new job and strange medical condition

[Kraspor]

Hi coaches,

this is a follow up to the following thread http://startingstrength.com/resource...59180-job.html.
I tried to revive that thread with my new question but i guess it was just to old already (even though it is still not closed).

Short summary of my old thread:
i aksed for advice on how to modify training when switching jobs from a setendary jobs to a physical demanding one. A few days after i started that thread i was hospitalised with stroke like symptons. Fortunately it wasn't a stroke, unfortunately they didn't find the cause of my symptons until now.
Neurologists and the the Neurosurgeons didn't find anything. They want me to come back in november to get another mri of my spine done to check again.

The symptoms i still have are as follows:
- numbness in the whole right side of my body (starting at about the upper ab area down, so the face, arm and chest area is fine)
- heavy burning pain when the right hamstring or buttock is being streched in any way (even when squatting down to sit on the toilet or bending over to pick up something of the floor). Pain becomes unbearable after a few seconds, so i have to stop whatever im doing then
- mild to medium burning pain in my right leg even when doing nothing
- sometimes problems walking (feels like the hip or the knee is giving out)
- numbness in the index and middle finger of my left hand

The doctors prescriped me some ibuprophen 600mg 3x/day, and want me to try some vitamin b complex for nerve relaxation. They also prescribed me physical therapy which i will start asap. But basically they are clueless about my condition.
My father in law is a physical threapist and he made a short assement of me and he thinks it has something to do with my sciatic nerve, even though the doctors didnt find anything. But that wouldn't expelain all my symptons.

In addition to that i did start the new job and it is really physical demanding, but i want to start training again nontherless.
But obviously i don't want and can't afford to beat myself down, so i need your advice on how to start training again with all these factors combined:
- physical demanding job which goes from 5:00am to 2:30pm. That means i have to get up at around 3:30am
- medical condition
- i have a small child which doesnt let us sleep very well, even though my wife is doing most of the work with the child i still have some sleep problems in addition to my tough work schedule

Basically i have these two questions:

- How should i start training again?

- Did anybody of you hear of a medical condition like mine and give me any sort of advice on what it could be and how to treat it?

Thanks very much
Greetings
Christian

[Tom Campitelli]

Firstly, I am sorry to hear that you are still struggling with this. I hope you can get a diagnosis and figure out a way to get better. Whatever I say regarding your condition is complete conjecture. Take this free advice for what it is worth–nothing.

You are going to be doing physical therapy and your doctors have not found an orthopedic reason for your injury. You mentioned that even bending over is profoundly painful. I take it that doing a set of squats without the bar is similarly painful? Does it get better if you keep squatting, or worse? My only advice to you would be to exercise as best you can and let pain be your guide. If you can do pullups without hurting anything, that is an option. Presses, perhaps seated presses, or bench presses might work provided you are not in danger of dropping the bar. Arm work of your choice. If you always wanted to get good at curls, now might be the time.

Did anybody of you hear of a medical condition like mine and give me any sort of advice on what it could be and how to treat it?

We'll ask. Realize that since no one seems to know what is wrong with you, anything your are told here is just guessing.

[Kraspor]

Firstly, I am sorry to hear that you are still struggling with this. I hope you can get a diagnosis and figure out a way to get better. Whatever I say regarding your condition is complete conjecture. Take this free advice for what it is worth–nothing.

You are going to be doing physical therapy and your doctors have not found an orthopedic reason for your injury. You mentioned that even bending over is profoundly painful. I take it that doing a set of squats without the bar is similarly painful? Does it get better if you keep squatting, or worse? My only advice to you would be to exercise as best you can and let pain be your guide. If you can do pullups without hurting anything, that is an option. Presses, perhaps seated presses, or bench presses might work provided you are not in danger of dropping the bar. Arm work of your choice. If you always wanted to get good at curls, now might be the time.



We'll ask. Realize that since no one seems to know what is wrong with you, anything your are told here is just guessing.

First i really appreciate your time and thank you for trying to help me. Means really much to me. For this i can't thank you enough coach!

I do understand that you can't have a look into your crystall ball and tell me what i have. But at the moment i'm willing take every guess that i can get. And i also trust you guys here a lot more than i trust most of the medical staff outside in this world.

Now on to your questions:
Yes, Squats (or the learning position from the book) are very painful, about when i hit depth. On the outside of my right hip i would say. I believe (but i dont know shit about anatomy and stuff) that its the sciatic nerve, at least a part of it.
Pain stays about the same when i keep squatting for a few reps, but after some more reps it really gets worse quickly (I did 10 reps, pain was the same for about 6 or 7 then it got significantly worse).

I do think that pullups, presses, bench and any kind of arm work should be manageable. What could be some options to try and keep my leg strength (gaining some of it back)?

Do you think i should just do all the stuff on the same day a few times per week or should i split things up into some kind of program? Because of my job i thought about 2 days / week. I dont know if i can recover from 3 days given my work schedule and the fact that i didnt quite adapted to it yet.

Thanks again
Christian

[Tom Campitelli]

I think that you should be as active as you can within your constraints. You need to be able to pick things up off the ground and get up and down from the toilet. If you were to do three sets of ten squats with just your bodweight, what would happen? I think it has been established that it is going to hurt while you are doing it. I care if it continues to hurt for a while after you have done them, or if it makes your symptoms worse. Does it hurt more or less with a bar on your back?

Do you think i should just do all the stuff on the same day a few times per week or should i split things up into some kind of program?

Alternate press and bench press on different days. Start light enough with the other stuff that you can do it every session.

[Steve Hill]

You may wish to read up on paresthesia - warning: it has a bunch of causes, it is just a general description of the type of pain you are experiencing.

I would ask an additional question: Is the pain relieved when you hang from a chin-up bar (best way to do this is two use ab slings or a pair of weightlifting belts with your upper arms in the belt, so you're not using main grip strength to hang) for a period of time; say, 5-10 minutes? Or, have you tried any other type of decompression therapy (such as an inversion table)? If so on either question, did it provide relief?

[Austin Baraki]

Sorry for your difficult situation. It sounds like your hospital physicians ruled out all the emergent causes of your symptoms like stroke and spinal cord compression, which is definitely a good thing... That said, your description of a distinct level where the numbness starts ("upper ab area") and goes all the way down is still suspicious (and likely their reason for repeating a spine MRI). Brief internet doctoring: How old are you? Any other medical history? Did these symptoms come on acutely after doing a particular task at your job or have they been progressively worsening?

[Kraspor]

Hi all,

first of all, i'm sorry that my answer took so long, life is really hectic and demanding at the moment. You all know that too..

I think that you should be as active as you can within your constraints. You need to be able to pick things up off the ground and get up and down from the toilet. If you were to do three sets of ten squats with just your bodweight, what would happen? I think it has been established that it is going to hurt while you are doing it. I care if it continues to hurt for a while after you have done them, or if it makes your symptoms worse. Does it hurt more or less with a bar on your back?

Alternate press and bench press on different days. Start light enough with the other stuff that you can do it every session.

When i do 3x10 bodyweight squats the pain seems to come back to almost the normal state a little while after the end of the sets. It may feel a bit more irritated for a while but not really much more painful then normal. I didnt try it with a bar on my back yet since i'm also having some balance issues at the bottom of the squat and i'm tipping forwards or backwards at almost every squat. I dont really wanna try that with a bar on my back yet.

So actually the "routine" would come down to something like this:
BW Squats 3x10 (later with bar and slowly increasing weight)
Press / Bench 3x5
Back extensions 3x10 (if possible)
Chins
Curls

Do you think thats ok?

And I have another question. I devoloped some painful, stiff and swolen finger joints at work. I guess its due to the reptitive gripping, squeezing and pulling i do all day. I already take ibuprophen 3x a day and put some Voltaren ointment on it. Can you give me some other tips how to threat that, i'm already having this issue about 2 weeks now and it gets annoying.
Pain and stiffness is worst right when waking up, as soon as i get the fingers moving it gets better up to about almost normal function with a little pain and stiffness at the end of the movement (right about when closing the fist for example).

You may wish to read up on paresthesia - warning: it has a bunch of causes, it is just a general description of the type of pain you are experiencing.

I would ask an additional question: Is the pain relieved when you hang from a chin-up bar (best way to do this is two use ab slings or a pair of weightlifting belts with your upper arms in the belt, so you're not using main grip strength to hang) for a period of time; say, 5-10 minutes? Or, have you tried any other type of decompression therapy (such as an inversion table)? If so on either question, did it provide relief?

Yeah paresthesia seems to be the name of my symptom, nice to know what to search about, thanks. Unfortunately it says that the cause needs to be found to actually threat it, and thats exactly my problem. Nobody knows or can even think of the cause..
Some of the things that are recommended i am already trying, like vitamin b complex, zinc and such stuff.
Unfortunately i dont have the option to do the ab sling thing or inversion table at the moment, but i see if i can get it done somehow. Sounds like its worth a try.


Thanks
Christian

[Kraspor]

Sorry for your difficult situation. It sounds like your hospital physicians ruled out all the emergent causes of your symptoms like stroke and spinal cord compression, which is definitely a good thing... That said, your description of a distinct level where the numbness starts ("upper ab area") and goes all the way down is still suspicious (and likely their reason for repeating a spine MRI). Brief internet doctoring: How old are you? Any other medical history? Did these symptoms come on acutely after doing a particular task at your job or have they been progressively worsening?

Hi there,

I am 31 years.
Medical history:
- left meniscus taken out (12 or 13 years ago)
- depression (succesfully beaten about 6 or 7 years ago)
- impingement syndrom in my left shoulder (still flares up occasionally)
- lower back pain (didnt have any more problems after switching jobs)
These are the rough things, do you need to know more of my medical history?

These symptoms came during / after a longish drive in the car (about 2 hours, i wasnt the driver).
All of sudden (a few minutes before the end of the drive) i noticed that my legs felt very tired and i didnt know why and i noticed the numbness in my fingers.
When we got home and i wanted to get out of the car i almost fell into the car right next to ours, because i had tremendous problems walking that i didnt know about then. Right then i noticed the numbness on my whole left side.
I got to the hospital the same night.
Symtoms changed during my stay at the hopital, or at least my awareness of them. The left side got worse first and then better, the right side vice versa. The numbness that is.
I started to notice the pain in the sciatica region about 2 or 3 days into the hospital stay, a little while after all the stress and panic cooled down a little. Maybe the pain was there all the time, i really dont know, at leat i didnt recognize it.

Very weird situation. All the medical staff i have seen so far is pretty much baffled.
Maybe you have an idea?


In the meantime my psical therapist did something similar like a inversion table with me. He hung me up in a lot of slings and took away the table i was lying on. Actually that did provide some relief, at least while i was hanging there. It did go back to my normal actual state pretty soon though.

Thanks
Christian

[Will Morris]

Do you happen to have a pronounced tuft of hair at the base of your lower back? Do you have any weird bowel or bladder issues?

[Kraspor]

Do you happen to have a pronounced tuft of hair at the base of your lower back? Do you have any weird bowel or bladder issues?

No, all pretty normal as far as i can tell. What would that indicate?