My beets after 74 days. Should I wait? Or mulch into ground and plant warm weather crops.
Due to a pretty big injury, I didn't really water and sometimes did some hydrolyzed fish. Raised bed dirt might have also been too compact (hard to dig in with hands).
I wanted to get some thoughts to research when deciding how to go about healing from my potential lumbar herniated disk that was caused by pushing myself too hard for 3 days dehydrated gardening, and one wrong move with a shovel. Is there anything I should look into?
I had my initial injury and then a painful retrigger 4 days later, and another painful retrigger 6 days after that. I am now very aware that forward bending is my trigger, and I am trying to avoid at all costs.
Day to day.. my pain is very manageable. I take advil, but only because I hear it's a good anti-inflammatory. I get sharp jarring pain with any minor movevent for the first 24 hours after initial injury and after retriggers. I would definitely take pain medication if I had a life that required movement (I work remotely and have no kids). But I can avoid laundry for weeks and not cook for weeks. Within the first 24 hours, though, sometimes I can not even stand upright without 8-9 level pain and get stuck on the toilet because it is too painful to get up. Outside of those 24 hours, cars and getting up in the morning are currently the worst. Also meeting friends at restaurants or working for more than 30 minutes at a computer.
Yesterday, I woke up with tingling in my upper back. An hour later, the bottoms of my feet. It then moved to being very obvious on my pinky toes and over my knee. I went into the ER. By the time they saw me, I felt numbness in my right quad as well.
BUT, (this seemed like an important distinction to them) all the numbness was how appendages felt to themselves? There was no tingling, just the feeling that they were asleep while I could still walk normally and could still feel touch to those areas. I took a walk outside while I waited for my results. Essentially, they thought I overreacted by coming in as I wasn't aware of the type of numbing that would be concerning. They checked if i could feel their hands on my toes, bottoms of my feet, inner thigh. And asked if I had soiled myself without feeling it (due to numb groin area). The CAT scan technician was kind and helped me get on and off the machine without me asking as the getting down and twisting to adjust a s getting up is painful but was ribbing me a little that it was my first time dealing with back pain. Since I came in while I could still walk.
They gave me a CAT and refused an MRI, but told me the CAT wouldn't show herniated disk or anything like that (so since I wasnt in a car accident or anything Im confused why the CAT was done besides being ER protocol? I kinda feel now like I should have refused the CAT scan.
They also told me they can prescribe a steroid for X days (six pills to start and less every day) and that they can prescribe me a muscle relaxer. I am 100% for medication that will actually improve healing, but it seems that muscle relaxers and steroids are just for pain? Not for healing herniated disk and associated nerve damage? Or do they let inflammation, which does help the nerve not get rubbed and pinched as much? I only have pain when I do painful things, so I don't want to mask any pain that is helping me not do harmful moves for my disk. I also have a flexible enough life that not taking pain meds will not cause me any issues at work or home. I would 100% take them if I couldn't avoid pain. Today, I squeezed past my neice and, while turning my pain shot up to a 7-8, but it didn't cause the 24-hour immobility. As long as I'm not turning or leaning, I feel okay.
My plan right now is 4 small walks a day. Slow and steady just as long as I feel okay. Doing the PT exercises daily. Meeting up with my personal trainer 3.5 weeks after initial injury to start working on rebuilding my strength while staying very aware of the herniation (she is very good and has alot of experience modifying for various medical issues). I'm trying to avoid retriggering. Aim for a more anti-inflammatory diet than I am eating now and supplementing with hydrolyzed collagen, Vitamin C, turmeric, vitamin D, fish oil.