Hooping.org

[Guest blogger Shea Brock shares her advice for back pain sufferers.]

There are quite a few statements I don’t like to hear people say in regards to hooping, but the one that tops my list has to be: “I can’t hoop because I have back problems.” Yes you can. I am living proof that’s just not true. Two years ago I woke up in excruciating pain, barely able to get out of bed. Having been a nurse for close to 16 years, I chalked it up to a pulled muscle. When the usual ice, rest, and ibuprofen didn’t work though, I started seeing doctors. Many, many doctors. All of them claiming I had “pulled a muscle” or “torn a ligament”. After four months without answers I finally saw a specialist, had an MRI and was told I had 3 bulging discs, a pinched nerve and degenerative disc disease. I was not a candidate for surgery and I would never get better, only slowly worse.

Devastated by the news, I tried drugs, acupuncture, physical therapy, massage therapy and spinal injections. Nothing totally got rid of my pain. In fact, I was in pain constantly. Sometimes the gnawing ache would wake me in the middle of the night. I hobbled around hunched-over like an old lady at 34-years-old. I couldn’t work more than a day or two at a time and even then I could barely move by the time I got home. I sat back and listened to people continuously tell me what my limits were and watched as things I loved were slowly taken from me. I started to spiral into a deep depression. I don’t know what happened or why, but one day I decided I had had enough. Read the rest of this entry →