balneotherapy question

[pandoralys]

Another question that just popped in my mind, I'm due to start a 2-month-ish balneotherapy treatment for the upper pain of fibro like arms and shoulders soon, and was wondering if anyone had done it and if it helped ? I know we all react differently to treatments but just curious to hear people's experience

 

[JamieMarc]

@pandoralys
Could you please put a description of what that is here? Others, like me, may have never heard of it. It would help them not to have to look it up like I am right now.

 

[pandoralys]

@pandoralys
Could you please put a description of what that is here? Others, like me, may have never heard of it. It would help them not to have to look it up like I am right now.

Yeah for sure, it's basically physiotherapy but in water ! For people with hyperalgesia like me (when a random pressure on your skin is abnormally painful), it's a preferred method cuz the water cancels out the feeling of effort, and therefore it's supposedly a good way to reintroduce exercising in your life. The warm water also helps with the pain
It's not very common however, there are few centres that practice it where I live

 

[BlueBells]

@JamieMarc @pandoralys

Is that also known as hydrotherapy , or water exercise? Just wondering if there are different things. I think hydrotherapy is with physiotherapists, but water exercise is just with an instructor in a swimming pool.

The idea with the latter being easier for people who have movement issues as the water supports the body.

Different countries have same things, different names in some cases, I was just wondering.

Back in the early 1970's I heard of it being very good for race horses, they had/have a water 'tub' that they swim in (not sure of exacts here, but I saw a photo once). and then in the 1980's it became popular for people, water exercise, I mean.

 

[johnsalmon]

if I won the lotto I would high tail it to Rotorua NZ and take the hot mud baths - visited there a few times in my younger days and it was soo good for my arthritis - but I don't think it would be as good for fibromyalgia

 

[SBee]

A dr suggested I try gentle swimming, due to the water giving such a ' soft hold ' on the body. But if nearest pool is only cold water, no heated pools at all. So, that's a no from me. I did used to do exercises in water many moons ago..Am sure working in water with a physiotherapist is hydrotherapy in the UK.
Yes @BlueBells horses and dogs benefit from hydrotherapy too. When outdoor human swimming pools are closed at the end of the season some have a Dog Only Day. Completely mad fun. Laughing out loud at dogs? That's a form of therapy too in my book.

Weirdly to me, although a shower feels good most of the time, I often find any spray of water on my hands and wrists gives a horrible burning pain. It's the part of the body I hate any clothing touching too. No wrist jewellery either, unbearable.

 

[pandoralys]

@JamieMarc @pandoralys

Is that also known as hydrotherapy , or water exercise? Just wondering if there are different things. I think hydrotherapy is with physiotherapists, but water exercise is just with an instructor in a swimming pool.

The idea with the latter being easier for people who have movement issues as the water supports the body.

Different countries have same things, different names in some cases, I was just wondering.

Back in the early 1970's I heard of it being very good for race horses, they had/have a water 'tub' that they swim in (not sure of exacts here, but I saw a photo once). and then in the 1980's it became popular for people, water exercise, I mean.

It’s kind of the same but hydrotherapy is without exercises ? That’s what the web says but it’s probably the same. In balneo the instructor is a physiotherapist as well

 

[BlueBells]

Weirdly to me, although a shower feels good most of the time, I often find any spray of water on my hands and wrists gives a horrible burning pain. It's the part of the body I hate any clothing touching too. No wrist jewellery either, unbearable.

@SBee I've always had a bit of an issue with firm clothing, and had to give up wearing a wrist watch in my mid 20's because it was (I thought) making my hand go a bit funny. Was years before I realised too firm on my arms/wrists and it saps the strength from my hands.
I was given a lovely bangle for my deb, and I only wore it that evening and a few times since, but not for decades now.

Sometimes I'll put a coat over a jacket, as it gets cold, and I have to peel it off immediately as the pressure on my wrists makes me want to scream! Now that is illogical to me. It feels like pressure, and only barely firm, but it makes me almost angry scream level.

 

[SBee]

Hah! Yes @BlueBells I feel the need to rip anything away from my wrists. I think most of us probably have extra sensitive areas in our bodies.
The water sensitivity for me isn't constant. Just jumps in when I am not ready for it. I've never liked anything on my feet either, but of a barefoot hippy girl, but that's more feeling restricted? Not a pain thing like Not the hands\wrists. angry scream level, I totally understand that feeling
I will be interested @pandoralys how the water therapy goes for you.

Had my hands in garden soil today, potting up some herbs and thought about @johnsalmon and the NZ mud baths, I think I would love that. As he says, arthritis would benefit more so than the fibro maybe?

 

[JamieMarc]

The warm water also helps with the pain

I wish I could live my life in a warm water suit. Lol. Heat, in any form, is a go-to pain reliever for me everyday.

I wonder if I should take up regular swimming. I do exercise, but I think I would like to try to add swimming to my lifestyle. I live in Florida, so the water in the pool, whether heated or not, is never too cold between May and October. There is a pool in the park across the street from me. I will have to see if they have an annual membership fee to use the pool as opposed to a daily fee. Even the daily fee is inexpensive.

 

[BlueBells]

@SBee
I'm not sure about the feeling that makes me suddenly feel I need to scream (I don't ), but I'm not aware of feeling actual pain. I am wondering more and more that what I describe as an ache that's not a pain, or a pain that's more an ache, I get confused for a way to describe it, but I know it can bring me to tears at times, and it is usually accompanied with weakness in that area, or even all over.

I've always said I don't really get the pain that pretty much everyone gets, but I'm not so sure at times. I mean, I catch myself talking about pain in my hips and feet, sometimes legs, at night. And I've always had pain in the rib cage, like it's in my bones, not my lungs, but I've never really thought that I have pain. Never bad enough for panadol, and if it ever is, I just stop, as I don't want a crash.

I remember when I'd be running at school, races or hockey, without warning it would be like a foot went down an hole, and I learnt to hit the heels of my hands on the ground and push myself up and continue running It was just natural, I don't remember learning, I just always did it. If the second one went down the next "hole" though, I was down hahahaha

@JamieMarc
I often thought a type of waterproof jumpsuit, lined with super soft fluffy plush and one could float in warm water and sleep........ahhh....heaven !!!

 

[pandoralys]

I wish I could live my life in a warm water suit. Lol. Heat, in any form, is a go-to pain reliever for me everyday.

I wonder if I should take up regular swimming. I do exercise, but I think I would like to try to add swimming to my lifestyle. I live in Florida, so the water in the pool, whether heated or not, is never too cold between May and October. There is a pool in the park across the street from me. I will have to see if they have an annual membership fee to use the pool as opposed to a daily fee. Even the daily fee is inexpensive.

same haha, wish I could live in the shower
I always have with me that blue liquid pack thing that can be heated in the microwave ? Works well when the pain hits
You def should try swimming, the beach must be nice over there furthermore
I used to swim a lot but now when the pain starts hitting my brain just says no stop, I need to fix that ig

 

[JamieMarc]

@pandoralys
Oh yeah, living in the shower. Be cool to have like a outdoor scooter, enclosed, like the Pope mobile, being showered wherever I go. Okay now I'm just being silly. LOL

Yes yes! I haven't been to the beach yet this year, but the Gulf will be very nice and warm now. Totally unlike the opposite coast of Florida when I lived there on the Atlantic: big waves and colder. The Gulf is more shallow and calm. Adding that to my regular to-do list for this summer. I just need to slather up with the sun block or my dermatologist will have my head.

 

[SBee]

Whilst being unselfish excited for you in the prospect of warm sea therapy spare a pity for the UK contingent who are at the moment still debating if we can switch the heating back on .... Maybe @JamieMarc you could at least send us a photo of the sun as I think we have forgotten what it looks like. And ( Safe sun protection a must ) we all I am sure, value the therapeutic properties of the sun as well in a mental and physical way .

 

[JamieMarc]

@SBee
I'll make you a trade. You send us some rain, some of that good English rain, and I'll show you some sun. LOL