Polineczka sorry for your situation. I do find that it ebbs and flows so hopefully you can take comfort from the fact that change is constant and that you will improve. That being said what I try to practice is the following:
1) I eat healthy fresh foods, try to reduce carb intake, follow an anti-inflammatory diet, drink lots of water, no alcohol or sugary drinks, little or no meat. I only consume salmon, preferably wild caught. Lay off the sweets, this is an area that I struggle with.
2) I only eat between the hours of 8am to 4pm and I try to stay comfortably in a positive BMI. I try never to be over weight and am constantly monitoring my weight.
3) I walk once per day, preferably in the morning when the muscles are tight.
4) I goto to the gym 3 times per week. It’s important to act your age at the gym. I am in my 60’s so I don’t exercise with heavy weight, extreme movements, and do not push myself to the limit like I did when I was younger. I take it slow and try to increase reps and weights very slowly when I know it won’t involve a struggle or a lot of exertion. It has taken me a while to find the right routine. It’s trial and error. Many times I make things worse when I try an exercise that doesn’t work and you feel the effects for days after. I am constantly thinking how to strengthen muscles especially around the problem areas in my lower back and neck.
5) I have degenerative discs in my neck and lumber region and that compounds the issue. I believe TKIs add to inflammation so if you tweak something even ever so slightly this can help to make the pain worse. As soon as a back episode occurs I immediately try to reduce the inflammation with celebrex and take a muscle relaxer. I only take these drugs for one or two days, after that hopefully things calm down and you can slowly use exercise routine to get you back on track.
With exercise it’s slow and steady wins the race. I can tell you I literally lived with harsh back pain for years, especially on Imatinib. If I add up all the time I had sciatica it would be in years. Exercise and walking are really the only things that help me.
I had an episode last July that lasted for 5 weeks. Luckily I got out of it. I found that stress and anxiety were the culprit this time around. ( There’s a lot of that in the states right now, it’s almost unavoidable). But in general I haven’t had many major episodes in the last few years. Being on Nilotinib I think has helped. But like I mentioned in my earlier post I do feel like the back pain wants to be more prominent but the exercise keeps it a bay.
I hope that helps.
If you have any further questions I would be happy to answer them.
Also remember change is your friend and when you’re in the middle of an episode it feels like it will never go away, but it will.
Even though I say that I still get depressed and despondent when an episode occurs like it did for me a few weeks ago.
But trust me you will improve. Just keep moving.
Joe
