{"id":43166,"date":"2014-06-20T18:06:48","date_gmt":"2014-06-21T00:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/20\/this-is-spinal-crap.html"},"modified":"2014-07-13T10:48:27","modified_gmt":"2014-07-13T16:48:27","slug":"this-is-spinal-crap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/20\/this-is-spinal-crap.html","title":{"rendered":"This is Spinal Crap"},"content":{"rendered":"
So when I was off on my last business trip to California a couple of weeks back, I came home with a back problem. \u00a0Except, it wasn't a back problem of sort I'm used to, which is either throwing my lower back out (oh joy), or the intermittent lower back pain stiffness I occasionally wake up to which the doctor casually (though sympathetically) noted was probably arthritic in nature (oh joy).<\/p>\n

This was more like lower back pain turning into streaks of pain in my buttocks, down the back of my thigh, and even into my upper calf. Caused, it appeared, by my sleeping on my stomach or sitting with good<\/i> posture in a chair (you know, like you're supposed to do on a computer, like, y'know, at work)<\/i> \u00a0If I got up and walked around a bit, the pain would subside. Mostly.<\/p>\n

Problem is, these symptoms sounded a lot like sciatica, which is is a set of symptoms caused by something else, but is essentially when something gets pinched in the lower spine, like the sciatic nerve, which runs down into the legs. \u00a0That can happen from an injury, or just something getting noodged a bit out of alignment and causing swelling that pinches the nerve. \u00a0But it's not something to be ignored, as my friend Mary can attest to.<\/p>\n

So I was a dutiful person, and did two things. \u00a0First, I set up my home computer as a standing desk — which an upended milk crate does just perfect for. \u00a0Then I called the doctor first thing Monday morning, and got in to see her Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

And, yes, she was definitely concerned over the description of the pain and all of that, as well as the reduced range of motion in raising the left leg and the slight weakness in the legs I was describing. She prescribed me some steroids to bring down swelling (if that was it), and had me schedule an MRI.<\/p>\n

I went through the course of steroids over that week, working from home (I put in a request for a standing desk there, but it can take them 4-6 weeks to get hold of one) and trying to be good. And, in fact, by last weekend I was actually feeling pretty darned good.<\/p>\n

So this week I worked at the office for the most part, sitting properly, and didn't really have much of a problem …<\/p>\n

… until as the week went on, and definitely today, I noticed that I'm getting a bit of numbness in the foot and tingling in the legs. So things haven't magically gotten fixed. Alas.<\/p>\n

I've been keeping the doc apprised, I have instructions on what Real Danger Signs (i.e., go to the ER) are, and I've "reinstalled" the standing desk here at home. \u00a0The MRI is scheduled for week after next. And I'm just going to hang loose and grumble.<\/p>\n

(I haven't been chit-chatting about this online so far because either (a) I wasn't feeling up to it, (b) things were still uncertain, (c) things were getting maybe better. Now that things are … mezzo-mezzo … it seemed a good opportunity for TMI for my reading audience.)\ufeff<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\n \n <\/div>\n

Sciatica<\/a>
\n Sciatica refers to pain, weakness, numbness, or tingling in the leg. It is caused by injury to or pressure on the sciatic nerve. Sciatica is a symptom of another medical problem, not a medical condition on its own.A.D.A.M.\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So when I was off on my last business trip to California a couple of weeks back, I came home with a back problem. \u00a0Except, it wasn't a back problem of sort I'm used to, which is either throwing my lower back out (oh joy), or the intermittent lower back pain stiffness I occasionally wake … Continue reading “This is Spinal Crap”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,7,653],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-health","category-my-back"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":43537,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/13\/this-is-spinal-crap-sitzkrieg-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":43166,"position":0},"title":"This Is Spinal Crap: Sitzkrieg Edition","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 13-Jul-14 1:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Sitzkrieg was (as a pun off of Blitzkrieg) the period of World War II after the fall of Poland, when the English and French had declared war on Germany, but everyone was pretty much, well, sitting around, waiting for the other Panzer to drop.For me, with the sciatica and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/629px-Sitzkrieg5B15D.jpg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":44620,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/26\/this-is-spinal-crap-alls-well-that-some-day-ends-well.html","url_meta":{"origin":43166,"position":1},"title":"This Is Spinal Crap: All’s Well That (Some Day) Ends Well","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 26-Aug-14 4:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The continuing saga of Dave's mid-June bout with (spooky music) sciatica! 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It's a pride and a joy and a pain in the ass...","rel":"","context":"In "Quotations (WIST)"","block_context":{"text":"Quotations (WIST)","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/wist"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3490,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/11\/07\/snoozy.html","url_meta":{"origin":43166,"position":3},"title":"Snoozy","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 7-Nov-02 11:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"Japanese scientists have published a study that indicates prolonged computer use saps energy. In a three-year study of more than 25,000 workers, Japanese researchers discovered that people who sat in...","rel":"","context":"In "Science & Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Science & Nature","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15990,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/10\/12\/flu-vs-flu-whats-the-diff-between-seasonal-and-swine-flus.html","url_meta":{"origin":43166,"position":4},"title":"Flu vs. Flu – what’s the diff between Seasonal and Swine Flus?","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 12-Oct-09 1:18pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The following info is from Kaiser (slightly abridged), and provides a nice highlight between \"normal\" flu (which kills people) and N1N1 (which also kills people). The latter is not that different from the former; we're not talking about one of the horsemen of the apocalypse here, but it should still\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/health"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8751,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/04\/25\/tell_me_its_jus.html","url_meta":{"origin":43166,"position":5},"title":"Tell me it’s just a dream, please …","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 25-Apr-06 7:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A movie version of Dallas? Starring John Travolta as J.R. Ewing? And Jennifer Lopez as Sue Ellen? Oh, the pain ......","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-movies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43196,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43166\/revisions\/43196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}