So, Alex, it seems like our situations may be similar.  If you get an X-Ray, they can tell you if you have disc compression, which might be likely if you've done lifting.  Perhaps the water rehydrated the discs and lubricated them.  The "water cure" people claim that a lot of people had improvements with a variety of joint problems after trying it.  So I would recommend giving it a try.  It's a LOT of water and I couldn't drink it all the first couple of days.  After that, however, I just craved more and more until I WANTED that much every day.

I also have this loud creaking / crunching in my knees when I squat down (makes my wife squirm).  And that too improved while I was on the water cure.  I had knee surgery when I was 18, having blown it out playing soccer.  When I was young, I had massive pain in my knee when I couldn't stretch it out (as when I was sitting in the back of a small car for a long time).  Strangely, the knee I had surgery on stopped having that problem.  Later I learned that my mother had had the same problem.  So that might be something genetic.  I've also dislocated my shoulder a few times.  So I think that I also probably have some genetic joint problems.

I used to do the chiropractor thing, but that seemed to make it worse sometimes.  I'd go for a "maintenance" visit, not having had back problems in a while, only to hurt myself a couple days later.  I remember this one chiropractor, though, a big heavy guy, who had this ancient equipment in his office that reminded me of Protestant caricatures of Inquisition-era torture devices (I'm sure it could have been used in lieu of a rack, as it had these large metal cranks and thick leather straps).  He was brilliant.  He looked at me, the way I was walking, and told me exactly how I had hurt my back and neck.  He was right on the money.  Anyway, one time I was there, this guy laid me face down on a table, ran across the room (I kid you not), threw himself in the air (remember that this was a big overweight guy), and hammered down on my back with his full weight.  I was laughing the whole time because this was so comical; my wife was there too and told me that she was awestruck with disbelief.  He told me to call him at home if I had problems.  Why, I wondered, would I have problems?  That evening, I could barely walk, was crawling on my hands and knees, but the next morning my back and neck were as good as new, and I didn't have any problems for a long time after that.  He's way too far away from where I live now, so I don't visit him anymore.

If it requires drinking a lot of water, then I don't think I would be able to try the water-cure. The heavy lifting has not only ruined by back but has also moved my urethra out of position so I pee a lot - I go every hour, and sometimes after 20  to 30 minutes if I have just strained to handle Granny. I am supposed to take a diuretic every 2 days that makes you pee a lot because it takes out the water from your body. But I have only been taking it every 3 weeks because I already go to the bathroom a lot and having to go even more times means that I would become too limited and also get no sleep. So there goes the water diet idea.

Looks like we have a lot in common since I too have bad knees. It is painful for me to sit down and get up and I need a bit of support. It is painful for my knees (and back) to kneel. It is painful to go up and down stairs and very hard for me to climb a ladder. Like you, I had injuries to my knee when younger (I wore a brace for a year on my right knee after a skiing accident and I had surgery on my left knee after I broke a cartilege dancing). But I had no problem with my knees for 18 years and I only developed problems when I started taking care of Granny - all the sqatting up and down I did with her made my knees give out.   In fact, all the physical problems with my body that I've discussed (and there is even more that I did not mention) I developed in taking care of Granny.

Your fat chiropracter story was hilarious   I would have jumped off the table in fear when I saw him coming. I don't like pain and I don't like to hear my bones being cracked.

That chiropractor story is the funniest thing I've read on CathInfo, Ladislaus.  I could picture it perfectly.

Evidently, if you sleep on your side, you're supposed to put a pillow between your legs to prevent a weird curvature / alignment of the spine.

I never heard that.  Sleeping on your side is supposed to be the best position for your back.  My favored position was, and still is, though I should know better by now, to sleep face down in the pillow but with my head slightly turned so I can breathe.  With a habit like that, it's no mystery why my spine began to look like a bishop's crosier.  Most of my spine was perfectly straight, but my neck and upper back was turned 90 degrees.  One day I woke up and couldn't move my head without extreme, shooting pain -- that was when I paid a visit to the chiropractor.  

The water cure can't hurt.  I have known one of these "water people" like you who are so obsessed with water that it almost becomes comical.  Whatever you say, the solution is "drink water."  You could be like Stephen Hawking and they'd come up to you and say "You're not drinking enough water."  

This lady -- the head of the household where I went to CMRI -- convinced my mom, who I still live with due to the fact that I completely messed up the first part of my life, that this water could cure her depression, so she bought one of those Kangen water machines that purify tap water.  But water is too boring to drink "straight" so I use it for tea.  I'm a big, big tea-drinker.  You could probably ameliorate the blandness of the water-cure that way.

Alex,

Have you even been trained in how to handle your Granny? I'm not sure if it's too late or a "better late than never," but there are specific techniques and simple devices used by those who regularly have to move patients, both elderly and otherwise.

The aids that care for my grandmother carry around various straps. I haven't paid enough attention to know exactly how they use them, but everyone on the floor has these with them always, so I'm sure they're not just decoration.  

When on your back, a pillow to elavate your knees slightly helps keep the back straight.

Thank you.  I never heard this one.  If I do end up sleeping on my back, I wake up sore.  I could never figure out why.  I usually try to avoid it if for no other reason than that I snore when on my back.

Alex,

Have you even been trained in how to handle your Granny? I'm not sure if it's too late or a "better late than never," but there are specific techniques and simple devices used by those who regularly have to move patients, both elderly and otherwise.

The aids that care for my grandmother carry around various straps. I haven't paid enough attention to know exactly how they use them, but everyone on the floor has these with them always, so I'm sure they're not just decoration.  

Most of my back damage was not due to handling Granny. It was lifting her wheelchair in and out of the trunk of my car. Since I took her to a restaurant every day, and then many times to Starbucks afterwards, I would be lifting the wheelchair in and out of the trunk 4 times a day. Her wheelchair is so heavy that, in the rare times that we would go somewhere that had valet parking, the valet parker would lift the wheelchair with difficulty - and men are stronger than women, so you can imagine what I had to go through. Since I didn't have as much muscle mass in my arms, I would lift the wheelchair using the muscles of my back.

And what even made it worse is that this past year, Granny has lost her balance more. She used to at least help lift her self up from the toilet or from the car. But now, she just lays there and I have to lift her whole weight up myself. And when my parents moved Granny to the maids room in the house this past summer it got even worse. The bathroom attached to the maids room is small. So when I put Granny on the toilet seat, I have to do it standing from her left side - because the bathtub is to her right side a foot away from the toilet seat and the wall is in front of her a couple of feet away-so there is no room for a helper to stand on the other side and help me and there is no room for me to stand in front of her to put her on the toilet. Since she falls straight back to sit on the toilet, instead of bending her knees to lower herself down, and since I have to catch her by her full weight doing it, my back is even worse then it was (and it was bad before). But not only did this awkward position put more of a strain in my already bad back but it also strained my uterine area - that is why, since having had to use the cramped bathroom these past few months, my urethra has moved out of place and I pee every 30 minutes to 1 hour and I have also developed very slight urinary incontinence.

The straps you are talking about are called posey belts. I have one around Granny to grab her incase she falls. But with the posey belt, I still have to lift her whole weight.

What about bottled water? We have Arrowhead water delivered to our house that we use with a water dispenser that gives hot and cold water.

I guess it would depend on how they purify the water.  If they use reverse osmosis or distillation or get it from some relatively unpolluted natural source, that would be great. If they just carbon filter some tap water, then that probably wouldn't do much for you.