They actually do something called traction???
Anywho~ today I was telling my sister about my lower back pain and how my hips feel sometimes. Like I wish someone could hold my head and someone else could grab my legs and pull in opposite directions and straighten me out. I've been feeling like this for, oh.. I'd say the better part of 2 years or so. I think about it off and on and always in that same scenario.... like I want to lay down and be pulled & stretched out. My sister, as all loving sisters do, called me stupid.   Then proceeded to tell me I should just go to a chiroprator and see if they will put me in traction. I said "THEY CAN REALLY DO THAT?" she got a huge laugh at my expense today. LOL |
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Oh yes....I've had it done. It is heavenly  Mine was in PT for an upper back injury. I had horrid spasms from it, and the traction helped ease it. Wonderful. |
| There sure is! When I worked for the neurosurgical/spinal surgeons we would prescribe home traction machines for the neck all the time. For the neck, it's a device that you throw over your door and you put your head into it. It will cause your head and neck to straighten. Some clients I knew said that it made all the difference |
| Well this certainly was no home remedy. I was in traction, for 3 months in 1981, as a young teen. I fell (40 ft) from a rope swing. And no, it wasn't over a lake.   |
| OMG! I gotta know one thing: Were you catching Raggedy Ann or was Raggedy Ann catching you on that trapeeze? Isn't that basically how you got hurt in the first place? How ironic...Glad you made it!  |
| HOLY COW! That didn't look fun. |
SO I WASN'T CRAZY when I kept envisioning some wild contraption!! I KNEW IT!  Wendy-- That could NOT have been fun at all. OMG. 3 months?? |
| Definately NO FUN!!!! I was basically tied/bolted (in many places) to the bed. For a 14 yr old it was torture. I guess it would be to anyone. I had large pins piercing my knees attatched to weights and a pully system for each leg. 60 lbs on one leg and 30 lbs. on the other pulling and tugging to get my pelvis back where it should be. I wore a "pelvic swing" to keep my pelvic bones in place. Yet another weighted device. To me staying in the hospital that long isn't that different than being a guest that just wont leave. At first everything is exciting and new. Or in my case very injured and new. But as time went on the staff seemed to get annoyed with my requests for the bed pan or food or water. One CNA told me she wasn't my maid because I asked for some ice. I wish I was kidding. As I healed, tied to the bed, I managed to "get" things for myself. The trapeze helped for support and I could, with my long arms, reach just about anything in the room. It became like a game to me. Then I got caught sort of hanging from the bed, reaching for an apple my mom had left for me. They didn't like that either. My mother, bless her heart, made and brought dinner for me every night. The hospital food, back then, was not good. She brought me fresh fruit and cereal regularly. I went into the hospital 5'9" 132 lbs. and came out 3 months later 5' 8" and 105 lbs. It took me many months to gain weight back. To make myself look fuller I would wear 2 prs of jeans at the same time. Jordache. haha Luckily I never lost my sense of humor or layed back personality. Just an inch. I can live with that. |
| Ah, brings back the memories. As 20 yrs as a hospital ortho nurse, taking care of people in that kind of traction (skeletal traction) was my job. It is incredibly long and boring and not comfortable either. Traction with weight is needed to counter the action of the muscles contracting and spasming. The right balance is needed in the angle and weights to hold the bones in correct alignment to heal. Otherwise the muscles contract and cause the bones to overlap and grind and you don't get a good outcome - and is WAY more painful than being in traction - gruesome tho' it may look! Nowdays there are enough advances in surgery that more and more surgery is done, and less longterm traction. Although still done for comfort and reduce the risk of fat emboli before the person can get to surgery. |
| Ya know, if anyone is nostalgic for traction, Jordan's Furniture in Reading MA has a flying trapeeze school in the store...! |
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