Aimlessly Thinking Things

I've struggled with chronic pain since high school. I think it stems from a hard fall flat onto my back that happened while playing basketball back then.

I've been through the gamut trying to find pain relief over the years. I did over a decade of physical therapy with various therapists. I've seen many different chiropractors. I've tried various prescribed narcotics with very little pain relief. I've had dry needling & acupuncture done.

Surgeons were reluctant to operate on me. My pain is probably being caused by more than one issue. I have degenerative disc disease, arthritic areas, & had a bulging disc. I finally found a surgeon willing to operate on me but he was completely candid with me about my situation. He told me that statistically my odds were I would be lucky to get 25% pain relief after surgery. He would be fixing my mechanical issues but if my pain was driven by my arthritis, the surgery would do very little for pain relief. Arthritis cannot be fixed. The surgeon also advised me that if I don't start taking serious care of my weight loss & core strengthening that I would also be looking at having this surgery repeated every 10 to 15 years as the next disc up in my spine wears out from the added stresses of the metal replacements below it. This is why surgeons don't like performing this surgery on younger people. I was going to undergo a quarter million dollar surgery with no guarantees. I told my doctor that even 25% less pain would be worth it to me for my quality of life.

The surgery was 3 years ago. I achieved about 85% pain reduction. My care team & myself were pleasantly surprised.

Lately I've begun to develop some muscle soreness in my shoulders. I found a highly recommended masseuse. She was helping me with my muscle pain using deep tissue massage but it just wasn't quite getting to my sore areas. A month ago she started cupping on me & the relief was almost immediate. The process can be a bit intense. When she cups a particularly tight area, the cups feel like they are pinching you really hard. The sensation usually goes away after a few seconds.

Don't wear a tank top out after a session because the areas that have been cupped will look like an octopus attacked you. You will have perfect circles on you in varying shades of red. I forgot about my first session & was confused when my family asked me about my new back tattoo.