Neck and Back Troubles?? Check it out ...

[BadgeBunny]

OK, it's no secret that I have a neck that is less than functional. It has had a rough life and I am paying the price for that now. The last few years have been particularly rough -- constant headaches, neck stiffness (like unable to drive because I can't turn my head kind of stiffness), tummy troubles from all the meds, etc. It's just been kinda a mess ...

We've tried PT, meds, more PT, a breast reduction, more meds, more PT ... you get my drift ...

Well, a couple of weeks ago I met a gal online who suggested that I get this book and try the methods in it ...

http://www.amazon.com/Treat-Your-Own-Neck-803-5/dp/0987650416/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1386506495&sr=8-4&keywords=fix+you+neck

OK ... It's not expensive ... What have I got to lose?? Cheaper than a breast reduction, or a month's worth of all the meds they have me on right now, for sure ...

Guys, let me tell you, if you have neck, shoulder, knee or back pain (he has an exercise regimen for each) you owe it to yourself to get this guy's book and read it and just try his methods out. I am a different person ... My neck does not sound like crunching glass when I move my head anymore. I am starting to develop some strength in muscles that have had no strength in them (it's pretty sad when a 50-some-odd year old woman can't even hold her own head up sometimes because her neck is so weak. GC had taken to calling me "BobbleHead" because when we'd go somewhere in the car my head would bob around like a bobblehead toy. I would literally have to hold my head with my hands against the headrest to keep it from bouncing around.), I've got more range of motion than I've had in several years. Best of all, the amount of pain meds I am having to take has dropped off drastically ... I have actually gone a few days and had only a minor headache as opposed to the usual wanting to gouge my eyeballs out that was an every morning and every evening occurence around here for longer than I care to admit ...

These exercises are small, incremental movements that do not require any special equipment, you can do them throughout your day and no one even knows what you are up to. Folks that see you doing them will most likely think you are just stretching in your chair ... I'm not gonna lie to you, the first week was NOT FUN. Muscles that have gotten lazy do NOT like to be worked, but he described exactly what was gonna happen and how the pain was gonna change and move and it did EXACTLY what he said it would. (It will disappear completely, eventually, I hope ...)

Anyway, I know a lot of you guys have bad backs and knees and shoulders because I've seen the posts ... Maybe this guy can help y'all like he has helped me ... My primary care doctor is amazed. So am I. I may never be off some of the meds. Nerves have a funny way of changing permanently if they are irritated long enough, but then again, I might. Time will tell.

 

[oldkar]

Glad to hear you are getting some relief. hope you get better day by day.

 

[jrusling]

I am glad you found something that helps. It is even better if it helps getting off or cutting back on the meds. I have become a great believer in taking as few meds as possible.

 

[tRidiot]

That's awesome, Patti! I am very happy for you! I am going to pass this along to a friend of mine who has been having bad headaches. She won't take meds if she can possibly help it, but I know they are a bit incapacitating some days for her.

I'm really glad it's going well for you, though.

Tell me, what kinds of things are in this book that are different from what the PT guys taught you? I mean, I would think this kind of thing is right up their alley for most PTs, and I know you've been through several rounds of that. Is it that the PT guys are more stuck in "traditional" flexibility and strengthening modalities, like most of us practitioners are also stuck in the same mindset of the way things are "usually" done? And overlook other things that are simple and sometimes "common sense" or practical?

I'm just curious... I actually plan to buy the book myself, I've already got it in my Amazon shopping cart. I see the other versions, too, for knee, back, etc. Pretty cool.

 

[Lynx]

Glad you've found some non-med relief. I have a sibling who suffers intense neck pain because of a rear end auto accident nearly twenty years ago. Meds don't help. Would you recommend this book to help under those circumstances?

 

[BadgeBunny]

Danny, you would think that someone somewhere would have known about this, right?? But, every physical therapist I saw was absolutely mortified the first time I moved my head and they felt my neck cracking. You could see the fear in their eyes ... LOL After that it was all about NOT moving my head at all and just strengthening my shoulder and upper back muscles. Sometimes they would give me stretching exercises for my neck but they were always very, very careful to make sure that I understood in no uncertain terms that if it hurt I shouldn't do them. Well, hell, it hurts all the time, so where did that leave me?? LOL I had one guy tell he he was absolutely amazed that I had any function at all in my arms and hands because my neck was so "loose" ... That's kinda scary to hear ...

These exercises are small, slow, incremental movements designed to realign bone that are out of alignment, lengthen muscles that have shortened and strengthen soft tissue structures that have weakened over time. It's not a quick fix, nor is it permanent. I believe I will be doing these exercises daily for the rest of my life but they take up so little time -- at first it was every hour or so, 8 times a day or as tolerated -- less than 10 minutes each time that I almost feel like I'm cheating.

I started out with pain radiating from my upper neck, down both shoulders and into my right upper back, arm, elbow and wrist, with tingling (but no numbness) but by the end of 72 hours (and only about 20 "treatments") the pain had centralized in the middle of my spine in my upper back, with only some minor muscle soreness in my neck at the base of my skull. I've woke up the last 3 days with no headache and only minor neck pain (not something I have done in several months. Usually I wake up and immediately take 2 Exedrine Migraine and a percocet, a couple of gabapentin and a couple of venfaxalin before I can even think about the rest of my day ... ) I'm down to only the gabapentin and an occasional Exedrine Migraine. The percocet only comes into play now if I've done something like fold several loads of clothes or clean out the rabbit pens or something like that ...

Oh ... and I ordered the one for my back and my shoulder ... Once my neck started feeling better, my shoulder that I had rotator cuff surgery on started popping really loud ... And I figure it won't hurt to do the back exercises ... I swear if it's not one thing it's six others ...

ETA: Here's the link to this guy's website in case you want to take a look at it: http://www.mckenziemdt.org/approach.cfm?section=int

 

[BadgeBunny]

Glad you've found some non-med relief. I have a sibling who suffers intense neck pain because of a rear end auto accident nearly twenty years ago. Meds don't help. Would you recommend this book to help under those circumstances?

We were rear-ended sitting at a stop light a few years ago. I'd had problems before but that accident sent me "over the edge". Everything I've tried up to now has just given me temporary relief and I am not a candidate for surgery because, and I quote my neurologist, "You have so many problems that cutting into you would be like blowing on a house of cards ..."

 

[tRidiot]

Damn, Patti, that is AWESOME! I am SOOOOO pumped for you! God, what a feeling it must be...


You know, my step-dad lives with chronic back and hip pain and is stuck on large doses of meds for it (we've talked about this, I know). I remember a time a couple years back when I had convinced him to exercise. He was walking the treadmill for 30 mins or so every day, AND he was going to the chiropractor regularly. He started at 3x a week, but then when he was feeling better got down to twice a week, then once a week. He was moving the best I'd ever seen him. And then he quit. He couldn't afford the chiro anymore (damn recession and its impact on small business) and he got discouraged and quit the walking, too.

Now he's pretty well bound-up and lives in a fog of medication haze and moves like he's in his 70s or 80s. In fact, watching him walk, it's like watching his 85 y/o father. Sad, really, and he'd love to be off the meds... but he doesn't have the dedication to get back to what he was doing before that actually WORKED! I've talked to him about it a couple of times, but it just doesn't seem to register.

 

[Lynx]

We were rear-ended sitting at a stop light a few years ago. I'd had problems before but that accident sent me "over the edge". Everything I've tried up to now has just given me temporary relief and I am not a candidate for surgery because, and I quote my neurologist, "You have so many problems that cutting into you would be like blowing on a house of cards ..."

Thanks then. I'll pass the link on.

 

[BadgeBunny]

Damn, Patti, that is AWESOME! I am SOOOOO pumped for you! God, what a feeling it must be...


You know, my step-dad lives with chronic back and hip pain and is stuck on large doses of meds for it (we've talked about this, I know). I remember a time a couple years back when I had convinced him to exercise. He was walking the treadmill for 30 mins or so every day, AND he was going to the chiropractor regularly. He started at 3x a week, but then when he was feeling better got down to twice a week, then once a week. He was moving the best I'd ever seen him. And then he quit. He couldn't afford the chiro anymore (damn recession and its impact on small business) and he got discouraged and quit the walking, too.

Now he's pretty well bound-up and lives in a fog of medication haze and moves like he's in his 70s or 80s. In fact, watching him walk, it's like watching his 85 y/o father. Sad, really, and he'd love to be off the meds... but he doesn't have the dedication to get back to what he was doing before that actually WORKED! I've talked to him about it a couple of times, but it just doesn't seem to register.

Bless his heart, I know just how he feels. You just get so tired of having to deal with it day in and day out that sometimes it is easier to just pop the pill. Problem is that doesn't really fix the problem. And it doesn't even really make it stop hurting. It just makes you not care.

This might help him then because it doesn't require a whole lot of effort to start. The books are small and a quick and easy read. There is a section in the book that talks about what the exercises do. It mentions chiropractic care and how stretching and strengthening soft tissues slowly and gently can accomplish the same positive results over time as regular chiropractic care does. It appears to this layman that some of what occurs during these exercises is a "natural" realigning of the bone structures. I know that is kinda what it feels like in my neck after a couple of weeks. I have one particular place on my neck that has always had an odd protrusion. That protrusion is markedly smaller now. It may be that that protrusion was simply muscle that was chronically inflamed and tightened, or it may have been a bony protusion. I dunno which one because I'm not that versed in anatomy. All I know it is is a LOT smaller and I feel a LOT better!