Prayers please, and suggestions....

[gurneyhalleck1]

Hi Everyone,

As a few of you know, I suffer with SERIOUSLY PAINFUL back problems. I have ongoing knots in my traps and shoulder area that just WILL NOT go away. I'm not sure how they started, but it began in 2010 before we went on a trip to my wife's home country of the Philippines.

These knots are intense and painful. I often can't turn my head either way. They affect my sleep, my work, and my mind. I'm going through a lot of mental turmoil with this pain, I kid you not.

I have done years of chiropractic, therapeutic massage, physical therapy for a while, visits to my doctor, Cortisone shots on multiple occasions, taken extra magnesium, extra potassium, joined a gym and work on them, pray, hope, pray more. And they don't go away. I use heat, cold, Ibuprofen, Naproxen, all to little avail.

I'm going to call and try to get into a specialist, Orthopedist, Monday. Hopefully I can see one in a few weeks or less. I do have an x-ray and it came out pretty good, no disc issues.

I was wondering if you guys could give me two things:

a) A little prayer each day
b) A suggestion on a really good saint to ask intercession? Would St. Maria of Gachina be a good saint for help in this crisis?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer up a nice prayer for me. I'm at the end of my rope.....hurting. Not lying when I say I have almost broken into tears of despair. Prayers are appreciated.....

 

[jckstraw72]

Lord have mercy!

 

[Shieldmaiden4Christ]

For what it's worth, my mother had a similar health condition plague her for a year or two!

Praying for you!

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

What was the actual diagnosed problem and how did she defeat it? I'm seeing no end in sight to the pain at this point....worried

For what it's worth, my mother had a similar health condition plague her for a year or two!

Praying for you!

 

[Shieldmaiden4Christ]

What was the actual diagnosed problem and how did she defeat it? I'm seeing no end in sight to the pain at this point....worried

Hmm. I don't know what the exact diagnosis was offhand, but I'll ask her tomorrow. She had pain in her neck and between her shoulder blades, mostly on the right side of her body. She did a combination of massage, yoga (!), chiropractic and physical therapy. She put a tennis ball in a sock, and would put that at the site of the injury, rotating against it while driving a car. I can ask in the morning what the diagnosis and solution were, though.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

Yeah, please do. I already have done the sock in pillowcase thing for years now.

Hmm. I don't know what the exact diagnosis was offhand, but I'll ask her tomorrow. She had pain in her neck and between her shoulder blades, mostly on the right side of her body. She did a combination of massage, yoga (!), chiropractic and physical therapy. She put a tennis ball in a sock, and would put that at the site of the injury, rotating against it while driving a car. I can ask in the morning what the diagnosis and solution were, though.

 

[rusmeister]

Lord, have mercy!

 

[Anhelyna]

Oh prayers for you - lots of them !

Can't give you a diagnosis though - but these things really do need to be seen and treated by a specialist.

Do be careful if you are taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatories [ such as Ibuprofen ] they really can do a lot of damage to your stomach lining.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

I know. Ibuprofen and Naproxen, all those NSAIDS, they're worthless and more damaging than they are helpful. I'm so fed up with this, Angela. Fed up! I deeply appreciate your prayers, sister! Please keep me in them! It means a lot to me!

Oh prayers for you - lots of them !

Can't give you a diagnosis though - but these things really do need to be seen and treated by a specialist.

Do be careful if you are taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatories [ such as Ibuprofen ] they really can do a lot of damage to your stomach lining.

 

[Protoevangel]

Lord have mercy!

Prayers to the great-martyr and healer, Saint Pantelimon, the Unmercenary!

 

[MKJ]

I'll pray for you.

I probably have no really good suggestions, but I know that back pain sometimes originates from totally different parts of the body - things like your feet or legs can transmit stress to the back. So it you haven't looked at that sort of thing it might be worth it. Back problems seem to be a real issue for tall people.

What do you do at the gym? have you tried something like Pilates - it was designed for people with injuries.

 

[27B6]

...

 

[AV1]

I suffer from similar issues in my upper back, shoulder and neck areas. Combo of old sports injuries, a job where I lean over the desk at a PC for over a decade, and nerve damage from having shingles two years ago.

Three things that have helped tremendously:

Muscle relaxers every once in a while when its bad before I go to bed. This makes recovery during rest more effective because you don't sleep through the tension. Way better than painkillers during the day.

Stand up desk at work with a monitor even with my face. This reduces the slouching and constant hunch over the work station...awesome results here...better than the pills.

Lift heavy things! Almost all people in our post industrial workforce have severe strength imbalances in the posterior muscle chains. Our fronts are much stronger than our backs, due to our work environments and leisure activity. When you are at the gym, those are the areas you need to work the most. This type of work out is for functional strength and nothing else...and it works...better than both other things. I began lifting heavy things about 2 months ago, and I have all ready seen massive improvement.

Deadlifts, Squats, power-cleans, over head press and bench press. That is it...in order of importance. Start with an empty bar, and add very small amounts of weight each time. Here is an excellent book to get you going:

Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe. It will change the quality of your life. The deadlifts are the lift that will fix it.

 

[Gxg (G²)]

Lord have Mercy...

 

[tapi]

Lord have mercy!

 

[RosaryChaplet9]

Glory to the All-Holy Trinity, have mercy on us.

 

[RKO]

gurney, I'm going to offer you a suggestion that may incite a problem on this board, but I hope not. Years ago, I suffered from serious back pain. I tried everything. I should say I did not have anything that could be operated on, it was just some disc degeneration. I tried everything. I worked in a big building and discovered that lots of people were going to this person who did "cranio-sacral" therapy. being askeptic, I laughed. But literally dozens of people i knew were going and every single one of them had positive things to say. I finally went on a lark, making fun of it the whole time.
Short version: She straightened my "crooked foot" out and I haven't had back trouble in over 10 years.
It is NOT western medicine. I think it is very eastern. There was no pseudo-religious aspect to it, she just mucked around with the "energies" in my back and head. others may call it voo-doo or psychosomatic. All I know is I don't have back trouble anymore.

And most people here know me well enough to know that I have trouble believing what I SHOULD believe in. To say I am skeptical about things like this is an understatement.

UPDATE: Good news. I just looked up cranio sacral therapy and founs that is not eastern or voodoo. It is osteopathic. My practitioner is very eastern and also does accupressure, so I thought it might be.

 

[gracefullamb]

.

 

[Dorothea]

My prayers, gurney. Back pain is no fun. Hubby can really attest to that, and I have some as well, but I think mine is mostly due to poor posture that I've had for the past nearly 30 years.

I hope you find a treatment that works for the pain!

 

[MariaRegina]

I have read that our magnetosphere has weakened in the past few years, and that this is causing problems for many people.

One of my friends recommended magnetotherapy to augment the lack of our magnetosphere, but I thought that idea was ridiculous until I read about a girl* with severe Cerebral Palsy who had recently visited a medical research facility in the Portland, Oregon area. She was in terrible pain, and was suffering from severe muscular craps that left her in a permanent fetal position. She lacked the ability to lift her head. Although she had reached the age when she should be going through puberty, she still had the body of a four year old girl. After one month of four hours/day under powerful magnets (something like an MRI machine), she showed dramatic improvements, looked a pre-teen, showed signs of beginning puberty with developing hips, started talking, and could lift up her head. Magnets are natural substances and are God-given to us.

Since I had a painful condition commonly called "trigger finger" which cannot be resolved with current medical options due to my allergies to drugs (I checked with two surgeons), I thought that I would try using magnets. Anything is better than nothing. Using two of my old Pen Pals (plastic covered magnets used to hold pins and needles while sewing), I positioned my affected thumb between two of these Pen Pals, and went to sleep praying the Jesus Prayer. In the morning, my thumb was much better. I repeated this procedure for four more nights and it is now almost normal. Now, I only use the magnets about once per week. My doctor was impressed. BTW, the newer version of Pen Pals are not as effective as the magnets are weaker.


*Since I have permanently lost all my bookmarks where I had this article saved, I do not know if I can find the article again. My old computer went up in smoke due to a failed microprocessor.