My achy breaky back!

OK. I stole that from Hannah Montana. Which also means you know I watch Hannah Montana. A by product of having a 7 year old daughter. I wouldn't admit to really liking it . . . a lot! Nooo.

Anyway.

I've got arthritis in my back. It presents problems from time to time . . . and pain. When I'm good I can still walk around State Fair with my 60lb 7 year old on my back. But, when I'm bad, I can barely carry my own weight. Both my parents have arthritis, as does my older sister and brother, so it comes as no surprise. I've been to the doctor and I've had an MRI. It's there. It just a matter of living with it and doing what I can to keep it under control. One of those things is physical therapy. I've gone a few times and it has always done good by me. Between what they do and the excersies (stretching) they give me to do, I've always managed to do better.

Well, I did some work for a spa last year. I did it for exchange of servcies . . . a barter. I thought it would make a nice gift for the wife. Well, she decided it would be nice if we went to a spa day together. I really didn't want to as I'm not a big fan of all the smelly stuff and creams they want to rub on you. But as it was a nice date out with my wife, I agreed.

First, not as bad as I first thought. Yes, there was the aroma stuff, soft music, creams, and the like, but it was really low pressure. If you didn't want it, you didn't have to have it. I was having two things done, a cranial sacral massage, and a full body massage. The cranial sacral massage, I thought, would be good for my back as it targeted the spine, neck, and head. It wasn't a massage as much as it was a pressure point procedure. Supposedly designed to break up connective tissue and reduce tension. It was about 30 minutes long. My reaction is so-so. There were some things the masseuse did that mimiced what my PT did. That felt good. The rest of it . . . well . . . it was relaxing.

Then I go for my full body massage. I've never had one before. I'm both looking forward to it . . . and not. On the one hand I knew it would feel great. On the other hand, it seemed a little weird to have a female other than my wife rubbing me down while I'm in my underwear. And, I was nervous. I've heard about the "it hurts so good" comments. Particularly about my back. Well, she starts . . . and it feels pretty good. She really digs in! She also does some "adjustment" type things on my back as if to "straighten" or pull the tissue from the spine. It doesn't hurt. But it doesn't feel great, either. I tell her to relax on that because of my arthritis. She moves on and everything seems to go well.

Afterward my neck hurt. But my back felt alright. My wife and I went out to eat and went home. We both slept good.

I woke up with the most intense pain in my back I've felt in a long time. My neck hurt and was stiff, the middle of my back had multiple knots in it, and my lower back was twitching. I barely made it to work. Good thing it was Friday. I sat on a heating pad all day long and took some pain killers. That helped, but didn't provide any real releif. The weekend was spent doing ice bags and heat pads, watching TV, and reading with my daughter. It was terrible! I was in all kinds of pain! I was worthless the whole weekend.

It's Monday and I'm better, but far from normal. I have PT tomorrow so this will be a topic of conversation. Did the massage screw up my back? I'm certainly gun shy now. Was it just my situation? I told them I had arthritis in my back. You'd think that would be factored in to the things they do to you. I know one woman working there of a PT for 9 years before coming to this spa. So you'd think they know about things like srthritis and such. Dunno. But, I likely won't be back anytime soon!