To chronic pain patients, the following situation is all too familiar: They start having pain, which worsens until everyday activities become unbearable. They go to their doctor, expecting treatment or at least a diagnosis. But the doctor scratches her head. She is looking for an obvious cause. Say, a knife sticking out of a patient’s chest. But there is no obvious cause. So the patient starts a scavenger hunt of specialist visits, general therapy, and alternative treatments. Maybe there is some degree of relief. Maybe not. There sure isn’t a diagnosis, or any specific problem identified. Hillary B.’s experience was…
Sitting Disabilities and the Curse of Boring
Before I developed one, I never realized how quickly sitting disabilities (or any disability, really) could make you a pariah. Sure, there are obvious reasons. If you can’t drive, it’s pretty hard to meet up with people outside your house. And if you can’t sit down, movies, restaurants, museums, and other public places are automatically less fun. But when I got my sitting disability, I realized there was another reason I was now no fun to hang out with: I became a boring person. I used to have plenty of hobbies and interests. I was a drama nut, and I…
Sitting Disabilities and Insurance Fights: Even When You Win, You Lose
While researching the legal background for my Sitting Disabilities: A Primer page, I spent quite a bit of time researching court cases and legal decisions related to sitting disabilities. So far, I have only been able to find one court case that directly addresses whether sitting disabilities are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). However, I did find several cases from the lower courts that dealt with sitting disabilities indirectly through workplace insurance battles. In each of these cases, the court concluded that the disabled person was, in fact, disabled, and could collect disability insurance money. Still, together…
Linda’s Trick for a Happy Flight
As I’ve mentioned, people come to the “sitting disabilities” camp from many different directions. A fellow upright, Linda V., alerted me to this blog post, which she wrote in 2015. I’m impressed by the creative solution she found to the anxiety-inducing ordeal that is air travel. She put herself to work. This might be my own insecurities speaking, but when I’m in public places I often worry about how my weird behaviors will come across. When I stand to avoid pain or beg flight attendants for a spot in their prep area, I often worry about coming across as demanding…
Don’t Believe Everything You Read: The Limitations of Health Reporting
The problem, of course, was that the press people didn’t actually understand what the articles were saying, because the articles were cloaked in scientific jargon and had a lot of tables. So the press people read the abstract and perhaps an email from the Editor-in-Chief and wrote a press release with a catchy headline.
My Coronavirus Survival Strategy? Treadmill Desk.
When I count my blessings, that treadmill desk is at the top of the list. Not only can I walk inside the house, I can walk and work at the same time. I feel like I’ve found the secret to time travel because I get so much more done in a day.
Sciatica: Scourge of Holy Men
I love the story in the article about the Roman physician who connected sciatica with Jacob and told Cardinal Bergoglio he was destined to change his name. I’m sure his comment was a little bit tongue-in-cheek, and surely not everyone with sciatica received it from an angel’s touch. Still, it’s a delightful story.
Book Review: Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by John E. Sarno
Sarno gained a minor celebrity status and cult following among patients, although he was largely shut out of the medical research community. After reading his book, I can understand both sides to some degree.
Upright Globetrotting
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that I am a person who is not like the others, because I’ve built so many accommodations for myself into my life. But when I travel, I come to appreciate how many modifications I’ve made in order to keep up the pretense of normalcy. Last month I flew to Scotland, where I spent three weeks visiting family. It should have been a restful and relaxing trip. After all, I wasn’t working and had no real responsibilities besides being a support babysitter and making one meal a day. But since I left the little terrarium I’ve…
Lyrica: It relieves pain until you want to die
Lyrica was the first serious prescription med I took to help manage my sciatica. This was back in July of 2017, not long after my problems began. My initial scans weren’t particularly enlightening, and I begged my doctor for something, anything that could help me manage. The something I got was Lyrica. I started out at the fairly low dose of 50 mg. It kind of helped. A little bit. In that, it felt like it would sometimes take the sharp edges off some of the nerve impulses, but it never worked well enough for me to see it as…