Friday, 22 August 2008

When will I have a good day again....

I woke up this morning to my nose blocked, swollen sore neck glands, finger joints so sore I couldn't clentch my hands and my hip sore and catchy. Grrrr. I hate being sick - I have not had a cold of the flu since November last year! I only hope I don't get a roaring fever as that will set my hip right off.

My finger joints have not been co-operating at all, I have been keeping them warm etc but to no avail - it's just not nice! For my massage course I need to massage people and get the hours for my record book. I gave Craig a massage last night - I think the antiflamme rub helps my fingers a little but they throb afterwards and go really stiff. I wish it was arthritis as then I could take something for it. I just have to wait for summertime.....

My Massage Course is going good, however I have fallen way behind with assignments and am stressing a little. It is hard to concentrate with my head foggy from pain killers and just the overall tiredness from everything I have been through. I am trying to stay confident but finding it very hard to stay motivated at the moment. I am still in bed (12.46pm) and don't want to move as it hurts everywhere.

I had another physio appt yesterday. More cupping!! Which I actually love and it really works well on me. I first had them placed again on my lower back, 2 on my bum with one on the very tender piriformis muscle, one on the outside knee joint and one on my calf. I was so amazed at how quickly my knee joint had healed and it was hardly sore - whereas the last two times it was nearly too sore to massage. The cupping works great to separate the tight & toxic muscles and increases the bloodflow hugely to that area and just works so well. Then after the cups were on for around 15mins my physio got into more deep tissue work on my lower back, bum, hamstring and calf. My physio was actually able to do deep tissue massage on my calf which had not been previously possible. My hamstring is not sore at all which I am thankfull for, just a little tight. My lower back seams to be improving also which is good as it was so tight it was pretty much siezed.

Next I got to roll onto my right side (ouch as the bursa on that side it still not 100% happy from favoring that side so much) and my physio started working on my IT band and the muscles round my incision. She started on the bottom of the IT band near the knee however I couldn't tolerate the pressure so she decided to cup the muscles first to get the bloodflow into the area and try massage after. She put the first cup around 3cm up from the knee and she managed 2 suction pumps (the feeling of being cupped on very sore muscles is hard to explain - to not put you off it very much feels like the muscles are tearing as they are sucked into the cup. However this only lasts till the bloodflow gets going and it actually feels GOOD and RELAXING!) Then she moved about 5cm above that one - much closer to where the incision is. This one she only managed 1/2 Suction Pump as it was super, super sore/stuck etc. The cup managed to stay on through and did manage to increase the bloodflow to the area. It was quite cool this time as I could actually see the cups on and working. The cup near my knee looked like a mallowpuff - that's how much skin was sucked into the cup and was a deep purple colour with the increased bloodflow.

After around 10mins my physio took them off the tried again to rub along the IT band. What a huge difference! She was able to massage alone the band with much less pain! She was not going as deep as she had on my back but still it was a big improvement, I was so amazed and really think many people with tight IT bands could benefit from this. She moved over my thigh muscle next - I was expecting it to be very sore as it has wasted away a lot and I had a lot of trouble with it cramping badly after the op. However when she started it did not hurt at all!! Yay one muscle that was not sore! She got in quite deep and still no pain, wasn't untill she got to the outer edges of the muscle - round the IT band and my incision did I feel any pain.

My next appointment is Monday 4pm and am looking forward to it. The weather has turned today, we have had two beautiful sunny springlike days here but this morning it is overcast, quite windy and there are some very dark clouds down south! It looks like this weather is here for the weekend too.....9 days till Springtime!!! I hope the weather starts to really improve, I love spring & summer. We have lots of lovely spring flowers out in the garden at the moment and it's lovely!

3 comments:

Jess said...

Sorry to hear you're so sore! Hopefully we get some warmer weather soon, this yucky rainy, sleety, snowy business is getting a bit old!
Have you tried using a wheat bag on your hands? I have pretty crappy circulation in my hands and feet and find that helps in the cold :-) Do you take anything like omega 3 or glucosamine/chondroitin? They may help to reduce inflammation.
Try to keep your chin up, it sounds like you are still getting better despite these other set backs, so hopefully your good days will be soon and you can look back and say it was all worth it!
xxx

Alessea said...

I'm glad you have a good physio, one thing I missed out on was the hands on touch...my rehab was more exercised based only so no good massages for me!

As for your finger joints-do you think it could be chilblains? it sounds just like what happens to mine and I was told it was chilblains...jolly annonying at any rate and so far this year I have succeeded in avoiding them, just as well really as physio would be impossible with fingers that don't work.
Thanks for your wee message-I wonder if I will get to see you at all in my week off?

Alessea said...

oh and I hope you get rid of that cold!
We are avoiding Noroviris at the moment so I'm glad I'm going home to get away from all the bugs...