We’ve had 2 weeks (or is it just one?) of sunny and warm weather, and everybody in Sweden talks about the weather, all the time, with everyone. In the UK, people talk about the weather because it’s polite and because it’s safe, but here in Sweden people actually care about the weather. Our weather men and women are true superstars, real A-list celebrities, who publish their own books (about the weather). You wouldn’t offend a Swede by saying that “this weather is so depressing”, but we’d get sad if you didn’t comment on it.
Archive for June, 2009
Bad Back Blues
In lessons, private life on June 25, 2009 at 1:16 pmAbout 2,5 years ago I had an accident with a gocart, and since then I’ve had problems with my back.
I’ve had whiplash, tendinitis, and most recently a pretty ugly case of slipped disk.
I’ve seen a bunch of different doctors and 3 different physio-therapists. I’ve tried pain-killers, the McKenzie method, traditional physio therapy, and a few other patented “miracle cures”.
So far, nothing is doing any real good. A couple of times I’ve been feeling better for a month or two, but at the moment I can’t walk without limping, and I can’t tie my shoes without a struggle. (But I can still function normally and I haven’t been off work a single day, so it could be much worse.)
I’m slowly losing patience and my energy. I hate that there’s no proven treatment for bad backs – some experts say stretching is good for you, others say streching is the worst thing you can do. Some say you should pump your body full of pain-killers and go about as usual, others say you should be careful of signs of pain from your body and don’t do anything that hurts. Some say operations do the trick, others say they don’t really help.
Equally annoying is the fact that I’m far from alone in my state of bad back blues. Bad backs are costing the society a serious sum of money:
“Back pain is the most common reason for sick leave (30% of all sick leave) and early retirement in Sweden. The total cost of back pain is estimated at more than 20 billion SEK per year”.
I have a feeling that there’s a lot of dishonest people in the “bad back business”. As an entrepreneur I can see why – there are millions and millions of relatively rich people all over the world with a desperate demand for a product or service that’s nowhere to be found. It’s easy to sell them a “break-through product”, because people really want to believe. And when you’ve paid good money for something, you don’t want to tell your family and friends it aint working. But most of them don’t.
That said, I’m currently trying out a new type of physio therapy. In short the idea is to activate and strengthen the muscles that are not used properly when we live our lives in front of computers. I got the recommendation from a good friend, and the therapist was convincing, and I really belive in the theory.
If it works, I’ll be the first to sing its praise, and I’ll tell you all about it. But maybe we shouldn’t get our hopes up just yet.
A Reason to Vote
In politics on June 2, 2009 at 6:15 pmI wasn’t interested in the upcoming elections to the parliament of the European Union until I read an article about one of the candidates – Jesper Odelberg. Besides being from my hometown, he’s a comedian, singer, and has a condition called CP – celebral palsy.
I’ve never seen a politicians with this kind of physical disorder, in Sweden or elsewhere. In fact, I haven’t even seen a politician ever in a wheelchair. I have a feeling that Jesper with his background would do more good than many of the other Swedish politicians. And it would be a nice reply to the US – nobody does minorities like Europe.
