Ask HN: Seeking advice with my inflamed Spine
Dear Community,

I'm a first time poster desperately seeking your advice. Being an IT Professional for almost 15 years seems to have taken a toll on my body, finally: I was currently diagnosed with an inflamed Spine (to be precise it's a Sensor Transverse Myelitis). Right now the treatment is basically a low doses of Cortisone after I've been on a quite heavy doses for one week in the hospital. After phasing out the Cortisone my Doctor assumes that I should have very good chances for a 100% recovery, given enough time and rest. Scans have located the Root of the Infection to be located at the Cervicals.

My whole condition suddenly started one day with the soles of both of my feet constantly feeling numb. It went on for a while like that and started to spread upwards from the legs, through the Belly, until it would finally reach the tips of my fingers. It was this point when I went to the hospital for the third time within a few weeks. This time I started a one week therapy with a heaviy daily dosis of cortisone. If I had to quantify my current condition after this week I'd say it went down to 20-30% of numbness feeling compared to the worst time I had, which definitely is a good improvement. The good thing also is that within this one week in the hospital I basically went through a 100% coverage of checks and scans, which tell that I'm totally fine on the organic side of things and I'm in an overall good shape health-wise. I'll be honest with you: If I wouldn't know this at the very Moment I'm writing this Post I would probably go crazy.

I'm writing this post in hope to find people who went through the same thing that I do right now. Hopefully someone can share some experience or general advice which could help me on my long way to recovery. If you are reading this and went through the same thing like I do: What would you recommend me to try to improve my condition? I will start with the most obvious things: Making much more use of my Standing Desk and investing in a high quality ergonomic Office Chair. At the same time I will try to reserve as much time of my day as I can for more physical exercise. Obviously right now I cannot really go for a Run or Start to exercise lifting any Weights or something, but I will start with having more extended Walks for the Moment, as well as minimizing my use of Smart Devices which force me to bend my Neck down for Interaction. I'm not really sure whether any of this will really help, but I guess it should for sure not be the cause if my condition should get worse again.

Let me close this post with reminding everyone how important it is to listen to your Body. When I got the first signs I at first ignore them and start another Online Course to further advance in my career. I would sit even longer every day (overall it was up to 12-13 hours daily, Monday to Friday) for the sole outlook to be even more successful. Success and Recognition right now feel like a drug to me that got me slowly addicted over the course of my career.

I do hope that my closing advice maybe prevents someone from going through the same thing like I do, right now. If you should have gone through the same thing, please share with me. I'm literally interested in everything that you have learned on your journey with this condition: What gave you relief, when you needed it? What did you do to find your way back to normal life? How did it work out for you in the long-run: Did you have a 100% recovery, maybe? Please don't hesitate to share even bad news with me... maybe even those can somehow help me to cope with the overall situation.