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Have you ever had a Broken Back? April 02, 2018 |
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Taking Care of Ourselves - Broken BacksI've been thinking of broken backs the last two Saturdays. That's my domestic day of the week because Mom always made me do the weekly cleaning on Saturdays. It's ingrained in me. With my current lifestyle, however, I sometimes have to go to meetings and my domestic duties get short shrift. It follows then, that I am not as physically fit as I should be. Much as it pains me to admit it, I am getting older. I've had osteoporosis for at least two decades, although at first I noticed no problems and didn't take it very seriously. By now though, I've had several cracked vertebrae in my lower back. As one friend pointed out on Sunday morning at church, that means a "broken back." Those instances are spaced some years apart, but I do recall that I hobbled around for eight weeks each time, well aware of the pain in my lower back. Then it cleared up, and I found that I could carry on pain-free as long as I didn't spend too many hours on my feet at any one time. That seemed to cause the vertebrae to grate on one another, and maybe pinch a nerve or two. I thank God that the symptoms I deal with are mostly bad posture; sway-back and a hump forming higher up between my shoulder blades. Plus I've lost about 5 inches in height. When I am up and about on my feet for more than a couple of hours at at stretch, my lower back begins to complain and whine that it wants me to go sit down. Sitting at my computer all day Monday through Friday is really quite painless. It is on Saturdays, when I'm trying to get some housecleaning done, and in the summer some gardening or yard work, that my lower back forces me to yield and to say a more respectful, "ye" and "thou" to it. I've learned - to a degree - to pace myself, and to alternate up-and-about physical work, with a spell where I do sit down work, maybe sorting and filing, or seeds (something I need to get to!), or at times, just curling up in my recliner and having a snooze. The last two Saturdays I was determined to do some DEEP cleaning in my small kitchen. I decided that I would bring in the step-ladder and start at the top cupboards and work my way down to below the sink. Then I'd do the cabinets on the other side of the room too, and the table by the window. . . .! One of the benefits of deep cleaning is that you discover things you forgot you had. So way on the top shelf I discovered that I still have a big jar of the poppy seeds Dad saved from our Hague garden. Good! I must see if these will sprout in the garden this year, and I'll have plenty for baking too. By the time I got the sink and the countertop done I could tell my "coupl'a hours" were up, but I decided that I better not stop before I got under the sink cleaned too, or I might not easily get back to it. By the time I got that done my lower back had got to really whining like a piteous 2-year old. So I made myself a snack and sat down at the computer to read a book I had downloaded the night before. But in no time my head was drooping and my concentration was gone. I switched to the recliner and had a lovely nap until 5 pm. This repeated on the other side of the kitchen, but I only got one section of the cabinet cleaned thoroughly because I paused to fix narrow cardboard boxes, (which I covered with kitchen-type wallpaper) for organizing my spices, herbs, and baking cups, etc. Oh, so much tidier! All this has me thinking of broken backs. The ones we hear of usually involve an accident and a spinal cord injury; I have no experience with that and do NOT want to experience it! The kind I'm talking of are usually a compression fracture in a vertebrae. These are painful for 8 to 10 weeks while the bone (vertebrae) grows cartilage to fill in the crack. Some doctors will recommend bed rest and painkillers until the healing has taken place. My chiropractor said, "Just take it easy for 8 weeks and pop pain killers as needed." I didn't want to become addicted to painkillers, so I took them only in exceptional situations, like having to be somewhere in public and not wanting to be groaning and moaning like a martyr. I did take breaks to lie down every couple of hours for a half hour. Especially the weeks after Dad's funeral when I had to clean up the estate for an auction and find myself a new place to live. I simply did not have time for weeks of bedrest! My siblings were too far away (the one brother close by was/is in a wheelchair), and I needed to move and get some income starting to cover my basic expenses. I've had a couple of instances since then, and have learned to pace myself, with my physical work, and I had to tell my brother Tom, that I could no longer take him places, as that involved lifting his wheelchair in and out of the trunk of my car a number of times. Most of the time now I don't even think about having a broken back a few times. Unless I over-do my domestic chores. But over all I'm grateful to God, that by caring for my health and wellness generally, I am pain-free and can walk with a spring in my step, and gladness in my heart! I wish you that same measure of health if you have painful back issues.
My Boutique Store PagesI've updated and renovated my boutique stores pages on aloe-vera-and-handy-herbs.com Some years ago I set up a couple of Amazon a-Stores, so that I could select products to recommend, line them up on a page, and allow you to choose and with a click whisk to Amazon to order any product or products. Somehow I wasn't that impressed with the a-Stores. There were not as effective as Amazon made them sound in their promotion of this idea. Some months ago they admitted as much, but now I had to rebuild them with individual codes for each item. Obviously, I have not ordered every item, but I've tried to choose items carefully that I think would be a good deal for you. (I'd be happy to get feedback on these items if you have good experiences with them, or really bad experiences, because then I can remove or move up the items accordingly). Buy-Aloe-Vera-CapsulesYou know that though raw aloe vera gel from plants is a first choice in my mind, it is a wonderful blessing to find them in capsules, which are much easier to take and to bring with you when you travel. So one of my boutique stores is the Buy-Aloe-Vera-Capsules Store. There is a fairly wide selection of aloe vera capsules there, and from a number of different brands. Notice too, that they come in different strengths from 25 mg per capsule (a starting point if you are new to this), all the way up to 1000 or even 5000 mg. Be warned! those higher strengths could really cleanse out your whole digestive tract in a hurry. If that is what you need or want, fine - but you could be quite upset if you were not expecting that kind of result! Back-to-Eden-and-Herbal-BooksAnother keen interest of mine is the book "Back to Eden" by Jethro Kloss, which has been the starting point of my education on herbs and their traits and uses, and how to use them. That was written in the late 1800s, but I still find much that is enduring information in this topic. Of course, I've taken to looking for other books that also have helpful information. So I've looked up a number of them on Amazon, and have placed direct links to each of these books on my Boutique store page for Back-to-Eden-and-Herbal-Books. This has 16 herbal books to get you started in your self-education on herbs. Again, I invite you to let me know if you have a favourite herbal book that you think I should add to this boutique store. Of course, I would like to know why you like it too! By the same token, if you see a book that you find full of problems... let me know.
I Recommend - Your Favourite "Health and Wellness" SitesIt has occurred to me that you may well have some favourite health and wellness sites that you frequent when you want to know things about nutrition, natural remedies, supplements, and how to live in good health and strength. It would be nice to get some feedback from you with links to such sites. I would then visit them, and if I find them helpful too, I would like to prepare a web page on my site that links to them and points out their best features and value. Which site or sites come to your mind quickly when you read that? How about if you hit "Reply" and ... you can delete this ezine's text to save space - then write and give me your best tips for such good information sites? I would sure appreciate that a lot, and will gladly give you credit - if agree and decide to recommend them openly on my website.
Contact & Policies - Constant CONTACT INFO: Ruth Marlene Friesen (306)856-7785 Ruth@aloe-vera-and-handy-herbs.com
POLICIES: I am definitely against S/p/a/m! I Will NOT share your COPYRIGHT (c)2018 Ruth Marlene Friesen
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