Housework

I apologize if this has been addressed already...how do you all manage cleaning your home with chronic pain? I have chronic neck and back pain. Mobbing, bending over to scrub the bathtub, even vacuuming. I'm in a lot of pain afterwards. I'm on SSDI and can't afford a cleaning service.

I have OCD and I'm a "clean freak". I get anxious with any clutter and if I see a spot or speck of anything, I have to take care of it right away. That's not s big deal, but I need to thoroughly clean my residence once a week with maintaining in between.

How do you all manage?

Hello rainy: There was another Thread, posted a while back, on this very subject... but certainly no harm in posting it again! Unfortunately, I don't recall if the previous post was in the Chronic Pain Support forum or somewhere else. I also don't recall what, if any, kind of helpful suggestions it generated. (So... really... when you come right down to it... I'm not of much help here at all...)

I have a ruptured disc in my low back that impinges on the sciatic nerve. So, of course I have the sciatica as well as some low back pain. I'm fortunate however that it is not so severe that it prevents me from doing chores around our unit. (We live in a townhome.) I do have to be careful though. I've had some bad episodes in the past where just getting up to go to the bathroom was excruciating. That hasn't happened in several years now. And I want to make certain it doesn't happen again!

I'm afraid I don't really have much in the way of useful suggestions for you. We (my spouse & I) try to avoid doing everything at once. So I might do a bit of dusting here-&-there one day & vacuuming another. Doing a little bit each day prevents having to do a lot periodically. I'm afraid that's about the extent of my wisdom on the subject. Perhaps some other members will come along with some better suggestions...

Thank you

I thought there was a thread about this too but I can't remember which forum. I think it would belong in this forum, but I only recently started visiting here. I've had chronic pain for twenty years now and it's hard to talk about. It would just make me think about it...and then I am in pain and talking about being in pain. . But I've decided maybe being more involved here might help others and myself.

I had back and neck surgery when I was in my 20's so I can share my experiences about that to help support others with neck and/or back pain. My surgeries were a success but I still have neck and back problems in the areas I did not have surgery. C5 and L4 are feeling fine but the rest...not so much lol

However, I have and continue to find it very helpful to learn little "strategies" to manage or at least not exacerbate pain. Like how I'm sure you've learned if you sit too long it makes your sciatic pain worse...so you get regular movement throughout your day.

I think the best way to manage cleaning when your dealing with chronic pain...

Life is much easier if you break up cleaning into a daily thing ..

Set a 15 min timer .. when it goes off you can stop

Break things down into days

Say .. Chop things up to where your not doing or wanting to do every thing at once do one of these each day

* run the vac in room X .. take a break... Wait a while maybe vac another room

*dust a room again put breaks in

*clean the bathroom

*Do a load of wash

* sweep any area that needs it

Just one of the above a day.

One thing I have learned is before you sit down at night .. Do a quick walk through, Pick up things just left laying around. Wipe down bathroom counters after you shower daily.
Wipe off kitchen counters.

Sounds like alot? It really isn't .... I have had to manage keeping my house up ( im so OCD about it) and not letting it make my pain even worse.

Just a side note.

When I am ready to go to bed I loathe the idea of taking the time to floss my teeth.. So I do it while watching TV or reading a long post on PC..