Not getting any younger.

However, I’m getting older before I should! As I mentioned in my previous blog, the acupuncture seemed to relieve my back pain—for about 2 weeks. Then it decided to come back with a vengeance. The pain that I had prevously felt in my lower back now quickly spread to my butt and down my right leg, Sciatic pain. I knew this was not right, so I scheduled some x-rays to be taken. The x-rays showed a narrowing of the L5/S1 disc space with facet joint degenerative change. Basically this means that two of the spine bones in my back are smooshed together, narrowing the disc space, probably making the disc bulge out, therefore, pinching a nerve and making the pain. Apparently degeneration is a normal occurrence but is not noticeable until you’re in over 50, not 28.

So this pain has basically left me immobile, unless i pop myself full of anti-inflammatory pills. I hate taking medicine crazy pills, i feel like i’m just filling my body with unnatural chemicals that really can’t be good for me. But at the moment it seems like it’s the only thing I can do. I’m also keeping up the acupuncture as well as seeing a physiotherapist who has given me a few exercises I have to do twice a day, every day, probably for the rest of my life. If I can get the the inflammation down permanently so the pressure is off my nerve I should be okay again, but that can take a lot of time. Positive thinking is what I need, I’m trying.

Somehow, this is a bit unexpected. Yet when I look at my life, I lead a sedentary life compared to how humans are suppose to live. Sure I walk an hour every day and I’ve started swimming weekly, but I’m also still sitting at a desk for 7+ hours a day. I’ve done this since a computer was introduced into my life at about 12. So that’s at least 16 years of sitting and leading a fairly unactive (physically) life.