clevermanka: default (going well)
clevermanka ([personal profile] clevermanka) wrote2011-12-13 07:16 am

How very typical

Well, shit. Guess who didn't understand that Piriformis Syndrome was something that (much like an autoimmune disorder) doesn't really go away. Ever. And can come back with a vengeance. Yep, that'd be me!

By yesterday afternoon, my left hip was on fire, and my foot was starting to go numb. By the time I got home, the pain was all the way down to my calf, and pins-and-needles feeling had made it up to my knee. I had [livejournal.com profile] mckitterick do a similar manipulation of the tissues that Rob Jones, our P.T., did earlier this year while I stretched out the muscle. Ten minutes after that, it hurt worse! Yay!

I dealt with it as you'd expect: Shot back a glass of rum, poured a second, and limped up the stairs, whining all the way. Unfortunately, I think I'm sensitive to something in the rum, because within ten minutes I swelled up like whoa--something that probably didn't help the inflamed muscles in my hips. Oh, I took five ibuprofen, too, which as far as I could tell, didn't do bupkis.

What triggered this shockingly fast development, I'm not sure. I've been sitting a lot at my desk with very few breaks (it's my busy season after all). I'm worried that the burpee project might have exacerbated something, too. I know that when I went through this before, any squat below about 120 degrees triggered a flare-up. Which is why I quit doing squats (sadness) and relied on lunges. There's a squat-ish movement, obviously, in the burpees, and I didn't even think about it irritating that piriformis muscle (and, therefore, my sciatic nerve). So burpees are on hold until I can talk to Rob Jones.

Today I'll call his office to see how soon they can get me in. The idea of sitting at my desk all day makes me wince. Although right now, standing isn't a lot better. It's pretty much all discomfort all the time. How can my leg be numb and hurt at the same time? It makes no sense.

As I crawled into bed last night, I complained to [livejournal.com profile] mckitterick that, for a change, I would really love the opportunity to hate my body for the normal reasons: I'm fat or I have too many freckles or my knees are ugly or my breasts are too small or my hair is unmanageable or my nose is too big or fucking something that involves just simple, shallow vanity. Can I please just hate my body because of something petty? Because I'm bored with hating my body for these consistent betrayals that attack and undermine my efforts toward health and fitness.

I am not your enemy, body of mine. Stop behaving as though I am. I bust my ass (and my bank account) to keep you healthy, I limit all sorts of common social interactions, I give and I give and what do you do? You pull this shit that slows me down--often when I'm getting in a good groove. What is the deal, body? If you were a boyfriend, I would kick your ass to the curb. Hell, if you were a family member who treated me like this, I'd write you out of my life with never a backward glance. But I'm stuck with you, damn it, and right now I gotta say I'm super unhappy in our relationship.

[identity profile] redheadfae.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 01:47 pm (UTC)(link)

Oh hun, I so understand. I'm going through Gabapentin like candy.

We must remember to get up and move every hour! I'm going to set myself a popup reminder because with the phones being this busy, I tend to put it off.. and pay for it.

Maybe the swelling was the ibuprofen, not the rum.
Yeah right, huh?

[identity profile] clevermanka.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 02:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Maybe the swelling was the ibuprofen, not the rum.
Yeah right, huh?


IF. ONLY.

Yeah, I gotta get up and move every hour, for sure. Even if it means I have to work through lunch or stay late. Hm. Maybe I should start coming in early.

Sorry to hear you're suffering, too.

This is ass.

[identity profile] redheadfae.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 06:48 pm (UTC)(link)

I don't mind coming in earlier, except for driving in the damned dark.
Bleh.

This too shall pass, this too shall pass... hmm, not working for me yet.

[identity profile] mckitterick.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 07:18 pm (UTC)(link)
That's a great idea! Lydia, that secretary on our floor who smokes every 15 minutes? She gets away with it. You could CERTAINLY be allowed to get up and walk every hour for a HEALTH REASON. And if there's too much work to do in a day? Whatever. You tell me this all the time. Listen to your own advice!

[identity profile] clevermanka.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 08:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Nobody in the office is stopping me from getting up and walking around. It's just my own desire to get this shit done already.

[identity profile] bluetourmaline.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 02:16 pm (UTC)(link)
My enormous sympathies. *gentle hugs*

[identity profile] clevermanka.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 02:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you. I'm not a patient person under the best of circumstances, so this sort of thing pisses me off so much. I also hate to be the person who whines about "why me," but WHY ME?

[identity profile] shrijani.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 02:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Gah! I am so sorry! :( May your symptoms and their cause abate quickly, and return you to good times.

[identity profile] clevermanka.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you. Moar Good Times Nao Pleez.

[identity profile] normalcyispasse.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 03:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Damn. You're right. If this were a relationship, I'd tell you to DTMFA.

[identity profile] clevermanka.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 03:24 pm (UTC)(link)
She hits me because she loves me.

[identity profile] mckitterick.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Hahahahaha!

Oh, wait, it's not funny.

[identity profile] clevermanka.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 08:24 pm (UTC)(link)
It's funny because it's true.

[identity profile] siro-gravity.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 04:26 pm (UTC)(link)
:(
I am so sorry...that really sucks. OW OW OW.
:(

[identity profile] clevermanka.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 04:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you for the sympathy.

It is a literal pain in my ass.

[identity profile] grnvixen.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 04:36 pm (UTC)(link)
So so sorry, but I guess not surprised if sitting a lot is a trigger. Especially with the stress/work load last week it must have all added up. Hope you can get some stretches in today.

And you ass may be a pain, but it is also pretty damm cute :).

[identity profile] clevermanka.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 04:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Ha! Thank you. And thank you for expressing the ridiculous irony of the situation, which is that I do like my big butt and most of my body in general (I wouldn't mind switching it for something a little more pear-shaped, but I certainly don't dislike my basic silhouette).

And yet. And yet.

*sigh*

[identity profile] anomali.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 04:53 pm (UTC)(link)
I am so sorry that you are in so much pain again. Shit!

I know that pain in the ass far too intimately: ( I first encountered it after breaking my tailbone and dislocating my SI joint playing bball in jr hi. When my problems got much worse five years ago, I did a lot of research into causes, treatments, etc.

I'm sure you have tried all the usual PT exercises and myofascial trigger point release stuff (and how!), but I thought I'd give you a link that gives some bloody hope if/when you reach the end of your ass pain-coping rope. At he end of this article are several treatments that involved various types of injections. This is the only place where I have seen much discussion of treatments other than surgery or the hand-on and exercise stuff.

http://www.pain-clinic.org/piriformissyndrome

[identity profile] clevermanka.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 05:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you for this link! Yes, I had all the exercises and such, but I didn't realize this wasn't something (like a sprain or a bruise) that was liable to return. So I didn't keep up with the exercises.

Bad move. So to speak.

[identity profile] nottygypsy.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 05:17 pm (UTC)(link)
I can relate, I borked something this weekend bowling, yes bowling and experienced a similar pain. So much so I called in yesterday. It was better today, till I put the Holiday Tree up in the office. Ow.

Hope you are better soon.

[identity profile] clevermanka.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 05:29 pm (UTC)(link)
...Bowling. Huh. I would say you deserved it, but I love you and would never say something so hurtful.

Seriously, though, I hope you recover soon. Don't pick up any more trees.

[identity profile] nottygypsy.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 05:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I DO deserve it, I don't bowl, I never bowl, I went to a friends birthday party and only bowled to humor him. WHY didn't I just sit and drink?

[identity profile] clevermanka.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 05:37 pm (UTC)(link)
This sort of thing is why I don't go to your karoke parties. I recognize the danger to myself and others, should I attend. And I'm afraid all the booze in the world couldn't keep me from damaging something after one or two songs.

[identity profile] kalimeg.livejournal.com 2011-12-14 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
Mine are numb and hurt, but you are too young for this crap!

[identity profile] clevermanka.livejournal.com 2011-12-14 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
If only that were true.

[identity profile] shanmonster.livejournal.com 2011-12-18 04:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Argh. I'm so sorry to hear this.

I had that issue a year ago where I couldn't do a basic frigging hip slide because of some crazy imbalance in my body triggered by picking a half dozen eggs out of the fridge, of all things. I'm making excellent progress in PT, thank goodness, and sousing out the source of the issue, and haven't had that particular pain in months. I hope you can get yours straightened out, too.

[identity profile] clevermanka.livejournal.com 2011-12-19 01:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Hurray for good PT! And thank you. I'm frustrated with this no dancing business.