I'm recovering from a lower back injury, it's now the last day of 2013 and the injury really flared up on May 5th, so it's been a while getting right.
The start of 2013 had been very stressful. Sarah's UK visa was denied, so she had to leave the country within a week, back home to the US. We had to apply for a new visa in the States, which introduced the uncertainty that we might not be able to remain living in Edinburgh. That situation took about 8 weeks to get the new visa approved. In the mean time, I travelled to San Francisco and Reno to spend a week with Sarah and her family and friends. After Sarah's visa was approved, she travelled back to Edinburgh and then we took a trip to Australia for 10 days, to introduce Sarah to some of my family and friends and for my 40th birthday party. We had 24 hours travelling to Australia and 34 travelling back, which included a 9 hour layover in Dubai.
I mention the travel and stress because I'm sure they contributed to the occurrence of the injury. In that travel time I had been practicing a lot less, I find it hard to travel and have long practices. I had also been sitting a long time in aeroplanes, in cars etc, so I think my back was tired and a bit weaker than normal and I was generally tired and run down...it was my first practice back after all that travel, I probably shouldn't have been trying Kurmasana or Supta Kurmasana.
In the next few weeks after the injury, I kept practicing, but I had a consistent, dull, sometimes sharper, pain around the lower right side of my spine. It felt like something was out of place and if I just stretched the right way, it would work itself out, but that didn't happen.
Sarah arranged a Thai massage for me, trying to work the injury out in a different way. The massage was good and I got a different opinion on my injury. The masseuse said that my pelvis was tilted unusually forward and down to the left, meaning I was out of alignment in my hips and up into my spine. I'm not sure that this was an existing misalignment, or as a result of the injury. Since the injury I definitely had an accentuated limp. My left hip has always been a lot less flexible and seemingly less strong than my right, maybe the alignment of my hips is related to that imbalance. My left leg doesn't feel as comfortable in lotus and my left leg doesn't get up over my left shoulder as easily as my right one does. This might go back to my days playing basketball and Australian rules football, where I was jumping off my left a lot. I'm righthanded...anyway, an analysis of that imbalance probably belongs in a different post.
After the massage I eased off a lot on practicing. Even though I warmed up in the practice and was attempting 80% of the asanas that I usually would, during the day I would get a fair bit of pain, as I sat in a chair at work. The rest from the practice was challenging. By this time I had been practicing Ashtanga regularly, between 4 and 6 days per week for around 10 years. I didn't feel good about taking even small breaks from practice. That attitude to the practice had softened, but I still didn't like taking the time off. Leading up to this time I had been feeling really good in my practice, really strong and good in my body, breathing well and feeling good in some of the challenging asanas.
I started taking Nurofen for the pain, which provided some small, temporary relief.
We went for a short holiday at Eco Yoga in Scotland, lots of resting, saunas, spas, hot/ cold water and some asana practice, good food and time with some good friends. It was just what I needed and my back felt a lot lot better. Around the same time I got booked in to see a physiotherapist in Edinburgh and went along to my first appointment the Monday we got back from the weekend away.
The physiotherapist worked out the imbalance that I had and worked out that there were some muscles that had seized up with the pain that I was feeling. The treatment that I received was very hands on massage - work on the muscles that had become seized up. This seemed a good approach, but, after the massage, there was some adjusting that really aggravated the injury, resulting in a lot more pain. Looking back, the injury that I have is nerve based, originating around L3/L4 in my lower back. From the nerve origin, the muscles that are attached to that nerve root are affected, so, originating in the right lower back and radiating through the right buttocks, hips, thighs, hamstrings and lower leg. With the physio work, the pain would move around, but, within a few hours of the treatment I would usually be in excruciating pain.
At work I was really struggling with the pain, being unable to sit comfortably in a chair was a real challenge. I was miserable. Around the end of May, an opportunity came up to go for a job in Aberdeen, about 140 miles up the road from Edinburgh.
I went along to a GP at the local NHS medical clinic in Edinburgh. Basically, the Doctor tested my reflexes and strength in my right leg, made sure I could still go the toilet and sent me off for an xray. She told me to keep doing what I was doing (physio and pain killers) and get an xray, to see if there was any major bone damage. So, the NHS view - as long as you can still function, albeit with a heap of pain, you're ok.
I was offered the job and Sarah and I decided to make the move to Aberdeen. This added more stress into the equation. I gave Heineken 6 weeks notice to finish my job there. As that time went by, I kept up the physio appointments, thinking that the treatment was the way I was going to get my back better. In fact, it just kept the pain constant, definitely not a good thing. I was not practicing asana at all, just sitting each morning, slowly stretching out my hips in seated positions.
I was in so much pain that I broke down crying 4 or 5 times, with the pain and the stress.
The time was drawing near when I was to start the new job in Aberdeen. I was still in a lot of pain, so contacted my new employer and asked them if I could start a week later. I used that extra week to lay on my back and get Acupuncture. The Acupuncture helped a bit, but lying on my back for a week didn't ease the pain at all. I had to suck it up and make the drive up to Aberdeen, in a whole world of pain.
I started the job and the same week got a recommendation about a Chiropractor in Aberdeen. I didn't know much about Chiropracty, but was skeptical because I thought it was about big adjustments on the spine. The treatment I received was gentle, with blocks make subtle alignment adjustments to my spine and muscles, slight massage and the use of a mechanical activator around the spinal facet joints. The Chiro made an instant difference to the level of pain. I started going 1-2 times/ week because I felt so much better after a session. The pain returned after a day or so, but I felt I was finally moving in the right direction.
Finding rental accommodation in Aberdeen is crazy. The real estate market is so tight, meaning prices are high and properties are on and off the market very quickly. Sarah was finishing up teaching in Edinburgh, so I was solo up in Aberdeen for the first 6 weeks or so. After calling up realtors for around 40 properties and viewing about 10, I finally found a small house, close to work.
No one could give me a definitive diagnosis. That was one part of the process that I found it hard to take. I was in constant pain, sometimes extreme, but no one could definitely tell me what was wrong or a reasonable time frame. The Chiropractor said that even with MRI scans, what showed up on the scan might not correlate with the pain that I was experiencing. Studies have shown that the occurrence of pain isn't necessarily strongly correlated with what shows on a scan in terms of disc damage and nerves. The physiology of that part of the body is very complex and hard to get a definitive read on.
Nonetheless, I arranged a MRI scan, the results showing a bulging disc at L3/L4, which was consistent with the pain that I was experiencing. The radiologist who read my scans said that the damage didn't indicate surgery, but physiotherapy.
There was no way I was going back to physio (or at least that physio). So, I continued with weekly Chiro and started doing some very modified Surya Namaskaras. Forward bends were (and are still) awkward and painful. Back bends are where I get most relief, very shallow back bends.
The position that provided the most relief was to lie on my front on the floor and look up to the horizon, staying there for 5 minutes or more at a time. I did this up to 10 times per day.
The pain started to diminish and I stopped taking pain killers.
I started doing more Surya Namaskaras and incorporated some of the reading I'd done into my yoga practice. The best books I found were Treat Your Own Back, The BMA Guide to Back Care and Foundation - Redefine Your Core, Conquer Back Pain, And Move With Confidence.
Slowly the pain receded and I could move further in my yoga practice.
Overall, support from Sarah and some advice from yoga teachers that I carried with me, helped me along the way.
This week I was back in the Mysore room that Sarah has started at Love Yoga in Aberdeen. The standing sequence is tough at the moment. My hip and thigh muscles in my right leg have wasted and lost a lot of strength, so there's plenty of work in that part of the practice right now.
I was determined to write this post because I didn't see much yoga related info out there on this topic...and, for my own memory, how I came to be in this position and worked back from it.
The start of 2013 had been very stressful. Sarah's UK visa was denied, so she had to leave the country within a week, back home to the US. We had to apply for a new visa in the States, which introduced the uncertainty that we might not be able to remain living in Edinburgh. That situation took about 8 weeks to get the new visa approved. In the mean time, I travelled to San Francisco and Reno to spend a week with Sarah and her family and friends. After Sarah's visa was approved, she travelled back to Edinburgh and then we took a trip to Australia for 10 days, to introduce Sarah to some of my family and friends and for my 40th birthday party. We had 24 hours travelling to Australia and 34 travelling back, which included a 9 hour layover in Dubai.
I mention the travel and stress because I'm sure they contributed to the occurrence of the injury. In that travel time I had been practicing a lot less, I find it hard to travel and have long practices. I had also been sitting a long time in aeroplanes, in cars etc, so I think my back was tired and a bit weaker than normal and I was generally tired and run down...it was my first practice back after all that travel, I probably shouldn't have been trying Kurmasana or Supta Kurmasana.
In the next few weeks after the injury, I kept practicing, but I had a consistent, dull, sometimes sharper, pain around the lower right side of my spine. It felt like something was out of place and if I just stretched the right way, it would work itself out, but that didn't happen.
Sarah arranged a Thai massage for me, trying to work the injury out in a different way. The massage was good and I got a different opinion on my injury. The masseuse said that my pelvis was tilted unusually forward and down to the left, meaning I was out of alignment in my hips and up into my spine. I'm not sure that this was an existing misalignment, or as a result of the injury. Since the injury I definitely had an accentuated limp. My left hip has always been a lot less flexible and seemingly less strong than my right, maybe the alignment of my hips is related to that imbalance. My left leg doesn't feel as comfortable in lotus and my left leg doesn't get up over my left shoulder as easily as my right one does. This might go back to my days playing basketball and Australian rules football, where I was jumping off my left a lot. I'm righthanded...anyway, an analysis of that imbalance probably belongs in a different post.
After the massage I eased off a lot on practicing. Even though I warmed up in the practice and was attempting 80% of the asanas that I usually would, during the day I would get a fair bit of pain, as I sat in a chair at work. The rest from the practice was challenging. By this time I had been practicing Ashtanga regularly, between 4 and 6 days per week for around 10 years. I didn't feel good about taking even small breaks from practice. That attitude to the practice had softened, but I still didn't like taking the time off. Leading up to this time I had been feeling really good in my practice, really strong and good in my body, breathing well and feeling good in some of the challenging asanas.
I started taking Nurofen for the pain, which provided some small, temporary relief.
We went for a short holiday at Eco Yoga in Scotland, lots of resting, saunas, spas, hot/ cold water and some asana practice, good food and time with some good friends. It was just what I needed and my back felt a lot lot better. Around the same time I got booked in to see a physiotherapist in Edinburgh and went along to my first appointment the Monday we got back from the weekend away.
The physiotherapist worked out the imbalance that I had and worked out that there were some muscles that had seized up with the pain that I was feeling. The treatment that I received was very hands on massage - work on the muscles that had become seized up. This seemed a good approach, but, after the massage, there was some adjusting that really aggravated the injury, resulting in a lot more pain. Looking back, the injury that I have is nerve based, originating around L3/L4 in my lower back. From the nerve origin, the muscles that are attached to that nerve root are affected, so, originating in the right lower back and radiating through the right buttocks, hips, thighs, hamstrings and lower leg. With the physio work, the pain would move around, but, within a few hours of the treatment I would usually be in excruciating pain.
At work I was really struggling with the pain, being unable to sit comfortably in a chair was a real challenge. I was miserable. Around the end of May, an opportunity came up to go for a job in Aberdeen, about 140 miles up the road from Edinburgh.
I went along to a GP at the local NHS medical clinic in Edinburgh. Basically, the Doctor tested my reflexes and strength in my right leg, made sure I could still go the toilet and sent me off for an xray. She told me to keep doing what I was doing (physio and pain killers) and get an xray, to see if there was any major bone damage. So, the NHS view - as long as you can still function, albeit with a heap of pain, you're ok.
I was offered the job and Sarah and I decided to make the move to Aberdeen. This added more stress into the equation. I gave Heineken 6 weeks notice to finish my job there. As that time went by, I kept up the physio appointments, thinking that the treatment was the way I was going to get my back better. In fact, it just kept the pain constant, definitely not a good thing. I was not practicing asana at all, just sitting each morning, slowly stretching out my hips in seated positions.
I was in so much pain that I broke down crying 4 or 5 times, with the pain and the stress.
The time was drawing near when I was to start the new job in Aberdeen. I was still in a lot of pain, so contacted my new employer and asked them if I could start a week later. I used that extra week to lay on my back and get Acupuncture. The Acupuncture helped a bit, but lying on my back for a week didn't ease the pain at all. I had to suck it up and make the drive up to Aberdeen, in a whole world of pain.
I started the job and the same week got a recommendation about a Chiropractor in Aberdeen. I didn't know much about Chiropracty, but was skeptical because I thought it was about big adjustments on the spine. The treatment I received was gentle, with blocks make subtle alignment adjustments to my spine and muscles, slight massage and the use of a mechanical activator around the spinal facet joints. The Chiro made an instant difference to the level of pain. I started going 1-2 times/ week because I felt so much better after a session. The pain returned after a day or so, but I felt I was finally moving in the right direction.
Finding rental accommodation in Aberdeen is crazy. The real estate market is so tight, meaning prices are high and properties are on and off the market very quickly. Sarah was finishing up teaching in Edinburgh, so I was solo up in Aberdeen for the first 6 weeks or so. After calling up realtors for around 40 properties and viewing about 10, I finally found a small house, close to work.
No one could give me a definitive diagnosis. That was one part of the process that I found it hard to take. I was in constant pain, sometimes extreme, but no one could definitely tell me what was wrong or a reasonable time frame. The Chiropractor said that even with MRI scans, what showed up on the scan might not correlate with the pain that I was experiencing. Studies have shown that the occurrence of pain isn't necessarily strongly correlated with what shows on a scan in terms of disc damage and nerves. The physiology of that part of the body is very complex and hard to get a definitive read on.
Nonetheless, I arranged a MRI scan, the results showing a bulging disc at L3/L4, which was consistent with the pain that I was experiencing. The radiologist who read my scans said that the damage didn't indicate surgery, but physiotherapy.
There was no way I was going back to physio (or at least that physio). So, I continued with weekly Chiro and started doing some very modified Surya Namaskaras. Forward bends were (and are still) awkward and painful. Back bends are where I get most relief, very shallow back bends.
The position that provided the most relief was to lie on my front on the floor and look up to the horizon, staying there for 5 minutes or more at a time. I did this up to 10 times per day.
The pain started to diminish and I stopped taking pain killers.
I started doing more Surya Namaskaras and incorporated some of the reading I'd done into my yoga practice. The best books I found were Treat Your Own Back, The BMA Guide to Back Care and Foundation - Redefine Your Core, Conquer Back Pain, And Move With Confidence.
Slowly the pain receded and I could move further in my yoga practice.
Overall, support from Sarah and some advice from yoga teachers that I carried with me, helped me along the way.
This week I was back in the Mysore room that Sarah has started at Love Yoga in Aberdeen. The standing sequence is tough at the moment. My hip and thigh muscles in my right leg have wasted and lost a lot of strength, so there's plenty of work in that part of the practice right now.
I was determined to write this post because I didn't see much yoga related info out there on this topic...and, for my own memory, how I came to be in this position and worked back from it.
