The more I've had this (1 1/2 years now) , the more I become convinced that sitting is the root of this for me. I work in Web design in my job, I've been sitting in front of the computer probably 40-80 hours a week for about 4 years now. (I just turned 27) This cannot be good for my pelvic muscles, lower back muscles, posture, muscles which could contribute to pelvic muscle irregularities. It can't be good for anything in my life honestly. ( I do exercise regularly now which helps)
Last week I went on vacation to Las Vegas for 5 or 6 days, when I was out there I felt great. I had some minor bouts with frequency(my only major symptom, meditation allieviated the pain aspect a while ago), but I was mostly very minor symptoms there, I was definitely able to enjoy myself and have a good time.
I contribute that to doing relaxation sessions, and then being on my feet most of the day afterwards, at least being ACTIVE and moving around a lot.
But then, within 3 or 4 days of being back to work and sitting again, my symptoms were bascially back to where they were before.
With this sort of thing happening, and seeing the GREAT improvement I've made using skilled relaxation/meditation over the past 8 months, and the consistent improvement in symptoms I've seen in various vacations where I'm free of sitting very much, and how I feel good when exercising........I just believe that sitting so much in front of a computer makes my healing like a 4 steps forward, 3 steps back thing that I can NEVER totally resolve until I stop sitting.
Thus, I'm going to look into getting into a different field of job sometime in the next year.
Any suggestions for jobs where I wouldn't be sitting very much? I'm open to consideration for most ideas.
There is a catch, there HAS to be health insurance......in the US, lots of retail jobs where you wouldn't be standing very much, don't have health insurance. I just want a job with health insurance.
Plus, I need to make decent money, enough money to live reasonably comfortably without rooomates. aka something at least making 30k US a year, nothing like working in an ice cream store or anything. (that type of job wouldn't have health insurance most likely anyways)
I don't even care if it's a step down from what I have now, I would rather be poor and IC/CPPS free than rich with it. (I'm not rich, I"m just saying the tradeoff would be a no brainer for me)
So just any jobs/fields etc that you all think might be good in terms of sitting little. I am college educated, so this would be a major life change for me.....but I'm sure you all could understand where I'm coming from with this.
People have suggested getting some sort of stand for my computer at work where I stand all the time, that would be an option but my office has cubicles, it would be almost completely impossible at my current job(and in this crap economy it would be extremely difficult to find a job like I have in my field, its very saturated and competitive)....but thats something to consider for the future.
I'm not sure I want a corporate job next anyways, CPPS/IC has changed my perspectives on everything in life, so I'm just weighing options here......but I'm not going to make any rash impulse decisions. Health is going to be a major factor in whatever I do, so whatever changes I need to make will be worth it because I truly believe that sitting less will make a monumental difference for me.
thanks
CPPS/IC friendly jobs
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Pepo
jd,
absolutely agree with you on the fact that sitting is not good for our conditions at all. I went through very much the same experience when I was on vacation (I work in office = almost 100% sitting kind of job) and my symptoms reduced significantly - in my case worst symptoms do not include frequency, but terrible lower back and legs (left leg especially - why I do not know) pain + pain&discomfort in whole pelvis area. Talking about sport, I always did a lot a sport and I do continue as I did not find any link between symptoms and sport. The only category I quited with is bicycling. On the other hand, sport allows me to get rid of bleak state of mind which we all sometimes facing, I guess.
Get a new job with limited sitting went through my head many times, but seems like nightmare for someone with university degree. Hope you find some!
Pepo
absolutely agree with you on the fact that sitting is not good for our conditions at all. I went through very much the same experience when I was on vacation (I work in office = almost 100% sitting kind of job) and my symptoms reduced significantly - in my case worst symptoms do not include frequency, but terrible lower back and legs (left leg especially - why I do not know) pain + pain&discomfort in whole pelvis area. Talking about sport, I always did a lot a sport and I do continue as I did not find any link between symptoms and sport. The only category I quited with is bicycling. On the other hand, sport allows me to get rid of bleak state of mind which we all sometimes facing, I guess.
Get a new job with limited sitting went through my head many times, but seems like nightmare for someone with university degree. Hope you find some!
Pepo
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jd
a few examples I could think of off the top of my head would be:
massage therapist
physical therapist
nurse
personal trainer(at a gym)
surveyor (buildings, roads, etc)
chef (I alredy know that would would be too much stress, at least for me)
pimp
exotic dancer
I would have to go back to school for most of those,(school of hard knocks for the last 2) that would be something I could handle if I had to
like I said, I'm just looking for some rough ideas at this point, and I seriously wouldn't consider the last 2!!
massage therapist
physical therapist
nurse
personal trainer(at a gym)
surveyor (buildings, roads, etc)
chef (I alredy know that would would be too much stress, at least for me)
pimp
exotic dancer
I would have to go back to school for most of those,(school of hard knocks for the last 2) that would be something I could handle if I had to
like I said, I'm just looking for some rough ideas at this point, and I seriously wouldn't consider the last 2!!
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Ken
I can relate to this. I am in the transport industry. My job requires me to sit
for over 8 somtimes 14 hours with just restroom breaks. One of my Uro's said
he has treated many men with my type of job. I am currently in PT doing
biofeedback with stimulation and paracticing relaxation and stretching so
I can get my pain level down or should I say prevent my pain level increasing
to the point where I'm on fire, and stop that person from hitting me in the
lower back with a ball peen hammer.
for over 8 somtimes 14 hours with just restroom breaks. One of my Uro's said
he has treated many men with my type of job. I am currently in PT doing
biofeedback with stimulation and paracticing relaxation and stretching so
I can get my pain level down or should I say prevent my pain level increasing
to the point where I'm on fire, and stop that person from hitting me in the
lower back with a ball peen hammer.
-
TK
JD,
In your web design work, do you work for a company or are you self-employed?
I too work in graphics (mostly print) but -- because I am self-employed -- I had the freedom to let the business slide for a period of about a year (maintaining current clients, but not looking for new business).
Anyway, this arrangement gave me enough flexibility so that the long periods of sitting could be broken up into 2 hours sessions and stretched out across day and evening hours. And at any point in time, I am free to go do stretches or relaxation techniques as needed.
So maybe if you could just allow yourself 6 months of less sitting, you could get yourself to a place where you could handle the workload while continuing to improve with respect to "the damned condition". If you like being a web designer, maybe you don't have to give it up entirely.
By the way, JD, thanks for all your posts about relaxation techniques and theta waves! I am convinced that people get better by taking the basic info about exercises and relaxation and then individualizing them... finding what works.
In your web design work, do you work for a company or are you self-employed?
I too work in graphics (mostly print) but -- because I am self-employed -- I had the freedom to let the business slide for a period of about a year (maintaining current clients, but not looking for new business).
Anyway, this arrangement gave me enough flexibility so that the long periods of sitting could be broken up into 2 hours sessions and stretched out across day and evening hours. And at any point in time, I am free to go do stretches or relaxation techniques as needed.
So maybe if you could just allow yourself 6 months of less sitting, you could get yourself to a place where you could handle the workload while continuing to improve with respect to "the damned condition". If you like being a web designer, maybe you don't have to give it up entirely.
By the way, JD, thanks for all your posts about relaxation techniques and theta waves! I am convinced that people get better by taking the basic info about exercises and relaxation and then individualizing them... finding what works.