Tag: Medical

Finally back at work… sort off!

As some of you know, about half a year ago I made a decision to take a two month hiatus from work, for health reasons.

My neurologist and me, had made a 5 month plan, where the focus was on treatments, rest, exercise and a slow reintroduction back at work. I’m not sure if you remember my “wonderful” plan:

5 month plan

From the headline of this post, you can probably gather, that things didn’t quite go according to my original plan. Turns out my two month hiatus turned into 6 month off work!

We can have the best intentions, but sometimes there is no rushing the body, it seems to take it’s own time, regardless of what we want! And that’s pretty much why this has taken much longer than I thought it would do.

So what’s been going on, these 6 months;

Medications:
I followed my original plan when it came to medication and that seemed to kick-start my body into getting a little better.

Workouts:
Have not gone according to plan, at all! For some reasons the treatment I started, aggravated an inflammation in my hip early July, and I’m still struggling with it (going in for an MRI on the 19th) so it kinda put a dent into my workout plan. I have done walks and stuff, but no gym 😦

Treatments:
I’ve done extensive treatments these last 6 months. As I’ve earlier mentioned, I started going to an osteopath. Turns out I ended up switching between two, since they did different things.. as one have specialized in cranial osteopathy.

To be frank with you, the progress has been excruciating slow, and my original osteopath actually had to throw in the towel. But I have continued to work with the one that does cranial manipulation, and he is still hanging in there 😉 and during the last few weeks, we are finally seeing some good progress.

A couple of months into my hiatus, my neurologist and me decided it was time to try medical Botox. It’s a know treatment for people that suffers with chronic migraines (you can read about it here), and we decided that maybe it would be worth a try for my 24/7 tension headache/migraines. It’s a treatment you take every three months and I was really lucky and got an appointment quick. My first round of medical Botox I got early September, and my second treatment I had just a month ago, in early December.

It seems like that second treatment is actually doing something for me! 🙂  As my osteopath treatments is having much better effect than ever before. My daily basis headache (the one that is present 24/7 – yes that’s, 24 hours a day, every day) has gotten better and better, to the point where this is the best it’s been since August 4th, 2010. And my migraine attacks seems to have reduced some as well the last couple of weeks. Woohoo!!!

So I might finally be on the mend 😉

And therefore, I think it’s time to get back to work (been kind of antsy to get back)!

My neurologist on the other hand, wants us to reap the benefits of me feeling better, a little longer before I get “hot and heavy” at work again, and she didn’t really want me back quite yet. So we compromised 🙂

Tomorrow I will start back at work, but only one half day a week! Yes I know, sound puny, but that was all she would allow me to do. And it gives me a chance to clear my mailbox, say hello to people, catch up a little with what’s going on, and get to know my new department (we were reorganized as of January 1st).

Then in 5 weeks time (February 16th), I will start work two half days a week, and do that until I have seen my neurologist again, end of March.

And hopefully by then I will have had even more progress with my osteopath, and maybe if I’m lucky, even had a day or two without a headache? My world, wouldn’t that be grand 🙂

So you can see, this is slow going. But guess that’s always the way isn’t it, there really is no rushing it. It’s probably taken a long time to get bad, and it needs a long time to get good.

In hindsight I do realise, I should have not pushed my body as much as I did. When I originally started feeling bad early 2010, I should have taken it easy right out of the bat, instead of what I did, which was to continue to work as hard as I could. If I had know then, what I know now… sheesh… I would have taken 6 months of right away… and maybe never have ended up in all the trouble of the last 4,7 years…

So if you are out there, struggling with health problems! Listen to what the body is trying to tell you! Slow down! Take care of yourself! Your health is the most important thing in your life… without it… well we all know how that goes!

And here I am, about to start work again, if ever so slowly! And this time around, I HAVE to be better at paying attention…

PS:
nite to self

It’s decided…

that today marks the start of my two months hiatus from work! 

You might have noticed that my posts have been far and far between the last month and a half… and there are reasons…!

What most of you don’t know is that I have some health problems that stop me from going to work full time. Mostly because my work entails a lot of time in front of computers, and if there is one thing I shouldn’t really be doing… it’s spending a lot of time in front of the computer! (Which really “sucks” when you want to spend time on your blog 😉 )

Let me backtrack just for a second to get you up to speed!

Early 2010 I was working on an really stressful project at work. Throw in a general problem with back/shoulder/neck, due to poor posture and a couple accidents over the years, loads of laptop work in meeting rooms with non-adjustable chairs, and you have a receipt for disaster. And before I knew it, I found myself with some tense and painful shoulders “up around my ears”, and even as slow as I can be when it comes to health, I decided I needed to do something about them.

In a roundabout way I found myself at a physical therapists office, August 4th the same year. And I have no idea what the heck she pushed, but she just about put me in the hospital, with the worse headache/migraine I had ever had in my life (and I suffer from migraines). I was pretty much a basket case, barely knowing my name, waking up the next morning, it was that bad! And unfortunately, since that day, August 4th, 2010 I have had 24/7 headaches.

Fast forward and I have tried all sorts of treatments, medications, shots and working part-time. It’s been slow going and today I’m way, and I mean waaaay better than where I started. But I’m still longing for the day when I’ll have a full day (or even a few hours) without a headache 😉

Lately, I’ve come to realise that I’m heading in the wrong direction again! Since around Christmas I’ve slowly been getting worse, with a substantial change the last couple of months. All I can do as soon as I get home from work is pretty much sleeping away the rest of the evening, and that’s no way to live!!!

So I’ve made a decision! To prioritise treatment and training over work the next few months.

My neurologist and I have decided that I have 5 “priorities”, which are (no specific order):

  • Treatment
  • Training/workout
  • Work
  • No medication
  • and some energy left over for me personally

As it is these days, I can only seem to partly do 3 out of 5 (and unfortunately, not even well).

So today I’m starting up with a new scheme (can’t give up you know 😉 ) I’m back on medication for a short while, I’m starting up with an osteopath, I will still continue to go to my naprapath, and I have arranged some training with my personal trainer at my sports centre.

My neurologist made me a 5 months plan for my priorities (I have done a quick redraw to put it into English):

5 month plan


So why am I telling you about this?

Well I’m not really sure, maybe it’s to explain why I have been doing so poorly with my blog lately. Why I’ve done nothing about clearing out stuff in June. Maybe it’s a part of moving forward and realizing that health and well-being should be a high priority in one’s life. And maybe I’m even telling you about this, as a gentle nudge to others out there, to not get themselves into this type of situation…

I’ve been struggling with the decision of prioritizing me over everything else, including work. I’m one of those (idiots) that have work as a number 1 priority in life, at the expense of a lot of things including me and my health.

Enough is enough, and on my minimalistic path, I’ve done some thinking about what things add value to my life, and what things are not worth keeping.

Now I’m not saying that work should go out the window (I do need that pay check), but I’ve come to realise – not at any cost, and definable not at the cost of my health. I shouldn’t need to be on medication and sleep my evenings away, just so that I can go to work as much as I do.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my job a lot, and that is part of the problem, I like it so much I have not listened to my body’s signals to slow down, until it was too late. And here I am, 4 years later and still not back to 100%. And I can promise you, that nobody at work is ever going to thank us, for sacrificing life for work 😉

It’s time to find a better balance! And for all I know, my better balance might be only working 50% days. Or maybe taking this break is exactly what I need, to turn a corner and get back to healthy.

I don’t know the answer, but for now, I’m giving this a try.

And for all of you out there who are prioritizing everything else but health!

Do not, and I mean do NOT be an idiot (like me) ignoring your body when it’s trying to tell you something. I did, for too long, and see where it has gotten me! Absolutely nowhere!

Ignoring excessive stress/pain for too long can result in poor health, chronic pain, loss of life quality and not to mention that it also most likely will give you loads of medical bills and can even affect your income down the line.

So please, please – take care of yourselves!