Saw the orthopedist today. Turns out I’ve got compressed neck vertebrae and now need to see a therapist who will pull my neck giraffe-style twice a week.
I had a cervical disc flare up years ago. My PT did treatment consisting of massage, heat, then traction. I loved the traction so much! It felt heavenly. I asked each time for increased pull. Eventually we reached a point that he considered potentially dangerous, but I still asked for it to be increased.
As with so much in life, often things feel the best just before something breaks catastrophically. “Feel” is a real crappy way to decide how much is too much.
I have joint pain in my right knee. Not sure what to do about that.
I’ve had surgery/injuries to one foot, both ankles, one knee. For the past decade or so, every time I get up out of a chair, I’m not sure what joint - if any - will hurt too badly.
I have a kinda crazy tolerance for pain, so I’ve ignored injuries in the past that ought to have been treated. My main concern w/ pain now is to ensure that I’m not making it worse by whatever I’m doing. I’m fortunate that most of my pain conditions are just routine degeneration - osteoarthritis. And the main prescription for that is generally to be as active as possible. So, as long as I know I can tolerate the worst pain, I just ignore it. I try to avoid meds, mainly to avoind the possibility of longterm liver probs - and out of fear of what I’m gonna do when the pain REALLY gets bad.
For the past few months, I’ve been experiencing groin pain. Had a hard time getting my leg over my bike seat. I thought it was a groin pull, but stretching did nothing. Went skiing and could barely walk. Turns out it is left hip arthritis. The pain is very variable, and often refers down to the knee or ankle. So I just started a course of PT. Hopefully the exercises will help, because I golfed for the first time of the year yesterday, and it really interfered with transferring my weight to my left side on the downswing. Pretty sure that was our last ski trip, tho.
My kid came to visit and brought some topical NSAID. No effect.