases (particularly that fucking 3-1 case, not to mention a Platinum on a gear head on top of sticks) I was on a regular (well as regular as you can be with the film biz) patient at my chiropractor's office. It was bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.

After I gave it up (the assisting) I was stunned, one day, to realize that two years had gone by and I had not been to the chiropractor.

Amazing.

RJ

Anonymous said...

This thing helps my sciatica A LOT: http://toolsforwellness.com/62084.html

You put your ankles in those little U's and lay on your back on the floor. The UU thing moves left and right. It makes your back and hips all loosey goosey. It's really great. I hope you have a good Chiropractor. I went to one for a herniated disk, he adjusted me and broke the disk off. It floated up against my sciatic nerve...talk about pain, I almost blew my brains out! A surgeon gave my life back. Me no like C's anymore.