Ow. Poor me.

[catsidhe]

I went to a physiotherapist last week. She said that I had an impressively stiff back along its entire length, and that my lumbar curve was (is) non-existent, causing stress on the thoracic and cervical regions, explaining both my back pain and headaches over the last few years. She felt around in my back muscles with her thumb up to the second knuckle for a while while I used a large amount of bio-feedback to avoid spasming at the pain and undoing her work. I booked an appointment for last night, 18:15.

I left work at 17:30 for the 14km drive to my appointment in Elsternwick.

The physio's secretary called at 18:30, asking if I had forgotten the appointment. "No," I forced through gritted teeth, 'I haven't forgotten," and looked at the traffic around me in South Melbourne. I made a new appointment for 18:45 on Friday.

I arrived home at 18:45, unpleased.

I am still unpleased. Mim asks me, often, why I don't leave work earlier. This is why: it makes too little a difference to my arrival time at home to be worth it. Why should I spend another hour in traffic, for the benefit of arriving home ten minutes after the girls go to bed, rather than half an hour after, but only half an hour on the road?

In the meantime, though, I am still in pain, which never goes away. And now I have to wait another three days before I can get more help for it. Fuck.

Comments

[sjl.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the joy of Melbournian gridlock.

There's a very good reason why I dislike taking the car to work, especially if I'm running late. If I leave around 7:15am, I get in around 8am. 7:30? Get in around 8:30. 8am? Forget anything earlier than about 9:30 (probably an exaggeration, but not by much.)

In comparison, if I take the bike, it takes me just 45 minutes, regardless of when I leave. The only reason I didn't take the bike today was a flat tyre, and me not having time to find the tools to change it (sigh.)

Good luck with the physio. Ask her for stretches you can do; they should help.

[catsidhe.livejournal.com]

She did give me stretches. I really hope that they will work in the long term, cause one of them bloody kills in the short term. That is the one which is supposed to return my spinal shape from the iron pillar it is to the gentle S-curve it should be.

[sjl.livejournal.com]

Make a point of doing that particular one in front of her, without asking her to show it to you again, next time you go in. If it hurts that much, you want to be damn sure you're doing it right.

Good luck, and best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[sjl.livejournal.com]

s/show it to you again/show it to you again before you show her/

ie: show her what you're doing, and get her feedback on that. (Joy of ambiguity ...)

Again, good luck.

[catsidhe.livejournal.com]

It's years' worth of accumulated damage, so recovery will, methinks, be slow and painful.

But thank you.