Only been dealing with this crap for 35 years....now why haven't I thought of a glass of warm milk???
As to the rest of your comment.....
was very active for years. Weights, running and hiking. Unlike some lucky souls who never have anything happen to them physically I have. Thanks to 18 years of repetitive motion jobs....(sadly I did not wear a foreskin retainer, aka tie, and sit behind a desk)...I am riddled with arthritis. I tore the tendons off of my elbow way back playing baseball. Tore my bicep tendon on my left side. Have a bone spur in the clavicle joint, it is in an area where getting to it is going to just cause me more trouble then what I have. Know about this spur thanks to a surgeon going into my shoulder to remove another spur. So even if I wanted to play baseball or softball....well.....the throwing motion makes tendons slide across the clavicle spur...needless to say what that feels like.
You know what a physiatrist is?
[h5]Physiatrists, or rehabilitation physicians, are nerve, muscle, and bone experts who treat injuries or illnesses that affect how you move[/h5]
Rehabilitation physicians are medical doctors who have completed training in the medical specialty of physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R). Specifically, rehabilitation physicians:
- Diagnose and treat pain
- Restore maximum function lost through injury, illness or disabling conditions
- Treat the whole person, not just the problem area
- Lead a team of medical professionals
- Provide non-surgical treatments
- Explain your medical problems and treatment/prevention plan
The job of a rehabilitation physician is to treat any disability resulting from disease or injury, from sore shoulders to spinal cord injuries. The focus is on the development of a comprehensive program for putting the pieces of a person's life back together after injury or disease – without surgery.
My doc sent me to see one in an attempt to come up with an exercise program. He gave me a quick exam and went and looked at all my films. Told me that I have stenosis going on in an area that spans 5 or so of my discs. I also have degenerative disc disease in the rest of them....which will lead to stenosis sooner or later.
Informed me that I am one fall away from a chair. When asked about lifting weights, running etc he just laughed at me. Told me that any sort of impact exercise is only going to make things worse. Also suggested that I put any thoughts of weight training out of my head.
His suggestion was a treadmill....with no incline. Walking up/down any hill damn near brings tears to my eyes. He also suggested a seated elliptical. Of which I have both and alternate between the two of the.
Seeing as how I can only stand for a brief period without the pain ramping up severely pretty much any type of exercise is almost impossible.
Sleep problem is not caused by any of this.....well some nights the pain does keep me up. The sleep problem is caused by me being bipolar...with psychotic tendencies. Mixed in with that is a pretty good dose of paranoia. I am one of the many mentally ill folks who can not be medicated. Anti-depressants in someone like me just trigger manic episodes. I need a cocktail of mood stabilizers & antidepressants. I can't handle the mood stabilizers...suffer from damn near every side effect of them.
It is what it is. I don't expect folks like you...the ones that have never stepped in a pile of dog s**t in there life....the lucky folks who are mentally healthy and thanks to either bring genetically gifted and/or just flat out lucky to not develop all sorts of physical troubles......to understand what this is like. I also have become sort of numb to the folks who say I don't "look" bipolar. Or worse yet, the folks that tell me to drink a glass of milk, take melatonin etc.
Like I said, this has been going on for 35 years. Been down the self medicating road more than once. Tried all sorts of OTC sleep aids....prescription sleep aids. Tried the natural way to treat all this crap. None of it works. Simple as that.
Not a day goes by that I don't think of suicide. Pretty much a standard thought in that spinning disaster in my head. On many of the roads I drive there are 40 foot drops on either side, very few with guard rails. One of the thoughts that I can pick out is if I were to steer my vehicle into one of these drop offs would it be enough to kill me.
Seems like every time I try to talk about this on one of these forums I run into this type of nonsense. Drink a glass of milk....get up and exercise it will help you sleep. Then when I try to explain why I can't I often feel like I am getting judged...did I mention I suffer from a pretty good case of paranoia?
But like I said....it is what it is......
