Dave, my daughter is a young gymnast that snowboards, plays softball, etc.... and the last year has complained about knee pains, so making a long story short, we ended up with a group of bone specialists from University of Michigan Hospital. Turned out that a lot of leg/knee pain is usually caused more from a hip joint problem and its not always critical. But setting in cold areas for great lengths of time can create issues in the legs and joints in general.

Dave,

My wife began suffering from leg pain a few years ago. We thought it might be sciatic nerve pain. She got to where she couldn't walk more than a few hundred feet without doing stretching exercise. Physical therapy helped it, as did exercise. The diagnosis turned out to be lumbar stenosis, which is a narrowing of the bone canal through which the spinal cord passes. Epidurals helped, but finally were of little effect.

Bottom line - a couple of years of pain that was solved immediately by surgery to open the bone canal and fuse two vertebrae. Instant relief. When she awoke, she of course had surgical pain, but the leg pain was gone.

Dave, you may be an excellent editor, and there may be a lot of experience on this forum, but maybe you should seek a diagnosis from an orthopedic specialist....

Hi Ralph - either my pain is not bad enough to make me go see a specialist with virtually no income above my bills and no insurance, or my pain tolerance is high enough that I haven't felt such an overwhelming need to relieve my pain by putting my wife and child and I in a place where we may need to file bankruptcy.

Your advice is certainly good, and I appreciate it. But - for the time being - I will have to hold off on doctors appointments, we still owe money from the birth of my son, my school loans, my business debts, and while I'm slowly getting out from under the burden that is debt. I am certainly not in a good enough way to be able to afford doctors.

I'm mostly just looking to see if others similar to myself in terms of jobs have similar pains etc...

Such is life.
Dave

"I'm mostly just looking to see if others similar to myself in terms of jobs have similar pains etc..." Usually in a different body location... ;-) If the orth guy (orthopaedic dr.) is outside the budget, try a chiropractor, but don't wait too long.

Dave,

It sounds like it's time to whip out the bartering tool. A free commerical shoot for a few office visits to diagnose and ?fix? the problem. Just a thought, but bartering is a nice tool that may appeal to one of the doctors in your area.

I filmed a commercial for a local dentist and he offered some free x-rays and a free cleaning on top of what he was already paying me to do the shoot. I didn't even ask for it.

j razz

Alternate between cold packs and hot packs.

OTC anti inflammatory medications such as Naproxen, Ibuprofen.

Stay off your feet as regularly as possible until the inflammation goes down.

John

I was seeing a chiro in the past that I didn't have a great deal of luck with - so I'm looking at switching to one my friend said was able to help her out of the same pain I seem to be having.

Costs money to switch though - have to see if I can get them to make things a little more cost effective.

Dave

I have this problem periodically. I once had it for well over 6 months and was just barely able to drive. In that case I cured it in a couple days using a simple cat's arch exercise (hands and feet on the floor and arch your back and hold) that was recommended by a friend of my wife's. It was like magic. It was 90% gone after a two minute exercise. A second session the next day and it was 100% zapped.

These days the miracle cat's arch doesn't do the trick but I have an exercise routine that I go through that gets rid of the problem for me in about 3 days. I think regular stretching exercises will keep you out of trouble if you can cure your current problem. Join a gym and do exercises that stretch and strengthen your back muscles and you will save yourself a world of pain.

Do a Google on exercises for lower back pain. You will get some good advice. Do the ones that seem to work and forget the rest. If it hurts don't do it. You can find the right set by trial and error.

In any case - good luck with your back.

Yes indeed. The worst problem I had was when I was riding a road bike for a few hours a day and then sitting in a really bad chair for the rest of the day. Both were rigid so when I sat down hard or hit a bump my spine would suffer a jolt. The pain would go down one leg and got bad enough that if I dragged my foot just slightly it'd make me yelp.

I tried all sorts of things but in the end what got me back in action was lots of Valerian. It's a muscle relaxant and I'm guessing the pain would cause muscle tension and spasms which would cause pain which would etc, etc. So blocking part of the loop really helped. All the other obvious things like stretching, hot soaks, massage, acupuncture are fine as long as you also break the loop.

For prevention, there are lots of Pilates routines that you can do that don't require equipment. These strengthen the right muscles to prevent sciatica. Also, get a chair that absorbs the shock of flopping into it. I have an Aeron at work and a Chadwick at home and they do a great job in this regard. I leave them loose so that I can fidget around a lot.

Rob Mack

If you Google sciatic pain you will get a wealth of information and its causes.
JJK

Dave, I think you are the guy that moved his editing to the basement. How's the heat down there. How's the floor. If it's a cement floor, get some rubber mats or carpeting to stand and walk on. The chair you sit on - are your feet firmly on the floor with out a lot of pressure on the rear of your thighs. This cuts off circulation to the legs. Try something to raise you feet a few inches. Get your wallet our of your pocket when sitting for any length of time. I can attest to the fact of driving with your wallet. If I drive 10 miles with my wallet in my pocket, my right leg is completely numb when I get out of the car.
Also, if editing for any length of time, get up and walk around the house at least once an hour to keep that blood moving.
I know several people with sciatica problems, but they all have problems only on one side.
I'm not a doctor and don't even play one.

Lynn

Surely medical costs are not so outrageous that you can't see a GP. I reckon I wouldn't consult my GP about editing, and while the advice posted here is sound it isn't a diagnosis. Your symptoms are consistent with sciatic nerve pain, but there are other causes and most ills are more readily cured by early treatment.

"Surely medical costs are not so outrageous that you can't see a GP. I reckon I wouldn't consult my GP about editing, and while the advice posted here is sound it isn't a diagnosis. Your symptoms are consistent with sciatic nerve pain, but there are other causes and most ills are more readily cured by early treatment."

Well, quite honestly beyond bills I'm basically breaking even, and so what little extra money I manage to make - I put to the debt I've accumulated building my business so that I can have enough money left over to start buying insurance.

It's not like I'm trying to sound pitiful or anything, nor am I looking for medical advice. I'm simply wanting to know if others here have had similar problems, and how they dealt w/ it or perhaps what they found was causing it to be worse ).

Dave

There is a new technique which has been around for 20 years now called Bowen Therapy. Look it up under "Bowtech" I think. Or just Bowen Therapy. It's from Australia and I have had plenty of experience and it works! It's a non-invasive technique and not all that expensive. The 'net will show where the nearest practitioner can be found.

>>>I'm not looking for medical advice<<<

I understand where you're at, and that you're in the USA. It's just that I'm conscious that a lot of guys put up with aches and pains rather than go to the doctor. That you've mentioned it here is a good sign. My husband is of the "ah, a leg has fallen off, but I've got another" school. A friend was proud of never going to the doctor, and is now recovering from a quadruple by-pass. Another mentioned casually that he was having difficulty swallowing. So my antenna start to twitch when I encounter any guy staying clear of the doctor. But here the doctors are less rapacious when offered your wallet.

For a few years I've been getting terrible headaches from computer use. I keep making ergonomic improvements and each one does improve things - for a little while.

At first I thought it was eyestrain causing the headaches so I switched to LCDs and that helped for a while. Then I thought it was my chair, my sitting position, my diet, my lighting, the amount of online reading, mouse movement, typing position, desk height etc etc.

I've tried doctors, physios, massage, had my eyes tested etc. Am now going to give acupuncture a go.

The headaches are odd because I don;t get them when I'm using the computer, it happens overnight and I wake up with a headache. But I've become very good at telling the night before whetrher one's on the way and can usually stop work and head it off. But sometimes I just have to keep going on a project and then I pay the next day. Painkillers are mostly ineffective - a big dose can just "take the edge off".

But I figure that every job, after some years, does something to your body. I know guys in a lots of trades like welding, spraying etc and they all have much worse long term health effects than me, so I think I'm doing OK.

i'm not a doctor, so trust me......

well, i'm not sure if this applies to your problem, but.....

a few years ago i was having incredible neck / back pains, and quite often sever leg / thigh as well. like serena's husband i was a 'blokey bloke', if i couldn't see blood or a protruding bone it'd get better itself. my wife (presumably like serena) decided enough was enough. i got my half century service by one of her collectors (a top drawer gp / surgeon).

outcome:

leg / thigh and lower back pains cured with orthopaedic arch supports in my shoes. the sort you can buy at any chemist.

neck and upper back - computer prescription glasses - never look at a screen without them now....

as for the nightly loo trips - a rebore. ah, flow like a horse now.

as for the grey cells, well, there's not much hope - i'm on my last half dozen and they only fire intermittently.

leslie

My wife has suffered from leg/back pain for 6 years.

After a spinal fusion a year age the problem still exists. Other than the original doctor doing sloppy job the cadaver bone inserted as a spacer did NOT fuse as required.

It took a CT scan to prove it. She is scheduled for a "redo" and was told to quit smoking because the nicotine in the blood retards or prevents bone fusion.

Long story short, we all know smoking is bad (I quit 4 years ago) but if any bone related surgery is in the works look up the effect of nicotine on bone fusion.

MB

Alltheseworlds:
If you use any kind of black/ultraviolet lighting you will have a headache within an hour of exposure. Age doesn't matter. We had this lighting on our radar consoles (I was 21 at the time) and everybody was getting headaches so we shut the crap off and used very dim incandescent lighting.
JJK

I was using one for a short time ! But since it didn't do much except look interesting I took it out. Interesting info, thanks.

I thought I had sciatica for a while but recently found out it was actually SI joint dysfunction. The problem with the SI joint can be caused by sitting too much or injury. The doctor nailed it and it was easy to diagnose. In my case, he pressed on my lower back in the spot where you would normally see the dimples on a womans' lower back. It is common in women as the injury can happen during childbirth.

He gave me some prednisone and I felt like a thousand bucks for about a month. He also said they could inject cortisone into the joint and it would be cured. I find that a litle hard to beleive but he nailed the problem so I will look into that farther.

For what is worth...

I have had back problems for around 40 years (started when I was thirteen). Both parents had back problems and even though it isn't supposed to be hereditary, I got it as well. I have a bad disc which ruptures from time to time, putting pressure on the nerve bundle. One of the results of this is a sciatic like symptom, with a burning pain sensation coming down from my hip through the front thigh muscle. When it is really bad, it will go right down into my feet and toes. There are a host of other pains and side effects I experience when the disc ruptures. Took an MRI or Cat Scan (can't remember which one) to show the disc was ruptured and ballooned out with fluid leaking from the disc. To help with the problem, I have to lay on my stomach for 10-15 minutes to help the fluid settle back in the disc, then do back extensions. The doctor's won't fuse the discs until I become completely debilitated. Fusing will put stress on the discs above and below the fusion, which will cause them to wear out.

Before the diagnosis, I tried a chiropractor. It seemed to give short term relief, but he overmanipulated my back to the point where my lower back was like, and I quote, "mush". Don't have much faith in chiropractors myself, but I know others who swear by them.

Al