Question
I received your e-mail with the preview and will have to get instruction on how to download it, in the mean time will it cause nerve damage to continue to dig lilies with the pain, tingling and numbness?     Thank you for your time.   Sandy Nall          
Follow Up to this Question -
I'm a female, 52, good health. Lifting rocks started my current problem. I have read your Q&As and I am following your advice about the web site on Somatics. I have yet to find a discussion about a problem like mine altough it sounds similar to siatica. To begin with I had a sharp pinching pain just to the left of my last vertebra which would pinch much more with certain movements. I also have a sharp pinching burning larger pain to the outside of my hip-never at the same time. My chiropractor said I had a little thinning of that vertebra and the hip pain was probably a bursa since it went away with a lot of walking. Do you believe that's true? I have no pain down the back of my leg. Now the lower inside of my left shin is tingling with some numbness. Working (I raise daylilies) makes it all worse but I sell my lilies in May and June and I need to know if I will cause more damage by continuing to work.
Answer -
Dear Sandy,

The pinching usually comes from tight muscles in the area.  Likewise, soreness.

Thinning of the vertebrae almost never happens; thinning of the disc, more often, again, due to tight muscles.

It's probably not a bursa, but again, if it were, it's usually due to a tight muscle whose tendon crosses and traps the bursa.

No pain down the leg?  Not sciatica.

Basically, you need to retrain your control of your tight muscles.  Easiest to see a somatics practitioner (see somatics.com and click the Practitioners link at top).  If no practitioners exist near you, get the self-care program, Free Yourself from Back Pain.  (email [email protected] for preview).

with regard,
Lawrence Gold

Answer
Dear Sandy,

Until you get those muscles under control, they are likely to cause the same problems with the same consequences.

To get the preview, send email to [email protected]; instructions will be returned by email.

with regard,
Lawrence Gold