Because of my job as an Electrician working on construction,
I was more likely to be injured than someone working in an office. I had to
lift heavy coils of wire, electric panels, and other heavy stuff. I also spent
plenty of time on top of a ladder. Ladders are great to climb if you want to
reach high places, but they are also a great danger. When you use a piece of
equipment all the time, you get careless. I can’t count the many times I fell
off a ladder, even though I took care to make sure the ladder was standing on
solid ground. Unfortunately, the ground isn’t always solid, not on construction
sites. A ladder slips, or just collapses, when it isn’t standing properly. One
time when my ladder collapsed under me as I bent away too far from it, I fell
from about 6 feet onto my back. I hit my head on the, fortunately, wooden
floor, but I landed on the handle of my hammer which was hanging from my belt.
My whole body ached for days, but I didn’t find out till much later when I went
to the chiropractor that one of my vertebrates had been pushed forward. Nothing
he could do about that, and it wasn’t severe enough to be operated on. Not that
I would have wanted to do that.
It caused me a lot of pain. I kept going back to the chiropractor
and took painkillers when it got too bad. It was bearable, though. You get used
to pain and I was able to deal with it. However, about 4 years ago the pain
became worse, for whatever reason. My wife and I used to go for our daily walk,
which became nearly impossible for me to do. I walked maybe a hundred meters
when a switch seemed to turn on the pain in my back and leg, making it hell to
walk. Manipulation by my chiropractor did nothing, acupuncture did nothing. My
doctor told me to take ‘Tylenol for Arthritis’ 3 times a day. It did nothing
for me except make my head feel funny. Besides, I don’t like taking all this
medicine. Logic tells me that it can’t be good in the long term. Any pills you
take have to be processed by your stomach, your intestines, your kidney, and by
your liver. Medicine is not natural to our bodies, just like taking drugs,
drinking too much alcohol, and smoking, isn’t healthy. There are consequences,
usually unpleasant.
I’ve been going for Physiotherapy for a few weeks now, and I
must say, I am pleasantly surprised by the results. My Physiotherapist doesn’t
fuss much, but whatever she does, seems to be the right thing. First I get heat
applied to my back and thigh. After that she massages my thigh and buttocks. It
hurts when she does it, but I feel good afterwards. I also do a bunch of
stretching exercises. I’ve been doing most of them already for years, but she
gave me a few tips and I followed them. It is important to stretch and hold
that position for a while, instead of just doing the steps too fast. But I have
a feeling it is the massage that does help most. I’ve been reading about
‘pressure points’. They are knots in the muscles and they can do a lot of
damage, like pulling joints out of place and preventing blood to flow properly,
which causes nerves to be pinched, which causes pain.
I can actually walk again for some distance without stopping
a million times to adjust my back and without wincing with every step I take.
Who knows, next thing I’ll be running the Marathon
(^_^).
I still have pain in my joints, caused by arthritis,
courtesy of working for decades in freezing temperatures, or humid weather,
from kneeling on hard concrete floors with or without knee-pads, from climbing
ladders and stairs. Things the Compensation Board won’t acknowledge, but that
is another topic.
Anyway, I give Physiotherapy a huge round of applause. And
that includes my Physiotherapist at the 7-Oaks Hospital.
She plays a large part in this, because she recognized the cause of my pain.
I can deal with the pain I still have, even without pills.
Unfortunately, growing older also includes benefits, like stiff joints and loss
of muscle tone, no matter how much you exercise, and some pain is part of the
package. The good part is, as long we can still feel pain we are alive, but a
little bit of pleasure would also be appreciated.
Thanks for reading and have a pain free week.
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