Walking (was Re: [anyone with the kind of pain pre-revision

[Guest guest]

Anecodotal evidence again. Seems to me that orthopedists just love,

love, LOVE to tell all of their patients to walk no matter what.

Until I found a qualified revision surgeon, all my pre-rev doctors

were big on " Hey, if 45 minutes a day isn't reducing your pain, go up

to 90 minutes. " Which for me was just ludicrous, stupid, and painful,

so I didn't do it. When I finally worked with people who knew what

they were looking at, they said " Well, duh, don't walk if it hurts

you, but try to find some kind of exercise that doesn't hurt. " For

me, it was aqua aerobics. (Unlike some of y'all, I couldn't swim pre-

revision because laying on my back or stomach generated crunching

facet pain.)

Post-op, again anecdotally, it seems like we're all being told to

walk like crazy. Well, sure. Research indicates that exercise is good

for you, helps you heal faster, releases endorphins, does all kinds

of good stuff. In my case only, I can walk a reasonable amount post-

revision, and it doesn't generate horrible pain. I'm not really

worried that it's wearing out my unfused disks because it seems that

the revision got all the backwards pressure off of them.

On the other hand, I just freaking hate walking. Despite a new iPod

for Mother's Day. (That, and the standard-issue construction-paper

flowers.) Also, I work full-time and I just don't see where I'm

supposed to find the time for work and kids and exercise, but that's

a fairly standard whiny self-indulgent complaint. Still, I hate

walking. Maybe I need a recumbent bike with a laptop desk.

> > Actually, no, not in my experience! Many therapists prefer that

you

> listen to their advice and directives, regardless of whether this

is

> good for you.

> >

> > We are all different -- I'll say it again -- and there is just no

> evidence for the kind of prescriptive, one-size-fits-all advice you

> have been giving on this walking issue. I think it must be a very

> personal thing with you, which you are generalizing to other

people.

> To me it is just plain crazy to tell someone else that she will

> damage her bones or joints with such-and-such-type exercise. How

can

> you or I possibly know this? I know it is easy to assume that other

> people have exactly the kind of pain or issues that you have from

> such-and-such activity or condition, but most of the time, such an

> assumption is wholly unwarranted.

> >

> > Am I imagining it, or are more and more people on this list

> starting to write whatever they want to write regardless of whether

> they have any scientific evidence for what they are saying?

> >

> > Well, maybe I am just post-op and grumpy, or maybe I need to let

> the list go for a while. We are heading up to 300 members. I guess

> it's statistically probable that I will find myself peeved at least

> once a day while reading all these incredibly confident personal

> opinions from all these people who are far more expert than I in

the

> realm of orthopedics and spinal revision . . . .

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > Rasche , J.D.

> > Medicolegal Writing & Editorial Services

> > 6541 N. Francisco, #2

> > Chicago, IL 60645

> > (773) 508-1507

> >

> > Harrington rod? Concerns arising from previous scoliosis surgery?

> For information, group support, ongoing discussion with others:

> > /

> > Re: anyone with the kind of pain

pre-

> revision (facet joint pain, spurring)?

> >

> >

> > Sharon,

> >

> > This post startled me just a mite. Please let me clarify.

> >

> > On Wednesday you posted the following, in response to a query

> on pre-revision facet joint pain and spurring:

> >

> > , I don't have bone spurs, as far as I know. But

the

> thing about walking for exercise just doesn't make sense to me.

Not

> for those of us who are still malaligned by flatback. I swim, I do

> weight training, I ride my bike some (but not too much because it

can

> strain the knees). But " normal " walking is not possible for me,

and

> if I overdo it . . . my legs cramp up in back and my lower back

> starts hurting . . . . I believe strongly that walking too much is

> likely to hasten the degeneration that this sagittal imbalance

tends

> to cause.

> >

> > If I ever do get my spine rebuilt again, I'll start walking

for

> exercise. But not before!

> >

> > I certainly admire your intrepid fitness activities. I first

> began PT and aquatics in 1999, about three years before my first

> revision surgery. I could not do anything the therapists proposed --

> all of it accentuated my severe sagittal deformity and increased my

> pain beyond all endurance. I soon left the program, with the

> therapists' blessing.

> >

> > The one activity that helped came into my life as a kind of

> lovely fluke -- a series of Feldenkrais sessions, the gift of a

> friend at my shul. This body work program was thoroughly amazing in

> its effects -- incredibly powerful -- but I have no scientific

> grounds for praising it or recommending it. I hope to be able to

> resume some Feldenkrais now that I have been through several

revision

> procedures.

> >

> > Bicycling? I could not balance on any kind of bike with the

> flatback. My head and torso were heading swifty toward the ground

> whenever I strove for a quasi-vertical posture. I missed biking

> enormously, as I had loved riding all my life from third grade on.

It

> was just too dangerous for me once the sagittal deformity became

> disabling.

> >

> > For the last few years, as the deformity gradually closed in

on

> my life, hopes, powers of concentration, capacity for understanding

> the sheer depth of pain we humans sometimes find ourselves

> facing . . . as the boundaries of my life shrank to lilliputian,

> sometimes confining me to my small and unpeopled apartment for

hours

> or days on end . . . . the one thing I kept on doing intrepidly,

> stubbornly, obsessively, passionately, devotedly, and with great

and

> sustaining gratitude for what remained to me even at the end of

this

> infernal deformity, was walking.

> >

> > Those last years, I always had something to lean on, of

course.

> As I traveled the streets and sidewalks, most often my favorite

> outfitted-for-my-idiosyncrasies little walker-shopper, with its

> incorporated compartment for my briefcase/spare shoes/Diet Mountain

> Dew supply/lastest writers' rags from Borders; whatever promised to

> lift and sooth my ailing ego and psyche.

> >

> > Once I reached the end of a particular hike, at least one

way,

> and decided to bop into, say, Target or Office Max, I switched to

the

> assistive device most widely loved and favored by flatbacker babes

> such as I wherever they may roam (at least if they reside in

> industrialized societies, i.e., places replete with giant emporia

> such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot): the blessed and salvific

Shopping

> Cart , which provides every kind of support and comfort a

flatbacker

> could require, with the possible exception of built-in speakers and

a

> sexy crooner reminding her to " lean on me when you're not

> strong . . . . "

> >

> > I made a point of walking aerobically, and actually with a

good

> deal of joy, at least every two to three days. I aimed for six

miles

> a week and often doubled or trippled that. This was literally the

> only exercise I remained able to do, and I found it reasonable and

> helpful for me. It combined well with everything from my own

version

> of metta(loving-kindness) meditation-in-motion, as I began to cull

> some of the methodologies from Hindu and Jewish sources

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

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