You are my walking hero! I can't believe you can walk with that cramp/spasm. And saving butterflies? Beyond the call of duty.

Go TEAM!

awe shucks!

the butterfly helped me too, took my mind off myself, which is always a good thing.

today walking was much easier! the back spasms are gone, i got off easy this time, just 3 days of spasms. now all that is left is that sore inflamed spot right over the SI joint.

lots of ice, including sleeping on ice packs is getting it back to good. today the only time it really hurt was when i first woke up, the entire pelvis was stiff and sore, think that's just the body trying to heal it up. that always happens when my body is healing tendons or ligaments. just a little sore after the walk, but really its coming along pretty good.

wish the upper back were so easy, but every time i sit or lay, it gets irritated. they say to rest inflamed soft tissue, easier said than done sometimes, but again ice and topical nsaids are helping. compared to last year, i'm getting off easy.

oh yeh, almost forgot:

today: walked: 1.5 miles, 30 minutes. no butterfly rescues though! LOL!

Thursday: walk 4 miles (80 minutes)
Friday: walk 2 miles (40 minutes)
Saturday: yardwork 90 minutes
Sunday: yardwork 360 minutes! (worked my [*bleep*] off)
Monday: walk 4 miles (70 minutes) we're picking up the pace

I getting caught up with posts...I've been absent the last few days...

Sue, I'm curious about your SI joint pain. Do feel the pain in your bun either left or right? And does it pain the most going down a slope? Now it isn't too bad but I've had bad pains like this. I hate them the most because it makes walking so painful.

I never thought to look for topical nsaids. I used to take oral nsaids all of the time until my GI cut me off of them for the ulcertive colitis. I would think a topical would be ok. I get an upper back ache when I stop working and sit on the weekends. Then when I get back up and work it gets better. Is there a particular name brand you use?

But, I can't image sleeping on ice packs.

That sounds like a really good instructor who forms the class to your ability. I signed up for a yoga class at work...I was really concerned about being able to do anything...the class was full and I didn't get in...I actually wasn't disappointed. The only reason I signed up was because my friends were so supportive, convinced me, and they really thought it would be good for me. Just knowing that made me feel good.

Seal & Crofts... I saw them at the June 13, 1976 Mountain Air in Calaveras County, Angels Camp, CA. They played with Poco and Pure Prarie League. (The internet is great you can look this stuff up because I wouldn't remember the details otherwise.) Our friends spent the night at the gate and got our group THE front and center box seat in an audience of 10,000. That was a good time!

have you read aloha ben's musical musings? this all sounds right up his alley.

working backwards:

sleeping on ice. gotta do what ya gotta do. one ice pack isn't too bad, but now with one on the upper back and the other on the lower back/butt, woke after about an hour and a half and was awake for a full half hour before going back to sleep SO COLD! then remembered last year how i'd also fill up a hot water bottle and take that to bed. the hot and cold balance out and then i can sleep. i do the same sort of thing in the recliner, ice and a heating pad on different areas, it works.

topical nsaids.

the patch is called a flector patch. think its the only brand out there. don't think there is a generic.

the gel / creme is called KIP gel, for short. its a triple antibiotic creme made up by my local compounding pharmacist. it contains: 10% Ketoprofen, 10% Ibuprofen, 2% Piroxicam.

http://www.kickas.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=396050#Post396050

before my compounding pharmacist recommended this, i used voltaren gel, but that was way too mild, didn't do a thing for me, but the KIP gel is pretty powerful stuff.

as for the SI, yeh, when the docs talk about lower back pain, i tell them its really more of a pain in the butt. the lower back kicks in when its acutely bad, but the butt pain is pretty much a chronic thing. even when its pretty good, too much sitting will cause the butt to kick in. more right then left, but it does shift around. before i got the cortisone injections and then 6 months later switched to the flector patches, before that going up or down stairs wasn't so great, so i avoided them. now honestly with the flector patch over the SI, this is the first real issue i've had with the SI since i started wearing them in april, but my fear is that the 1/2 patch just isn't enough medicine, but i need the other 1/2 patch on my rhomboids for now.

Good job walking!

I thought about you yesterday while I was swimming with a cramp in my right rhomboid. I slowed down, changed position, and carried on.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Go TEAM!

I just gave my tubes of voltaren gel to my sister... sniff sniffle whine. I loved that stuff, and so does she. Sue, you use flector patches? Ahhhhh.... lucky duckies


Go TEAM!