March Progress Report

What’s Going On?

You know things are going relatively well when I almost forget to update for the month. 🙂

Things have improved quite a bit over the past month (knock on wood!).  The disc pain is still basically gone; whenever I have a tweak, I reach back and press on my spine “just to make sure” and I’ve yet to feel any of the blue core pain that that used to produce.  So, yay!

The SI joint pain is also much reduced.  It seems to be directly related to movement or, more accurately, the lack thereof.  The worst SI pain I’ve had in the last month came following two days of relative inactivity.  I’ve been wearing a pedometer and it looks like I can stave off the SI joint pain if I walk more than 5000 or 6000 steps every day.  If I dip below that, especially for two days in a row, the SI joint pain returns like clockwork.

The muscle pain is also better, though I’d say it’s still at least a 5 on a scale of “no pain” to “excruciating”. Some days are better than others and I haven’t been able to find a pattern yet.  On a positive note, I’m waking up far less stiff/sore than I was last month, so the trajectory is good.   Last month, I said, “I’m managing  this with ibuprofen, Sombra gel, heatpacks, the Theracane, and weekly massage therapy.” and this month, I’m down to just the weekly massage therapy and some intermittent Sombra and Theracane.

Exercise.

• Daily stretching and light PT-style exercises.
• Inversion table probably 3x/week on average.
• I’m using the foam roller and its ilk at least 3x/week.
• Still weekly training with Melinda.  No flare-ups after working out anymore!
• I’m back on the elliptical whenever I need help getting above 6000 steps/day.  I generally do a C25K workout, which is about 2000 steps in 30 minutes.

Motorcycling.

• I’ve only ridden once in the last month, but that’s been due to rain instead of injury. *shakes fist at sky*  That ride went really well though — 50 miles! I had quite a bit of pain that night (SI, muscle, tingling), which was frustrating, but was A-OK the next day and thereafter.  My pain journal notes that I was very stiff/sore even before doing the ride, so I don’t think that night’s pain was just from the motorcycle.

Skating.