How can I make my job less physically painful?
353629
Yes, wear a back brace like the people who lift heavy things wear. Those help for your back. Also, if the floors do not have a rubber mat, request one. They alleviate pressure on your feet. By comfortable shoes.
1164422
First of all if the problem is occuring at work, this may be a work related injury.  Talk to your HR department  and supervisor.  You may want to open a workmen compensation case up.  When people work on computers there alot of injuries that can arise for it.  I would suggest a ergonomic evaluation to make sure your station is set up properly.  Sometimes if the chair is too high or too low or your posture is poor resulting back problems may ensue.\n\nIn general, muscle spasm are very similiar to muscle cramps.  To tell if you have muscle spasm, lay on your belly and have someone feel both sides of you lower back.  Is one side tighter than the other.  If so then you are having muscle spasms.\n\nIn term of slipped disk, if you did something and your disk slipped you may experience pain in your lower back near your spine.  This can occur without compressing a nerve.  If it is a large slipped disk and large enough to push on a nerve, then in addition to back pain you will also have radicular symptoms.  In other words, you will have pains shooting down you legs or experience leg numbness and or weakness.\n\nKeep in mind, that muscle spasms and slipped disk can occur together.  From you description, I suspect that it is mainly muscle spasms.  Usually people are doing something fairly exertional when you get a slipped disk.\n\nGo see a doctor.  MRI and Xray are COMPLETELY USELESS initially.  Start with conservative treatment namely ice you back, NSAIDS like motrin and alleve, physical therapy and ergonomic evaluation.  The reason i say mri and xrays are useless initially is because at this stage of the ballgame even if you have a slipped disk conservative management is still the treatment.  If you find a slipped disk without pain going down the leg you would not do a cortisone injection and who in there right mind would want to do back surgery without first trying conservative therapy.  If conservative therapy works and your back gets better, who cares what the MRI said and it would have be a waste of money to do it.  Xrays do not pick up muscle spasms or slipped disk.
163315
take some analgesics, wear a hot patch, and drink hot liquids like a chamomile tea\nit will help
587282
Having had back surgery, and seeing countless doctors on back pain and hearing their answers I would do what my doctors advised me to do.\n\nGet two towels very damp. Put one in the freezer and put one in the microwave.\n\nFirst, I would take a hot, hot shower as hot as you can stand it for no more than 15 minutes or as long as the hot waters holds out.\n\nThen take out the towel out of the freezer and put it one the area that is tight. Keep it on for 15 minutes.\n\nDo nothing for 15 minutes and then alternate a hot towel from the microwave and then the cold towel out of the freezer and do this every hour that you can until the spot works itself out.\n\nAlso it sounds like you have some inflammation in your muscles and you can get some over the counter meds for that like ibuprofen.  I would take some ibuprofen for a few days to help with the inflammation.\n\nIf this does not help you may need to get your workspace more ergonomically safe. Monitors should be at eye level and keyboard in a place that does not put a strain on you.\n\nIf none of this starts having a positive effect you may want to see a physical therapist. They have special infrared massagers that can help and help you work out some of the kinks.\n\nGood Luck.
1175206
not more painful but close to it. very uncomfy. good luck. the pain killers were good though!
1029142
You are going to have to create your escape plan. Start building a bridge to get out. While your doing it, do something you like to do after work and do it.Your happiness is more important than putting up with people that don't care and are stuck abusing you!
331482
Have something you can hit that won't damage anything. Like a punching bag. Take all the stress out on that until you're so tired you don't care.
618262
Yes, you are totally correct. We, as humans were not made to sit all day at a desk. Get up frequently, and take a short walk to the water cooler, and use a bathroom further away so you stretch out some. Take a walk outside at lunch, this will also help. Also, if you use a computer, raise the monitor so you are looking straight at it and not looking down at it. When you look down, you put a lot of excess stress on your neck and shoulders and will lead to knots in your back.
333286
It sounds like you have a slightly pinched nerve.  Try hot pads on it, and an anti-inflammatory like Motrin.
224381
I spend 60+ hours a week working (mostly data entry) with the mouse / keyboard.  My wrists cause great pain at times.  \n\nThings I've found to help prevent the worst of it include raising the keyboard and mouse a little or lowering my chair, and putting a thicker pad under the heal of the hand and wrist.  Not so high or in a way that keeps you in a strain - holding on, but enough to keep the wrists semi straight or even slightly downward - more relaxed - stopping the hours at bent angles.  (My guess is better blood flow - but whatever - it helps me.)  \n\nDuring the worst times - Like you, I shift hands from time to time.  I've tried Motin or other inflammation type treatments, wrist braces (not too tight or the pain and injury can worsen), alternating ice and heat, and ointments like Aspercreme or Equate.  Of course, all those things are for relief, not a cure.\n\nWorst case, and one I personally try to avoid, but my cousin has had on both wrists - surgery.  She found the surgery to be less than pleasant, but reported the relief was well worth it.  Search for 'carpal tunnel syndrome'.  There's several medical sights with great information. \n\nI noticed something else, too.  Nothing official mind you - but - if I'm tensed - on a deadline, etc., it seems to occur more quickly and more severely.  As with most things in life, a couple minutes of breathing and stress relief also seems to help.\n\nI hope some of this helps you.
517430
1. ALWAYS REMBER TO HAVE FUN (Yes, you can be the boss and have fun. Burnt out people lose there grip on things) \n\n2. Don't let you position go to your head. (No one want a bossy that think that they a God)\n\n3. don't ask your staff to do something that you won't do yourself.( once they see you do it  once they will gladly do it)\n\n\n4.Be firm and never waver from it.( Yes, be understanding and compassionate but firm if your staff see weakness they will take advantage of it)\n\n5. If you have question always ask. ( It is better to be safe than sorry.
148294
Since you HAVE a job, that's a good thing.  In order to remove the stress take steps to put yourself into a position that will get you out of there.  \n\nUpdate your resume.\n\nPost your resume on job sites\n\nRespond to some online job ads\n\nIn otherwords, take steps to get yourself a new job.  I guarantee that you'll feel better -- even if you dont land something right away.
247953
What a terrible situtation for you! As if having Fibro isn't enough. The two answerers above seem to have forgotten that there's a little law called the Americans with Disabilities Act.  \n\nDoes your employer know for a fact that you have been diagnosed with having Fibro? If not, speak to your doctor about the situtation and have him/her send your employer's Human Resources Department and your Nursing Supervisor a letter explaining that you have Fibro and provide recommendations, be sure to get copied in on the letter for your records. Next, create a paper trail by keeping a journal of what happens each day at work and how you feel at the end of the day. Next share with Human Resources your situtation and see what they have to say. This gives them notice that the hostility needs to be addressed immediately.\n\nA study explains why we feel so much pain and you may want to share it with Human Resources also.\n\nFibromyalgia pain, isn't all in patients' heads new brain study finds. \nJune 7, 2002 \nfMRI scans give first objective measure of mysterious ailment, provide road map for future study\n\nANN ARBOR, MI - A new brain-scan study confirms scientifically what fibromyalgia patients have been telling a skeptical medical community for years: They're really in pain.\n\nIn fact, the study finds, people with fibromyalgia say they feel severe pain, and have measurable pain signals in their brains, from a gentle finger squeeze that barely feels unpleasant to people without the disease. The squeeze's force must be doubled to cause healthy people to feel the same level of pain - and their pain signals show up in different brain areas.\n\nThe results, published in the May issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, the journal of the American College of Rheumatology, may offer the proof of fibromyalgia's physical roots that many doubtful physicians have sought. It may also open doors for further research on the still-unknown causes of the disease, which affects more than 2 percent of Americans, mainly women.\n\nLead authors Richard Gracely, Ph.D., and Daniel Clauw, M.D., did the study at Georgetown University Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health, but are now continuing the work at the University of Michigan Health System. In an editorial in the same issue, Clauw and U-M rheumatologist Leslie Crofford, M.D., stress the importance of fibromyalgia research and care.\n\nTo correlate subjective pain sensation with objective views of brain signals, the researchers used a super-fast form of MRI brain imaging, called functional MRI or fMRI, on 16 fibromyalgia patients and 16 people without the disease. As a result, they say, the study offers the first objective method for corroborating what fibromyalgia patients report they feel, and what's going on in their brains at the precise moment they feel it. And, it gives researchers a road map of the areas of the brain that are most - and least - active when patients feel pain.\n\n"The fMRI technology gave us a unique opportunity to look at the neurobiology underlying tenderness, which is a hallmark of fibromyalgia," says Clauw. "These results, combined with other work done by our group and others, have convinced us that some pathologic process is making these patients more sensitive. For some reason, still unknown, there's a neurobiological amplification of their pain signals."\n\nFurther results from the study were presented last year at the ACR annual meeting. The project will continue later this year at UMHS, joining other fMRI fibromyalgia research now under way.\n\nFor decades, patients and physicians have built a case that fibromyalgia is a specific, diagnosable chronic disease, characterized by tenderness and stiffness all over the body as well as fatigue, headaches, gastrointestinal problems and depression. Many patients with the disease find it interferes with their work, family and personal life. Statistics show that far more
800873
Maybe talk to your director about the low temperature reducing your productivity, and talk about getting a stand-up air con unit for around his work area, allowing you to turn the temperature up a bit on the main air con
755726
Well, although your job seemed to be "stressful", it sounds like you enjoyed it. You probably felt very useful; maybe even essential for the smooth functioning of the office. Now, because of your injury, you can't seem to do the same things you used to, so you feel a bit depressed, because you may not feel as though you're playing a useful role.\n\nPerhaps, if your condition allows it, you could have your own business being an "organizer" -- you know, like, organizing people's closets, or their own home-office files, or other things that need organizing, but you won't have to do a lot of physical work that may strain your back / neck. Use your mind! \n\nIronically, some people feel "less stressed", when they're working at something useful and productive, even if it is "fast-paced". Some stress is caused, when we feel life is passing us by....\n\nYou have more emotional strength than you probably realize. You are a thoughtful and caring person -- try to brainstorm, and think about how you might use your talents!
242876
Time. Meanwhile, there are things you can do to be more comfortable. Try oatmeal baths, calamide lotion and don't scratch.
403273
yes i work at a hospital...go to the emergency room or urgent care...urgent care would be less expensive....the doctor may want to drain it...at least the doctor will give you medication which will help with the pain tremendously..also he may give you crutches...