2 replies to this topic

[dedwards]

Hi,

My injury level is about T4/5 and I'm 2 1/2 years post injury. I have 7 disks fused together. I can't feel or move anything starting from my belly down. I produce music so I'm constantly sitting in my wheelchair for hours at a time playing the keyboard and doing stuff on my computer. I'm sitting anywhere from about 6 to 8 hours a day. I'm always home so I try breaking up the time by stretching and doing my standing frame. I've always had back pain, but it seems like over the last couple of months I've hit a tipping point and it's SEVERE! I get a shooting pain a little left of my spine and it feels like it's below my injury line. You would think that lying on my back would relieve it, but that's when the pain is the worse. I can't lay on my back or my left side. Only on my belly and my right side. I take gabapentin and use lidocaine patches, which seem to barely help. Someone recommended an inversion table to decompress my spine and I'm gonna get one. Cause I really feel like my spine has just been squished together over the past 2 1/2 years and getting worse by the day. Does anyone have any experience using one of these? I saw a Youtube video of a paraplegic getting onto one and using it all by himself and it looked like no problem for him. I still have to talk to my Dr. to ask him if he thinks it's ok for me, but I'm sure he'll say it's fine. I'd love to hear from someone who's used one and if it helped. Or if anyone has any other suggestions about how to deal with pain other than taking drugs, which I've found only mask the pain. Thanks.

Dave

[wheeliebear75]

Have you tried a T.E.N.S.unit yet? I have one & I LOVE IT! Mind you I have tons of bullets in my arsenal of pain killing tricks but no ONE METHOD seems to work....it seems to work best when I fire several pain thwarting options at it at the same time....kinda like hitting it with a shot gun shell & peppering it instead of trying to chink away at the PAIN bee-bee shot by bee-bee shot. Heat (heating pad or a hot soak), massage, distraction, meditation, T.E.N.S., repositioning & then of course there are the drugs. In theory those inversion tables act similarly to the "traction" that is often done by Dr.s or PT staff....so (still check with your Dr.) I would see IF it helps before you buy (hopefully you can find one with "money back guarantee" OR at a place that SELLS them so you can try one out).

[Tinbasher]

I had increasing new pain 25yrs post injury and was eventually found to be a bulging disc below my level.

Could to do some work when I'n your standing frame?