Back pain (Perry)

[Les]

Being plagued with chronic back issues all my life, I have learned to work smarter and keep chilled ice packs in the freezer.  When I feel my back starting to nag at me (and they always do, we just ignore it and keep plugging along),  I stop what I am doing and head for the couch, ice, ibuprofen for about an hour.....then I am good to go.  I also do core strengthening exercises.   Unfortunately, once you tweak your back, it will always be a weak spot.
Hope you are feeling better Perry.

[Perry]

Thanks Les. My back is feeling better but now my right leg and butt cheek are painful. A sciatic nerve or some such thing.
I am taking 222's for the pain, and it is most uncomfortable at night when I am trying to sleep. It seems there is no "position" that I can find where the pain eases up.
Thankful for the help I got yesterday putting bee escapes on. I am caught up or catching up on a lot of little things I need to do prior to extracting though, as well as some other things. I am almost done cranking out another couple dozen inner covers, having finished the outer covers a week ago. Boxes are almost finished (painted).
I am mounting my jiggle knife to my Maxant wax melter having decided it (the melter) can serve more than just the one function.

[CBT]

I have a Velcro back brace that you pull up tight when picking up heavy stuff. It works great. Also would like a pic of that jiggle knife.

[apisbees]

I would mount it above the wax spinner. The wax melter will over heat to much of the honey. IT will darken the color and yes it will blend back into the extracted honey in the sump, My friend had a big maxant wax melter mounted under his Cowen uncapper feeding 2 60 frame extractors. even running that volume of honer through ti was damaging the honey and it was darkening it. He went to using a capping spinner. it is hard to keep up a flow rate of honey and capping that will not let the honey sit in it and over cook.
Having said all that.
If you installed an expanded mesh supported off the bottom of the tank uncapped into it and allow the honey to drip out of the wax and only put the heat on low to help the honey flow better and after filling the tank with wax and allowing the honey to all drain out then turn on the wax melter. even then as it melts the wax drawing off the honey often in the early process.

[Les]

Perry, if you sleep on your side, put a pillow between your knees.  If you sleep on your back, put it behind your knees and ice, ice and ice.
Good luck.

[Jen]

Agreed Les! 100%

[Perry]

  I've been using heat.

[Les]

Heat increase blood flow to the area causing more swelling and more pressure on what is aggravated.  Cold and ibuprofen will get the inflammation down.

[Lburou]

Perry, I feel your pain!  Have been living with back injury/pain since 1973.  It took decades and several specialists, but one day I saw a Physical Therapist who taught me the right activity to relieve my back spasms.  Your Ah-Ha (exercise/stretching wise) moment may still be in front of you.  Good luck finding just the right combination of activity that will relieve your spasms & inflamation.

I'm currently mentoring a retired Physical Therapist in beekeeping.  He recommends cycling between cold and heat.  Ice the area for 20 minutes, then let it return to normal temps, maybe even a little heat for 20 minutes.  Do it several times a day during acute episodes.  He reports that the warm/cold cycles force the circulation to increase in the area and inflammation is reduced more quickly than heat or cold alone.  Added:  He had detailed explanations for the vasodilation and vasoconstriction in the heat/cold cycle and how it speeds reduction of inflammation, allowing some healing without movement of the painful part of your body.

In case you didn't get the word, slush works great in an ice bag for conforming to the shape of the affected area.  You get slush by filling the ice bag with about 50/50 water and isopropyl.  The isopropyl alcohol lowers the freezing point of the water and it remains pliable while still below freezing temperatures.  We keep three different sizes in the freezer at all times.  One of these will help sometimes too.

[Chip Euliss]

Great advice Les.  I too have had lower back issues forever and I sleep on my side with a pillow between my knees.  I find that I'm most comfortable when the pillow extends from my knees to my feet; that way, none of my lower extremities touch and it helps me get my spine aligned.  I also find that if I curl up, just a little, it helps but that would vary by person and which vertebrae is causing the problem.  My stomach can't tolerate ibuprofen but a good martini (naturally, shaken--not stirred) before bed helps

[Jen]

Lee... The slush idea is brilliant! Thanks! I'm on the ice pack about once a week nowadays as well.

[Les]

Chip....vodka or gin?  I find vodka works best LOL

[Chip Euliss]

Both.  2 parts gin, 1 part vodka, 1 part Lillet Blanc

[riverbee]

perry, what les and lee said...........

sciatic nerve..........this nerve gets 'squished' or 'pinched' from the inflammation and swelling of the tendons and muscles placing pressure on it (constricting it) from your buttocks and can go all the way down to your ankle, and into your foot. 

like les said, (and chip) pillow between the legs at night and to the feet as chip said. ibuprofen, tylenol, whatever works.....

ice , and like lee said, sometimes ice is not always effective, use a regiment of ice/heat therapy.  2o minutes ice, 20 minutes heat.

learned about the sciatic nerve after the r hip surgery........
what a pain in the ...............

AND you can try chips martini recipe...........

[LazyBkpr]

I used to fight my back all the time.. CONSTANTLY.. about every other month I would do something...    Something means.. Stand up from sitting, get off of a creeper, bend over to pick up a wrench.... My back would shoot PAIN...  At times I had to CRAWL literally to get to my truck...  Hurt so bad getting in the truck I would throw up...    Then I would be bed ridden for three days, vomiting the first day... and after those three days it would be another week before I was moving again with only mild discomfort...
    Wife bought one of those inversion tables and made me hang on it...  I didn't think it did much but made me dizzy...     Three weeks later I hurt my back again... Crawled in the house.. literally CRAWLED through the back door...    Somehow managed to get on that table....   When I got off the table I could walk. Back hurt still, but I was capable of functioning without throwing up...  I started using the table once or twice a week if I hurt or not...  I have been doing that for about three years..  and slowly, without me really noticing...  I stopped "tweaking" my back.. In the last 8 months I have not had a single issue, even carrying railroad tie's on my shoulder etc..
   A little over a year ago, I asked my doctor if this was all in my head. He said no, and maybe.  No, there is some proof that inversion re aligns the spine and allows the disks to relax? And what did it matter if it was ALL in my head if I was no longer having issues?
   He had a good point..
   Depending on the situation and the problem, I have heard an inversion table can make an issue worse. What i know from personal experience, is that if someone tried to take my table away they would have a heckofa fight on their hands.