The Saga of the Herniated Disc

The biggest irony being in the ‘massage business’ that body workers of all disciplines never ‘walk the talk’. We can give home advice to our clients until we’re blue in the face but, get any of us in a room and it’ll be a battle of the injuries – who’s got the longest list. Jane and I between us could keep many a body worker happy for years. So the latest to be added to the list of war wounds was an operation for a herniated disc.
So what is a herniated or slipped disc? Well most of you reading this will know that a herniated disc is when the pulpous found inside a vertebral disc is ‘pushed’ out through a tear in the disc’s annulus.
In around 90% the soft pulpy nucleus of the disc is gradually reabsorbed into the disc, easing pain on associated neural structures (the sciatic nerve being the main one) and a conservative approach to treatment can be made eg, unilateral or bilateral tractioning.For the other 10%, the pulpous does not reabsorb and they could being to experience loss of sensation and/or mobility, in their lower limb/s and feet. In this instance surgery is the only option. To my shock and horror I had fallen into the latter category.
I was under the firm belief that with a herniated disc, you felt a sudden sharp pain, usually when in an unsupported forward flexion position, ie lifting and twisting whilst holding something heavy. However, my sudden sharp pain happened when walking and not even briskly! No strain involved there, so I came to the conclusion that I already had a tear in the disc wall (the annulus) which had recently been disturbed by Trigger Point and Osteopathy work which I had undertaken to correct a long standing muscular problem. I was further back than square one.
The herniation was confirmed on the Thursday afternoon and I was in the clinic for the op the following morning. No waiting lists to be had in Casablanca! At least I didn’t have time to worry about it. The op went really well. On the Saturday the surgeon got me up and walking, Sunday I went home. I was amazed. I’ve been going from strength to strength ever since and have recently started my physio to re-educate the back, abs and foot. But that’s another story……

Zoë

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Downtime

When did you last have some quality downtime? Many people move into therapies because they want to get away from office work and yet once you start to get busy and build a client base, or decide to set up a company!, then you find yourself busy as ever. Of course, it is GOOD busy, but it's still busy.

I am today enjoying a creative long weekend, painting, sticking bits of paper onto other bits of paper, threading beads, and sorting through all the wonderful 'junk' things I find on my walks. I got out all of my creative things and just fiddled about....for about 2 days. It felt great. Last night I painted some pictures using bright pink paint, today I made a collage. It's taken me a while to wind down and let myself do stuff that stimulates me creatively rather than do stuff that I think will make me money. Though of course one wishes for the ability to do stuff creatively THAT makes money!

I went to a car boot sale and succumbed to some very cheap (£2) but absolutely adorable wooden kids playing bricks in primary colours, cubes, rectangles, pyramids and cylinders sitting in their own wooden box. I have a cupboard full of them. I can't help myself. There's something so beautiful about their simplicity. I have a huge box of plain wooden ones, slightly smaller, but wonderfully 'used' if you know what I mean, worn slightly smooth by little hands. I have an absolute passion for these 'simple' wooden toys. There's something so nostalgic about them. Perhaps when I am in my 70s I'll have cupboards heaving with them still? Sometimes I get them out and stack them myself. They cannot be broke, cannot be scratched, and need imagination to make them 'work'. Some days need to be wooden brick days. And I bet a lot of people out there collect weirder things than wooden bricks.

Jane
To find out what we do in the class room or sign-up to the Newsletter visit : www.thelondonmassagecompany.com or email us:
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We've been away....

.......but now we're back! Other things took over for the first half of 2008, but rather than keeping the blog empty, the mid-year resolution is to turn those "things that take over" into experiences to share and learn from. So to see what we're up to out side of the class room keep on reading.

To find out what we do in the class room or sign-up to the Newsletter visit : www.thelondonmassagecompany.com or email us:
ask@thelondonmassagecompany.com