For a few weeks in April my back/neck seemed to be getting a bit stiff and painful. However not too bad. I continued cycling in & out from work, doing scout meetings, did day on scout cub challenge with cubs & scouts helping to run bases and venture scouts on their own camp. And a bit of mountain biking and other stuff on weekends.
Pain on the RIGHT hand side.
Emanating from under the shoulder blade . . . but maybe caused by stiff neck/knot somewhere else? Hard to know.
In retrospect I should have started doing better yoga and looked at my posture/behaviour in work/office. EARLIER. I have been here before. Duh.
History:
I have been neck pain free for a long while now (10 years?) apart from bike crash end last year where shoulder(which one?) got hyper-extended and was a while healing. When Daire was small ?3 years old? ==
2002ish in Dublin I was messing on couch and went upside-down hard on my head/neck and crrrr something tore. A good few years after that pain stiff and crik in neck quite frequently. Chiropractors and physio/electrotherapist in Stillorgan I visited for a bit, I did some yoga/pilates from Fionn, after a particularily bad crik in neck after rowing in Dun Laoghaire (
Sep/Dec 2004? No later?
back still sore July 2005 I think) a visit to a different Physio in Sandyford sometime(when?) diagnosed the problem properly and soon had me problem free . . . poor posture at desk, one side more active than other, weaker muscles on one side of my back, weak core muscles. Pilates/yoga exercises for building up core and spinal twists both provided relief and after not too long - a few weeks - core was stronger, I could crunch core up . . .
anyway . . .
Weekend of Sat/Sun 13,14 on Sat was the cub challenge and I remember neck being stiff Sunday. Not constant pain though. Just pretty stiff and occasional pain. A trip up mountain-biking I took it easy enough but with MTB anyway on hardtail bike you really get shook up and it actually seemed to loosen things up. Probably not advisable though :-P
Good Friday 19 April 2019
We drove to Tipperary/Limerick Kings yard and hiked up Galtybeg, across to Galtymore and back. About 14km very rough steepish ground in some sections. Good hike. We had great weather too. I carried my pack with water etc not too heavy but not very light. back/neck was just the usual bit stiff/sore (usual at this stage) Was watching out for increase in stiffness on day or after but it didn't seem to happen.
Drove on to Cork. No house work/painting this time. A tiny bit of gardening/gazebo roof creation. Chased the cows who broke out Sunday. Drove to Limerick Sunday afternoon and on to Dublin that evening.
? Sitting in car not good ?
Easter Monday bank holiday 22 April 2019
I was quite stiff/sore Easter monday. More sore than before. And a steady low-level pain always there. I did some stuff around house/garden. Read paper/sudoku/crossword. Didn't go mountain-biking! Was thinking about it though.
Again in retrospect I often do crosswords in poor light and hunched over paper. Bad posture :-7
Monday night I was really uncomfortable! Lying flat was quite painful. I sleep usually with one flatish pillow. I usually sleep absolutely no problems but I was left side/right side, face up, face down(which I never sleep like), up & down trying to get in a position without pain all night. Pheuf.
Tue 23 April
Despite lack of sleep I feel resonably fine head-wise in morning. Back/neck quite sore. YEOw cycle to work after just a short bit pain builds up spreads across back from under shoulder blade. I jump off and stretch/move and try work it out. I carry on cycling. It's a bit better but a good steady ache all the way in.
In retrospect again: I have multiple things on my plate in work and I very easily get into something and spend a few hours at desk without getting up. Usual day in work, pretty stiff/sore but not that distracting at work.
Yeow cycle home though same thing. Pain builds fast. I stop and stretch/shake it off. I realise if I don't look where I am going when cycling but look down that the pain is much less. The pain is caused by neck arching backwards. That helps to manage the pain. Mostly of course I keep watching where I am going defensive driving/cycling.
I get extra pillow and sleep much better although quite sore if on right side.
Cycling sore again. Stop and stretch out. Can relieve pain well though by taking pressure off neck and looking down. Scouts are doing site build at Scout Den from 12:00 until . . . undefined/later. Kate at Spanish course in town. She will call into them later. maeve has Drama leaves the Scouts about 3pm. They get thunder showered upon. I am in contact with them about 5pm and they are putting wet tents back inside. Kate just gets to them when they're more or less finished at this stage.
Cycle home.
Scouts are cooking test meal this evening.
Then down to den Scout meeting I drop Maeve & Kate to ALDI to meet other scouts and do shop.
At den scouts start setting up cooking stations also set up a sign painting station.
Wayheyy busy scout meeting AND I'm hungry but get fed with test meals.
Thur 25 Apr
Back neck sore sore sore. Pain under right shoulder blade. Sleep ok but stiff/sore. Cycle same. Same in work. Mostly pain in back under shoulder blade spreading out. Spreading down right arm and fore-finger has been a bit numb/tingly sometimes.
Sleep ok. Sore. Cycle to work.
I visit physiotherapist. Go over history of back/neck. Assessed sitting up, lying on front and on back. Arms up and push tests sore but not weak.
Essentially the diagnosis is the Cervical spinal vertebrae C3-C6 are "irritated", by that I take it to mean stiff and pinching nerves/maybe restricting blood?
Two main things to tackle it:
1. Position and posture in work at desk. Over time my posture sitting at desk has become terrible. Often notepad in front of me. Keyboard and mouse an arm-length away. Keyboard (and mouse) should be close to front of desk. My chair/desk are sliiiightly too tall maybe, if I raise chair to best height it's arms bump under table.
2. Exercises.
Lying on back. Neck stretch look left. Straight. Right.
Back stretch. Cow and Cat. And child pose.
Workstation sitting shoulders back. Back straight. Chin tucked in. Back of neck thrust back.
Standing or sitting
* chin retraction, shoulders back,
* Cervical rotation (Neck stretch look left. Straight. Right.)
* Thoracic rotation (Arms up in front grasped, move torso look left. Straight. Right.)
Quite a few moves actually cause pain so advised not to go there. The pain builds from around shoulder blade, down right arm and causes numbness/pins & needles in fingers.
Moves that initially cause pain:
Lying flat on back
Neck looking right.
Cow pose (neck arch up causes pain, pelvis forward/back is fine)
Thrusting neck back is painful, never mind looking right while doing so.
Cervical rotation(neck) to right
Ok. That's good information.
In work I fix keyboard and move mouse close.
Catch myself once in afternoon with notebook in front and I had pushed keyboard back again!
Chair height desk height not quite happy with.
Monitor height move one up a little.
We go for carvery for lunchtime. O'Neill's pub.
Food is good!
Making pretty good albeit seems always slow progress in work with various things despite the back pain. DevOps jenkins jobs and scripts event sending/downloading images/docker image load re-factor and adding features for version querying, downloads eventually gets done & released. Test server care and attention. Our jenkins in production sites self-upgrade bug found&fixed (tee versus plain redirect and nohup/background behaviour), event sending bug found/fix then apply fix/test and go hunting naughty left over duplicate event files on several systems. Fun fun!
Weekend phew!
I think Kate is relieved weekend is here too. She had a tough week on spanish course. (Getting in and out on Luas, class of strangers who had more Spanish than her). She is very persistent dedicated work on languages, finds it difficult but keeps going. Great stuff!
Sat Sun 27 28 Apr
It is local clean up day Saturday.
Storm Hannah has just passed over Ireland (not doing anything to Dublin!) L:ocely subby albeit windy day. Kate helps me tackle weeds in our front garden/driveway and mow lawn etc.
On Sunday I & Kate have First Aid training with Balally Scout leaders and Venture Scouts. Standard rec3 course I've done two times in past (DR-ABC, Airway->, Breathing->, CPR, CPR with AED, Heart Attacks, Stroke, Wounds, Burns, Allergies&Epi-pens, Seizures, . . .).
First aid 9:30am to 5pm. After that drive to Dun-Laoghaire and Maeve is in showcase with dance & drama. Great stuff but quite UnCoMForTAblE sitting in chair. Need to move/stretch a bit . . unobtrusively.
Over the coming few days the sore-ness seems to stay about the same.
Right arm feels sore, seems to feel a bit colder than other arm sometimes. My fingers on right arm become more or less constantly numb or tingly.
I do exercises morn & evening and bits in between.
Fionn gives me massage ball in sock, massaging with ball between me and wall works, gives a bit of relief. Add in yoga spinal twists and some core strengtheners and back movements.
And in work keep keyboard close and watching posture head up, shoulders back.
I still can't/shouldn't do the exercises that cause pain. I think.
I add yoga spinal twists (the river god(sitting) and ?(on back ~ the recovery position but head looking other way from legs . . not really) and core strength exercises I did years ago from when I last had pain and they're ok, I don't notice improvement or relief at first but after a few days they seem to stretch things out and after these exercises I feel some relief, whereas with other exercises back/neck feels more stiff and sore afterwards.
Mon Apr 29
Exercises and massage ball rubs as usual . .
Cycle ow as usual especially if looking where I am going. Work ow but fine. Cycle home.
Collect van at Den, load with 4 tables, 4 benches, posts. Home. Eat. Goto Kilmacud Den, pick up county scouters + marquee + tents etc. At Larch hill . . . we . . magically transport gear to Kelly field. Marquee up. Derek cuts finger! Ow. Attach site numbers to posts. Staple gun struggles with wood and I struggle with staple gun. We get there anyway in end. Sites marked out with pegs and posts with numbers on (stapled + teeny mini wire ties).
Tue Apr 30
Good exercise session in morning (not very long but good) the spinal twists and core crunch are better than the other exercises.
At desk I remember to get up and move some times but still forgetting and doing some long non-moving sessions! :-(. Do neck/shoulder stretches, also just reaching stretching arms up or out gives relief.
Oh. Interesting. First morning in ages I have been a bit comfortable in bed. Not quite as stiff in shoulder/neck. Still a steady ache in arm/back and steady numbness in fingers but seems like an improvement. Hope it stays.
Exercise a bit as usual.
Cycling is a good bit better, still sore looking up especially but better.
I decide I'd better blog this back event as I'm forgetting the details!
After work I cycle to scout shop. Traffic jammed up as usual on Pearse street very nasty Dublin Bus driver beeping at some slow cyclists, nasty car very close pass to me very agressive. ANYWAY . . they're stuck in traffic soon again with cars blocking them. We cycle away. @ Scout shop no sisal!! Shockingly expensive map protector/case 36 eurow. yeow. I head further over to Capel St, Lenehans have some sisal a bit more expensive 30 euros per ball. Cycle back work/home.
Fionn is off for cycle. Grab sandwich. Girls & I head to scouts in van. BUSY BUSY meeting. Getting stuff ready, each patrol collects tents, spars, fire equipment, makes plans for food shopping . . . one patrol has less equipment and less sure of what they're doing. TONS of stuff is piled outside practically every long and short and BIG spar we have! Yikes. Loading van is a bit stressful but we get it done reasonably neatly. Heavy tables, dining shelters, tents, benches first. Then patrol boxes, tarps. Fire barrels, small awkward bits that can be stowed(yeesh multiple camping chairs! one far too big is sent back). Gas bottles lying on side at back, tent pegs, fire buckets, fire logs, lots of stuff . . eventually we get to spars. A Dad helps getting big spars on roof, we get short spars in from back - bucket line is best. The roof gets overcrowded so I climb up and make space and we get all big and 9/10ft spars up. Others get all the short spars and last sundries in to last. Kate puts on straps from below and I from above. All scouts head home . . . Kate & Maeve & I sort out money/consent forms/finish up check plans that remain. Eventually head for home. I'm worried van is overloaded but she drives away grand as if there's nothing too much inside.
Cautionalrily hopeful . . back seems to be the same level of okayness after that.
I tell fionn there's been a little improvement in back. Happy days!
Wake up earlier than usual but back is still a bit improved. I get rid of the extra pillow.
I can lie flat and do the perscribed exercises a bit better.
Core exercises and spinal twists too.
Cycle into work.
Desk desk desk with hops up or stretches in between.
