Greetings fellow colleagues 🤗
Hello there fellow med-hivers 😊! It's time again to join the monthly prompt of one of my favourite communities - MED-Hive - and this post will be a bit different than the previous one. Why? Because @jaydr had the brilliant idea to make this month's topic about our health and lifestyle! Anyone can talk about this topic, regardless of being a health professionals or not, so please feel free to join in.
With that being said, today I'm mostly going to talk about my lifestyle, what got me to this point and what I need to change. There are so many things I could reflect and talk about from here, so many things in my lifestyle I could change for the better... (note to self - and yes, health care professionals also struggle with making healthy choices like everyone else 😆) .
However, in this post, I will focus on my most recurrent health problem and the one that most interferes with my quality of life. Alongside, I'll also reflect on the different aspects of my lifestyle that might induce it as well as the things I already do to avoid going into crisis.
Source
How it all started 😖
As I'm sure you already guessed what my problem is, I have a tendency for acute muscular torticollis... This means that from time to time, I wake up and my neck muscles decide to make a considerable contraction making me unable to move my neck nor stand up because of the acute pain.
I think it started at the beginning of this year or so, with me having a 5/6 crisis in a row from January until April... The first time it happened I got scared because I couldn't walk and even lying down in bed I was in acute pain. Crying my eyes out with pain.
During that first episode, I had to take medication with muscle relaxants for the first time in my life to relieve the pain... As a physiotherapist, I'm not all in favour of a passive solution, like only taking pills, and my first thought was to stretch it out and keep going. However, when you have such an acute contraction and inflammation of the muscles there's really not much to do than relieving the pain. Stretching it will make it worst in these types of acute situations.
We could say that my body was telling me, more accurately - yelling at me, to stop and rest and coincidentally, it was at the same time my depression was the worst. Or was it? Well, more on that later...
The fact is that from the beginning of this year I had to take more muscular relaxants than I ever intended to in my whole life... Taking this type of medication has side effects that I'm aware of and I'm doing the best I can to prevent it when I'm not having a crisis.
What are the causing factors 🙌
So far, I've done a lot of reflection on what it could be causing my recurrent crisis... Being a physiotherapist is not easy, it means long working hours and a lot of physical effort. My day has a lot of repetitive movements with my hands while standing up, therefore this means a lot of strain on my back, shoulders and arms. To add up, I have some slight scoliosis and I have a rectified back, which means I have little curvature in my upper back.
To give you a practical example, I can do four clinical pilates classes in a day followed by being in squatting positions doing sort of push-ups and pull-downs or holding kids and babies in my arms while doing exercises with them.
Picture from RobinKoertshuis on Pixabay
So every single day I arrive home physically drained. All I can think of is going to the couch and sitting the rest of the day and that's mostly what I do, to be honest... I like playing computer games to relax and I play a little bit after dinner with my boyfriend, mostly every day.
I recognize and said on multiple occasions now that too much sitting time may not be the healthier way to approach any type of muscular pain. And it is not... However, it is easier said than done 😆. Don't get me wrong here, I am a physically active person and also mostly every day I do a 15/20 minute routine of stretching after finishing my game time. Plus, I do a yoga class at least 1x/week, which helps me not only to calm down my stress but also to work my body to be flexible and strong 🤗.
Picture from Sasin Tipchai on Pixabay
Aside from the physical strain I'm under every day, my emotional state this year was also a big contributing factor. So many changes happened in my personal and professional life that at some point it was too much to handle... And I broke down. While my body was giving me all the signals that I needed to stop and take care of myself.
If you think of it, those 5/6 times I had a crisis I was unable to move without pain and even still I went to work mostly every day. Straining myself further without taking proper care of myself has pushed my body and mind to create painful ways to make me stop because I was just simply not listening.
But when I finally reached my bottom, truly bottom line, I was forced to listen.
Picture from AdelinaZw on Pixabay So now, I'm taking care of my depression and going emotionally steady, I'm keeping my yoga workout at least 1x/week, I started to manage my working schedule better and I go to a physiotherapist and osteopath friend once every couple of months to relieve my compensations from the repetitive movement and strain.
Implementing these strategies has worked wonderfully for me! My crisis and acute torticollis have been less frequent, less painful, functional less limiting and more quickly solved, sometimes without even recurring to muscular relaxants.
However, my last crisis just happened last Saturday 😣 and this time I had to go on medication to relieve the pain. It passed way faster than before and I only had to take medication for 2 days before feeling better. There was also one different aspect this time that made this crisis so different. I allowed myself to rest that weekend, left my chores undone and asked my boyfriend for help. I took a warm shower to relax my muscles, applied multiple warm bags on my neck and stayed still the whole day.
Source
Nevertheless, this new crisis means I still have some improvements to do to stop it altogether. I have to limit even further my gaming time and reinforce my stretching and strengthening routine since it has been a little forgotten since I returned from vacation. I've also been sleeping a little less and having a bit of trouble falling asleep... I sense something is troubling me but I'm not sure why just yet. So until then, I'll continue to work on figuring that out.
Final considerations 🙌
Dear reader, if you made it this far, thank you so much for your time 😊. I feel this post was a little different than my usual type of content but I hope you liked it nevertheless 😁.
Sharing such experiences of health problems might not be easy for everyone, but I know Med-Hive community would love to have more and more hivers sharing their health experiences and knowledge, so we can all learn from each other!
Now, I better go do some stretches after this long post as I'm already feeling the warning my body is giving me by the heaviness on my shoulders and discomfort on my neck 😆.
Care to join me, dear reader? 👉 A 20-minute Pilates Class | Targeting Shoulder&Upper back | Mobility&Posture workout 👈
Take care 🙌🙌
My previous health-related posts:
A guide for breathing | The importance of our diaphragm muscle
A 20-minute Pilates Class | Targeting Shoulder&Upper back | Mobility&Posture workout
MED-HIVE prompt week 2 | Non-Communicable Diseases | Physical Activity - Benefits & Recommendations
MED-HIVE July Prompt | The role of physical activity on sleep health
Hey there @blackdaisyft
I was so much looking for your posts here in med hive :))
Who else could give us such great reflections about health and for example neck pain than you :))
As @jaydr said in his post, doctors do not always live a healthy lifestyle... I see that a physiotherapist can have neck pain too... and touching on the emotional factors too. I hope you get better with this last crisis and it passes quickly. Let your boyfriend do all the chores :D
I m with the boyfriends doing the chores as long as it doesn't involve cooking.. hehe ☺️
Ahahaha 😂😂😂😂 he does cook and very tasty meals btw 😆 but don't feel bad, he actually likes to cook 🤤
Well I cook too
Only for me so no one gets to judge hehe
really?
seems you are not really a fan of that activity hahaha
I know, it is mainly that girls take the lead in the kitchen, but it should not be just like that 😇
I do make food.. hehe.
But sometime when I have someone around, I ll be shy to.. hehe. I prefer relinquishing the role or we just get food outside.
It's not gender based everyone is involved..
Hehehe I always love your visit in my med-hive posts!! 😁😁😁 glad to see that you continue to like them 🙏🙏
And yes, we can have neck pain and any kind of pain derivative from repetitive movements and weird postures during the day 😅😅 The last crisis has fully passed now, thankfully 🙏🙏 now I have to work harder in preventing them 😊
Thank you so much for stopping by, I really appreciate it ❤️😍
For sure @blackdaisyft that I like them :)
I am glad that the last crisis fully passed now, and prevention is the key, indeed.
Hope we all can listen to you and learn 😇
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Here is a beautiful post
Neck pain can be really painful
I often get it atimes from abnormal posturing when I sleep with a pillow. While younger my sister taught me to just turn my neck the other way and sleep off to correct it. Shocking how that works till date hehe..
Thanks so much for this beautiful post.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read it! 🙏 maybe changing your pillow into an orthopaedic one would also be a good solution, so you can sleep at peace hihi
I mostly just do without a pillow .. if it becomes an issue
Is that okay?
If it works for you that's fine 😊😊
hola @blackdaisyft espero que te mejores muy pronto .. un saludo desde Venezuela v i que no mencionastes que tomabas cloruro de magnesio o que te has inyectado complejo B o Miovit ampollas eso es vital en tu caso, por favor no te descuides con eso.. que Dios te ayude y te guie en tu dia a dia .. te deseo lo mejor, bendiciones
Helo there @miangel100pre 😊 Thank you so much for your suggestions, I'll do some research about it 🤗 Even though, I did some blood analysis recently and my vitamins were all in normal levels so I'm not sure how taking more could help my case... Do you have any article or study that I could read about the subject?
Thank you again for stopping by and taking the time 🙏
Hello @blackdaisyft, it's been a while and I guess it's due to the stress like you have said. I really do hope it goes away completely because it's really painful most times.
When I saw the title of your post I was quickly drawn to read what you have to say about it. Since about five years ago, my dad's complain of having neck and body pain has increased to something he cries about every day and I came to see if there was a way to stop it permanently but I guess the best way out is by resting a lot.
Just like you, my dad is always busy going to work no matter the pain he is feeling. He has taken so many drugs and now I'm just so scared for him because he is one that doesn't listen to people easily and it's quite alarming.
I really hope there is a way I could get him to listen to the advice I give to him so he can get better.
Hello @hopestylist 🤗 it's been a while yes and I it's a pleasure to see you here again! I really appreciate it 🙏
I'm sorry to hear that your dad also suffers from neck pain... It can be quite limiting in our daily activities.
Regarding this, it really depends from person to person. Resting can be the best solution when there's an acute crisis of pain. However, I really advocate for being physically active in the periods of time your dad doesn't have any pain. Pilates and yoga is quite good exercises for working our posture and stretching those areas that are tight. Alongside, consulting a physiotherapist and/or his doctor would also be recommended. Sometimes, medication is needed to relieve the pain but that's something that won't work forever and in the long term. In my opinion, one needs to do a deep dive in finding out what's causing the symptoms in the first place and then take action towards changing those lifestyle habits that don't help us.
Sadly, there's really no golden or magical pill that stops it altogether. It takes commitment and responsibility for one's health 😊
Thank you so much for taking the time to read. I hope it helps a little bit in giving advice for your father!
All the best ♥️♥️ and much !LUV
Thank you so much for your concern and advise, I will relate it to my dad, I hope he takes it seriously because he is a really strong hearted person, hehe.
All the best to you too Daisy ❤️. !LADY
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Yeah it's good to share our health challenges as well, someone might be going through the same thing.
Thanks for sharing.