Living with illness
I thought it would be useful to share our experience of any illnesses that we may have and how we have dealt with them and also to provide information to fellow otaku who may share the same illnesses or disabilities.
Until recently, its only been Asthma that I have been living with since a child. Most of my problems with Asthma arose when I was younger and I remember a time when I had my chest pumped to get rid of some sort of fluid which accumulated in my lungs.
Running around would cause difficulty of breathing and wheezing when I was child too. The most recent difficulty I had with Asthma was when I was in Shanghai about five years ago. The dirty air was the cause at the time. Had no such difficulties on my last trip a few weeks ago though. I find that I am susceptible to Asthma related breathing difficulties when there is a sudden change of environment - usually when traveling abroad. I always keep an inhaler on me when traveling but haven't used it for quite a while now.
The reason that I brought up this subject is because I recently had the pleasure (not) of being diagnosed with a herniated disc.
A few discs in my lower back region have ruptured and are sticking into the nerves which extend from the spinal cord. This causes pain which goes down to my legs. I had the first symptoms a few years ago but each time the pain would recede only to come back several months later. The last time I had the pain was in October which lasted for a week but the pain has been with me for nearly two weeks now.
The photo was taken when I went to the hospital on Monday. The doctor gave me the news but she wasn't particularly helpful. As usual, I found that I had to ask questions before she recommended that I shouldn't gain weight (which would put more pressure on the disc) and that I should work on strengthening the muscles in my back. I then had to ask what types of exercise before she told me "push ups."
I decided not to waste any more time with another typical doctor (more on typical Japanese doctor behavior in this previous post) and do some research on the Internets and ask as many people as I can for advice.
It turns out that two of the clients who I consult for have staff who have the same illness. One of them has partially recovered through rehabilitation while the other one had surgery to implant some hardware into his back through something called Dynesys - he can now run about and dance all over the place without feeling pain. This is the option I will go for should my condition get worse.
A Herniated Disc (also known as a Slipped Disc) can be caused by many different things - a fall or sudden jolt to the spine can cause a crack in the disc. Many people from the age of 35 may also start to feel symptoms through the disc simply aging through time.
The first time I had symptons, I went to the doctor who only took an x-ray and just said that I pulled a muscle. If you are feeling some intense pain in your back, I recommend you ask for an MRI. An MRI enables slices of your body to be looked at without slicing you up - you can see slices of me in the photo. An MRI will detect whether you have a Herniated Disc and enable you to treat it early. If I took an MRI at an earlier stage, I would have had rehab then and not end up like I am now.
I can still walk however and hope to be able to do rehab as soon as the pain starts to (hopefully) recede. If you have information or experience with a Herniated disc then do share with me ^^.
Have not been as productive of late due to me having to lie down a lot but I probably should be lying down more. One of my main problems is that I find it difficult not to do some form of work. I know I should really take time out to mend but its tough to just pull away especially when you are running your own company. Was at the Kotobukiya offices for a meeting all day today but should have been in bed ^^; But I did manage to get some goodies which I will share with you ^o^
OK, I'm off for a hot shower to relax my back and then off to watch some anime and play some Advance Wars Days of Ruin on the DS which just came out - tis awesome.
