No more numb hands!

I went swimming Friday, Saturday and this morning.  I had some good workouts too.  One thing I noticed that was different swimming this weekend as to before Friday morning -- my hands didn't go numb in the pool!  In fact, I can raise both arms in the air and it takes a significantly longer time for them to numb.  It was rather instant and mostly in the left hand.  I had mentioned this to Doc on a couple of occasions.

So I went swimming this morning before my appointment to see Doc.  Due to a head-cold, I wasn't able to complete the full workout I had planned on, but I got some good yards in.  However, I didn't notice that I didn't have to massage my hand to regain feeling after each set.  When I saw Doc this afternoon, I told him about that.  He was very excited!  He seemed very relieved and said that it was a great thing.

I asked him what he meant by the "bubble" that he pushed on last Friday.  I'm trying to remember the order of what he said...  There was a tear in the muscle and fascia was poking through when it shouldn't be -- so he pushed it back into place.  Either that or there was a tear in the fascia and the muscle was poking through.  I had never heard of fascia, so I couldn't follow very well.  That and he was in a hurry to do soft tissue work on my neck.  Lol.

So I've been searching Google through a variety of phrases.  I found an easy to read site that explains what fascia is.  Looking at the diagram, I'm thinking Doc meant there was a tear in the muscle and the fascia was poking through.  But I am having trouble finding more information about it.  >:(  Is it a weird thing for it to occur?

Doc asked me how I fared over the weekend.  I told him besides overworking my lower back on Saturday, the only residual pain was in my neck.  It felt "bruised."  I thought it was straining my back on Saturday, but he said it's more likely related to my seized/spazzed episode on Friday.  Now that I think about it...  It does kind of feel like whiplash.  Kind of.

So now Doc is more aware of my situation regarding my lower back; and now he is more concerned.  Lol.  I told him Mom said the last time I had x-rays done was when I was 14 and she doesn't remember the doctor giving any specifics.  He wasn't surprised.  During treatment today, I had a sudden nasty pinch in my lower back.  He asked if I was ok; I told him that it was very normal for me, that it hurt, but that it would pass -- always does.  When he showed me a new exercise to try for my shoulders, I noticed that it involved putting a lot of pressure on the lower vertebrae.  I told him that I would try, but in past experience, those exercises usually aggravated my lower back pretty bad.

We kept chatting about it and I mentioned that I frequently hear a "grinding" noise in my back and neck.  I have been hearing it for years.  He asked why I hadn't done anything about it.  I told him that each time I have seen a doctor about it, I get put on 6 weeks of steroids and months of physical therapy that makes the pain worse.  I told him I pretty gave up on that route and just learned to live and deal with it on my own.

I don't expect him to fix everything that's wrong with me.  I only give the information when he asks or when it's relevant.  He has mentioned that I'm pretty bad off.  I probably shouldn't have waited until January to see him.  Probably should have given him a call when my buddy Shannon referred him last summer.  Oh well.  Too late now.

I do feel an overall difference though.  It has been 6 sessions and normally people see results in 6-8 sessions with him or the other doctors there.  He says I have a really long way to go though.  *sigh*