In recent days, cervical spondylosis has tormented me to the point of distraction. If one day I have to leave the IDE, there is no other reason—it must be that cervical spondylosis and lumbar spondylosis have time and again pushed me out of the "battlefield" I love.
How did I get cervical spondylosis?
After I started working with programming in 2006, I began a different life model. I devoted almost all of my energy to this. Later I went to Shenzhen, and then met Stephen (the boss of my previous startup) and worked with him on projects. After experiencing the career peak of being a professional manager at Hutchison Whampoa, Stephen said goodbye to the past, returned to mainland China from Hong Kong to start a company and run projects. His life creed was to build a team like Skype. According to him, he had a friend who had worked at that company. When Skype was first acquired, the company had only 12 people.
Stephen told me about his great ideal almost from the very first day he found me—to carve out a world with a dozen-odd guns. I was the first "gun" he found after he officially started working. At that time, I had an irrational craziness for programming. As long as I was awake, I would work hard to solve everything that came up in the project. If you are a programmer, it is not difficult to understand with what kind of enthusiasm I was crazy writing all kinds of code. Later, Stephen got what he wanted: after running the company for 5 years, he successfully sold it. At that time, our company had fewer than 15 people in total.
I think there is nothing wrong with writing programs crazily. The biggest problem is that during these years, most of the time I worked facing a laptop, with my head lowered all year round and lacking exercise, which caused the physiological curve of my cervical spine to straighten. I started having frequent headaches in early 2012. At first I didn't know what caused it. Later I went back to my hometown to see a doctor, and the doctor asked me to take X-rays of the cervical and lumbar spine. When the results came out, the doctor told me that the physiological curvature of my cervical spine had straightened and my lumbar spine had a bulge (if it continued, it would become a herniation). From that day on, my cervical spine and lumbar spine officially became the "enemy" of the rest of my life. I used to stroll on the street and pass hospitals with "occupational disease" signs. At that time I was a bit confused and didn't know what occupational diseases were. But from that day, I finally had an unforgettable understanding.
What is it like to have cervical spondylosis?
Now, if I don't pay a little attention and rest in time, I will feel discomfort in my cervical spine. It is a process that gradually intensifies over 30 minutes. The pain starts from the cervical spine, then spreads upward along both sides of the cervical spine in a straight line to the back of the head, the top of the head, and finally reaches the upper forehead. As soon as a cervical spondylosis attack begins, the rest of my day is almost mercilessly wiped out; the headache makes it nearly impossible for me to do any work.
Sometimes I take a colleague's car from Shenzhen to Huizhou on business trips. If the driver drives like a roller coaster, a drive of more than an hour will cause my fragile cervical spine to completely fall.
In addition, my right arm and leg often feel somewhat numb.
Never give up treatment
Because years of working at a desk have straightened the physiological curve of the cervical spine, once you get this disease, it is almost impossible to fully recover. You can only control it to prevent further deterioration.
Ever since I was officially "sentenced" with cervical spine problems, I have never given up treatment.
My current treatment methods are as follows:
- I have almost said goodbye to laptops. The monitor of my office computer has been raised very high, almost to a state of looking up.
- I bought a cylindrical pillow online and put it under my cervical spine when sleeping. When lying flat, the back of my head touches the bed board.
- When I have time, I go to the clinic at the door for a massage. But this needs to be done with caution, because some second-rate doctors use great force; you simply don't know whether they are treating you or destroying you.
- Recently I started using Keep, doing cervical spine exercises at least once a day. This does have some effect.
A heartfelt piece of advice
Young programmer friends, for the sake of long-term development, please take care of your cervical spine and pay attention to exercise while you are in the prime of life. Otherwise, in the future, what torments you will not be the ever-changing requirements from product managers or the endless bugs to fix, but warnings from your body.
Ah, what a painful realization!
From: http://www.jianshu.com/p/a4d0481f9c3b
Jianshu author: Sleepless Bug