WHICH ONE WORKED

This is an update of my public service announcement  on back and hip pain I posted in October.    If this condition doesn't affect you or anyone you know, feel free to skip this post. Hopefully I will be back next week with something which is  more generally interesting.  

Did you ever achieve long sought after results but aren't exactly sure how you got there??   

What I am referring to today regards the painful aging of back and hips. I know all the steps I took to battle it, I am just not sure which one worked or if it was a combination.

For years I have periodically whined about my failing body, mainly my back and hips which use to bark at me daily in a malevolent manner. I hurt and it seemed to be getting slowly but steadily worse.  Both chores and joys were being avoided if they aggravated  my joints. It had been getting  noticeably worse for over a year. My go-to OTC helpers of  glucosamine/chondroitin had lost their punch. 

Now I could have just accepted my decline and sought temporary relief via  pain killers or liver and heart damaging prescription drugs but I stubbornly wanted my freedom of motion back with out doing further damage to my body. I railed against the penalties of age. I cursed its hostile take over of my life. I went to war. 

I can't really tell you exactly when it happened for almost complete relief was gradual, almost as gradual as my decline.  Some things I incorporated gave me startling and immediate improvement like my posture change. While that gave me dramatic 80% improvement which was blissfully received, I really craved complete relief.  Other methods appeared at first to do nothing but I kept adding on---hoping something would eventually kick in.  

I added supplements, exercised, changed my bed, my shoes, along with the successful posture correction (which is still a work in progress). I was looking for a benign cure with hopefully some scientific basis. However I wasn't locked in to  pure science. I tried any possible cure that had at least two good reviews. Exercise,  Himalayan salt lamps,  seaweed,  tart cherry, turmeric, ginger root,  oil swirling (can't honestly say I gave swirling a fair try) and nearly went the magnet route.  I am still doing all of the above.  

Had I found any reviews for it, I wouldn't have hesitated to bury a toad (it would have to have been a road kill) under a willow tree at midnight of a full moon. Any old wives tale was worth consideration. After all, those gals did live to be "old" wives somehow. 

Then it just happened. One day I just awoke aware that I was  now at least 95% pain free.  I no longer  grit my teeth at night when I changed position in bed. Instead In the mornings I now luxuriate cat like in bed stretching and twisting with pleasure--pain free.   

I moved easily and without stiffness through out the day and can now drive my car without having to hobble like a 98 year old on exit at my destination. I zoom through grocery stores like a youngster and actually take gleeful pleasure passing slower carts.  Beep-beep.  I was at first afraid that it was temporary relief but this has blissfully gone on now for over a month. 

Oh how I wish I could share with you what the magic bullet was but I don't know which "cure" did it. I will say that posture correction made the biggest immediate improvement but what method put me over the top, I am not sure.  I think it is most likely a combination of multiple bullets. 

What I can say is please don't give up hope.  I truly believe age can be beaten back somewhat. I can't make my organs young, erase those deep lines in my face with out surgery, nor throw away my eyeglasses,  but I can at least sleep, sit and walk today with only rare twinges. Gracious, does it ever feel good. 

I wish all of you that age might be slapping around right now the same success I have found. What worked for me may not work for you but I really believe the answer for most of us is out there.  Google is your friend. Use it like a bee uses the flower. Find what works for you.  

Ah, the good old days when if you didn't wake up with a hangover or a cold, you  were healthy. Sure takes a lot more work these days to feel good.   It may not be as easy as when we were young, but it is appreciated so much more. 

 "Sometimes age succeeds, sometimes it fails.  It depends on you".  ~Ravensara Noite