I'm back

[todi]

In August, I had started this thread: http://forum.kungfumagazine.com/foru...ght=piriformis
Well, it wasn't "just" piriformis problems. Shortly after posting thisnothing was getting any better so I went to a Structural Integration Body Worker (Rolfer) to help wtih a rotated pelvis. Still, my workouts gradually got shorter as I couldn't get through a form without deep butt pain. I knew that the symptoms I was experiencing were also that of a stenosis but I did not want to believe there was anything wrong with my spine - it was flexible and my low back felt better than it had ever felt before. I couldn't even get through a simple 24 Posture Tai Chi set without pain. After the night of my 9th structural session, something didn't feel right after she worked to "unglue my adductors". The next day at work, I had to position a client out of his wheelchair for positioning pictures. That was on a Friday; after lifting the client out of the chair, the pain in the butt got worse and did not go away by stretching like it use to. That weekend I was introduced to world of hell. I could not move off of my left side without the most intense sciatic pain; I literally felt my hip was on fire and could barely control the pain with deep breathing. I could only control it if I stayed still on my left side.
I went into the primary with the help of my girlfriend (who started dating someone else that very same weekend - oh well) and got setup for an MRI (which was another joke) I couldn't do the MRI because I couldn't lay flat in supine for more than 30 seconds without intense pain. They told me to come back when I "felt better". I couldn't walk more than 10 feet, I couldn't sit in a chair, and the pain would wake up at night if I happened to move around in bed while asleep. I lost 10 pounds in a little over a week because I couldn't stand long enough to cook anything (no Thanksgiving diner for me). I could barely manage to open a can of soup, so food lost it's appeal.
Eventually, with some stronger pain meds, I was able to get through an MRI. It revealed herniation at L3/L4 (a plug of annular ring material had "popped" out into the neural foreman, there was a stenosis at same, a grade 1 spondylolisthesis at L5 ( had a PT friend check it and it is stable -probably been there a long time) and a lot of other crap that MRIs uncover that you really don't need to know about.
I went to a Chinese acupuncturist for relief and she told me that I should take up swimming and yoga and "stop doing that karate" (after explaining I studied Hung Gar); I also needed to slow down because I was 51 and should start acting my age (I parahrase what was actually said which was something about being in the autumn of my life, or something like that). Anyway, all depressing.
After 8 days in bed, I dragged myself to work and managed to climb the stairs to my office to sit there with a pillow propping me up. I started doing some very basic core strengthening and spinal mobility exercises daily on the floor. Slowly it started responding and I started adding exercises of my own design. 2 weeks ago, I went in for a followup visit with the neurosurgeon. He said I was doing amazingly well and whatever exercises I was doing must be really working. He was totally optimistic that not only would I not need surgery now, I could also probably avoid it in the future. You've just got to love a doctor who is trained to cut telling you some good news like that.
Long story short, it's been 12 weeks since my life was reduced to lying on my left side and now I'm back. I have started doing forms (no weapon forms yet, except for 32 Tai Chi Sword, as I don't want that extra torque on the spine) again that I could not do since September. I can walk through a grocery store without having to squat to relieve the pain - there is no more pain in the butt. My workouts last for 2 hours now and I feeling stronger than I have felt in a long while. I really hope to avoid that kind of pain again at all costs and I will now, more than ever, never again stop listening to my body and just "work through the pain".

[FooFighter]

Todi,

I am glad to read about your recovery. Thank you for keeping us updated. If there anything, I do to help you please let me know. I hope you will consider my previous recommendations. I hope you keep up your recovery. Sorry about the girl friend....

[todi]

Thanks for your thoughts, Bao.....
I'm taking all advisement into consideration and that means yours also. I'm psyched about moving again - and moving pain free.

Girlfriends come and go..... I'm too happy with getting my body back to miss her.

[FooFighter]

Todi,

There has been recent new developments in CST/RMAX. I hope you will consider Intu-flow as a way to help you recovery your condition. For more information about Intu-flow please check out this link http://clubbell.tv/intuflow.html. Be well.

[Pork Chop]

Glad you're doing better man.
The frustration can weigh you down like a 1000 pound weight, but you haven't let it stop you; great job on that.
Just keep moving forward and eventually you'll get where you wanna get.

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

i dont really know you but im glad to hear your doing well.

now i really want a monkey.

[todi]

Hey Chris, thanks for your thoughts.... And also yours, GunnedDownAtrocity (totally cool name).

so, i'd be curious, if you took another MRI now, what would it show?

I'd be curious too. Probably a lot less inflamation, that's for sure. I'm asympotmatic for the radiating leg pain and also what I gathered was the neurogenic claudication (nuerosurgeon said neurogenic claudication was instantanious but I thought it acted more as to what I was experiencing - i.e., pain and muscle cramping at a specific location - deep buttock which I thought was piriformis - after weight bearing for a given period, like a vascular claudication, but hey, what do I know). Anyway, that has cleared up.

Yeah, I'm in that No Man's land of Mckenzie extension and Williams flexion. Basically, I don't shy away from extension but try to be judicious about it. After it's all said and done, I'm trying to listen more closely to what my body tells me about certain movement patterns and I'm trying to be more careful as to the position of my spine when I'm doing certain forms and doing trunk exercises.

One thing I think helped with the healing, was learning to move the spine through a complete breath. That is all I started doing when lying on the floor was carrying the breath up and down the spine and isolating vertebral segments and moving them in flexion and extension.

BTW, just curious, did the gal give you the heave ho before or after your really bad pain began?

No, she didn't ditch me, but she was getting awfully frustrated when things weren't getting better. She did, later, make a comment that she had experienced other people who had nerve imflammation as a result of the work - something never mentioned on a Structural Body Work Web Site. It was put into a positive light of "part of the healing process". The other theory presented to me by her and a PT friend was that she had undone a long time compensation pattern I had developed to protect my back and left me vulnerable. I never tried to blame her for what happened, and I don't now, but, whether the $900 or so I spent on a body alignment did me any good or not, I'll never know. She, I think, was wringing her hands a bit there for awhile when I told her I had to cancel my next appointment because I couldn't get out of bed. But, I think a lot of what happened was coincidence, and I'm not the kind of person that would sue someone for something that more than likely was a long time building up in me and was nobody's fault; She didn't do any high velocity manipulations to my spine, or anything like that.

Now my workouts consist of a lot of core work off a ball, a lot of pushups, heavy bag, and I've started doing broad sword forms again. It's like nothing had ever happened. I'm doing my Hung Gar all over again and find I still suck at it but this time I'm trying to be aware of where my back is and to stop and stretch when I feel my lumbar area starting to get tight and compressed.