Sunday, August 01, 2010

Oh What a Pain in the Butt!!

I have chronic back pain due to the 28 years I worked as a CNA. I usually just live with it.

Last Thursday I had a back ache which progressively got worse by Monday. That's when the leg started to ache. Each day it was a bit worse. I called my doctor on Thursday and got something to help relax the muscles. It didn't work. My knitting guild had a bus trip to WEBS this Saturday which I was really looking forward to going on. I had to give in and cancel my seat on Thursday.

I can walk about a couple minutes before the pain starts to radiate down my leg. As of right now, it's from the back, across the butt, and down the leg to the calf. I decided to go to the walk in treatment center today. The doctor took x-rays and thankfully, I don't have any discs out of place or anything. It looks like the arthritis is pressing on the nerves. He said I have sciatica, which I knew already. It was also good news to learn I don't have a blood clot or anything. I just wanted someone to give me some advice or meds to help relieve the pain a bit. He gave me a different med to take, ordered ice and heat packs intermittently twice a day, and told me to come back in 10 days if it's not better.

Well, needless to say, there has been no spinning all week since Monday. So instead, I have been knitting. I started my "Rosebud" socks and had to frog them because I was making them too big on the size 1 needles. The pattern called for size 0 but I thought it might be too tight for my foot. When I started them over, I promptly broke my needles. New ones are on their way here as of tomorrow thanks to great customer service from Knit Picks.

The medication makes lace knitting with lace weight yarn too hard to focus on so I started "Legolas" finally. It's still lace but knit with DK weight yarn. I'm on chart 2 and all I can say is that the meds make it interesting to figure out this pattern.

Hopefully, I will be able to start spinning again soon, but, in the meantime the knitting is getting some loving attention.

4 comments:

Sandispins said...

Hope the new meds are working for you. Remember to walk in between your resting to help keep the muscles working and stretched. It takes time to get this under control but you can do it!

Donna said...

Oh that sciatica is a killer! There just doesn't seem to be any instant cure for it. Just keep following drs. orders and hopefully you will be on the mend soon! And don't worry - WEBS can wait for another day!

Kristen said...

What a shame you missed Webs! Hope you are all better soon.

Anonymous said...

Debbie - so sorry you missed the WEBS trip, but the bumpy bus would have been a killer. Hope to see you at Ginny's next week.
Sherill