Life With My Pet Back

It is very important when you are considering any treatments for your back pain/sciatica etc and especially the more invasive treatments and surgery to ask questions so you really understand what the treatment will do for you. Here is a list of questions you may want to ask about general treatments. Are there waiting lists for the treatment options? If so how long? How many sessions of treatment will I need? What do you hope to achieve with these sessions...how will I know they are helping me? Can you explain to me exactly which muscles/nerves etc are involved and how they affect me? What exactly is the medication you are prescribing and what are the side effects of the medication you are prescribing? Will the medication and any herbal remedies I am using affect each other? (Take in a list ...

NOTE ON RECORDING PAIN . One of the issues with back pain and sciatica is that it can often be a hidden condition, you might look fine but you are in pain. No one can see it and it can be difficult to understand as the way we feel pain and interpret it can be different and very real for each person. Pain can be very subjective and difficult to describe accurately. Yet often you may need to be clear about your level and type of pain. In order to facilitate understanding you can try describing your pain levels on a scale of 0-10. It is especially helpful when talking with professionals as you both then are talking from the same scale and can see how you are progressing. If you want to you can keep a "Pain diary" or a "Pain free diary" or worksheet to record your progress. This is especially useful if you are following a course of treatment and want to see how it is working for you.  You can make your own scale up, or look around to see what o...

A friend of mine is going for an MRI scan soon and we were talking about what it is like and how to be more relaxed and comfortable with the process. So here are just a few tips if you are going for a MRI scan. You will need to complete a form before you go in about any medical conditions so its worth getting there a little early to allow a few minutes for that. Do check with them before you have it but i hear that if you wear joggers and a T shirt , or clothing with no metal eg zips and if you are female wear a sports bra(again as you can get ones with no clips), you wont need to change. If you don't wear these type of clothes and you are having a body scan you may be asked to wear one of their oh so flattering gowns , those flappy ones with ties at the back! I wish i had known about wearing joggers etc before i had mine! While in the scanner, do try to relax as much as possible. Its individual but i found it best to close my eyes and try to think myself on a love...

My personal view of the "Lose the back pain system" . I have mentioned the Lose the back pain System several times now on this blog and thought i should explain more about it. I tried many other treatments which did not work for me, or just helped temporarily. After a LOT of searching around and spending more money on treatments that did not work than i care to remember, this is the main thing which helped me and i would like to share what it is about with you. The "Lose the Back Pain System" was developed by massage therapist, Steven Hefferon and fitness trainer, Jesse Cannone together, with help from doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists and other healthcare professionals. What do you get? An online or physical version... DVD 1 is very educational detailing information about muscle imbalances and covers the assessments. The self assessments are a key aspect to the program because you identify what muscle imbalances yo...

Are you tired of being tired? Here are twelve top sleep tips for you to try. It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep can do. You feel refreshed, invigorated and ready to face the challenges of the day. Well for many of us with experience of a bad back, pinched sciatic nerve symptoms, backache and the anxiety and stress caused by back pain, that feeling is just a distant dream…. Why is sleep so important? You know if you don’t get a good nights sleep how you feel but what is it doing to your body? It is said that most people need around 8 hours of sleep each might, some need more and some can do with less, if you have back pain or sciatica symptoms you may well be trying to cope on a lot less than 8 hours. The fact is we have to sleep in order for our minds and bodies to repair and function properly and it is detrimental to us to lose too much sleep too often. Sleep deprivation in addition to making you feel tired and quite possibly irritable and depressed, may also lead to a weake...

Here are some hot tips on travelling with back issues . I hope you find them useful. We all need a break, and if you have back pain, pinched sciatic nerve symptoms, backache and stress you probably need one more than most. Holidays are great, a time to relax, be with the family, play with the kids, explore, romance your loved one…or are they? If you have back problems you may be thinking it is easier to stay at home. For many of us with back pain and sciatica symptoms just the very thought of a long journey, a strange bed, a lot of sitting, standing and travelling just doesn’t seem worth it. Part of my back pain story is that with the onset of a ruptured disc and back pain I gave up holidays, and so did my family. That was just a miserable time for us all. Then I thought there must be a way. Whether it is a short trip or a long haul flight here are some tried and tested travel tips. 1. Before you travel with your bad back. First it is important you...

HI , I'm just back from a trip away and it was lovely to have a nice break. I really appreciate my travels now as i could not travel at all for about a year when i had severe back pain and sciatica symptoms. Well that is a bit of an understatement...for me travelling or going on holiday was a very distant dream ,for a long time i couldn't cope with more than a 30 minute car journey from my home! More on back pain ,sciatica and travelling on my website www.mypetback.com but a few tips to share with you now i hope you find useful. We all need a break, and if you have back pain, pinched sciatic nerve symptoms, backache and stress you probably need one more than most. Holidays are great, a time to relax, be with the family, play with the kids, explore, romance your loved one…or are they? If you have back problems you may be thinking it is easier to stay at home. For many of us with back pain and sciatica symptoms just the very thought of a long journey, a...