Heal my back

Reading the note from last Saturday is kind of embarrassing. On the very next day I twisted badly getting out of bed, and went back to the beginning or even before. That night I took a ride in an ambulance to the hospital where I was on morphine for three straight days.

Now I’m home again, back on a good diet, and still on the Diclofenac, but I’m also using Percoset for the pain management. Getting more than 1-2 hours sleep has been challenging, but at least we’re not going back to the hospital.

Taking it one day at a time, spending a lot of time in bed, a lot of time standing as long as possible in spite of the pain, and trying to get back to where I was a week ago. I hate back injuries.

Good progress with the new strategy.

Thanks to the loving care and attention of my wife, I’m eating really well, focusing on vegetables and fresh fruit, and cutting out anything processed or refined. Organic baby carrot juice has become my favorite beverage.

For meds, I’m down to just DiClofenac. I’m getting a full nights rest, even if I’m not asleep all night. I do my “push through” exercises in the mornings in less time each day, and I’m walking, standing, and stretching most of the day, laying down when my back or legs or even feet get tired. Pain levels for most of the day (after pushing through) is about 3.

Today I’m even sitting, but only for short bursts, and only in good chairs or with my back straight.

At this rate, I’ll be back in the game in a couple of weeks!

Ok, so the injury was, what? Around Sunday the 26th or Tuesday the 28th, depending on what actually started the downward spiral. Let’s call the start of this Wednesday to be conservative. On Thursday, I tried the usual strategy; stay in bed, eat advil at 2x the bottle limit, and wait for my body to heal. By Friday it was clear advil wasn’t enough and I was in too much pain; we went to the ER to get meds. The usual prescription- Naproxen and Vicodin.

Saturday was hell. Pain levels of 7-8 on a scale of 1-10. Anything over a 5 is difficult to endure.

Sunday was worse. I dropped the Naproxen and went back to Advil.

Monday we went back to the ER; maybe there are better anti-inflammants? Got a scrip for DiClofenac to replace the Naproxin.

Tuesday slightly better, but still eating Vicodin for the pain like no tomorrow, spending 20-22 hours a day flat on my back.

Wednesday no change. Pain levels ranging from 3 to 7 all day.

Thursday even worse. We went to the orthopedic surgeon, got Xrays (lots of degeneration), more DiClofenac, more Vicodin, and a date for an MRI to see if the disk is herniated again. Forced to stand for the better part of two hours, I was surprised to find that, when I got home, I was feeling better. And something the orthopedic said was bothering me. I should be feeling best in the morning, worst in the evening. But looking at my injury journal (yes, I started a special journal to track meds and pain levels early on) I could see that in my case, I was best in the evenings, and the nights and mornings were absolute hell.

Friday we went for the MRI, and got a steroid prescription. But I also started a new treatment strategy based on my observations, called “pushing through”. The doc said that pain was not making the injury worse; only driving and perhaps sitting, plus the usual lifting, bending, twisting could worsen the injury. Pain was just pain, but walking was actually good for me, strengthening the core. So I started walking around until I couldn’t stand it, with pain levels to 5-6, then lay down on the bed with ice until the pain level was below a 2. Then get up and do it again.

At first, my walks were only a minute or two. But after a while, I was walking around for 10, 20, even 30 minutes with a steady pain level of 3-4. That night I got better sleep than in the previous week.

Saturday I started pushing through at 8:00, and was standing by 10:30. Then another idea occurred to me. What if the Vicodin was actually relaxing my muscles, causing the inflammation to rub the sciatic nerve? So I (gulp!) stopped taking the Vicodin, and pushed through that as well.

By the end of the day yesterday, I was walking around and doing normal tasks like cleaning up my dishes and taking care of the little one. Not healed by any means; the pain was a constant 3-4, but manageable and more effective. Last night, I slept like a baby.

Today (Sunday) I finished pushing through by 9:00, and set up my computer in the office again, with a good chair. Sitting, even in a good chair, is still really nasty. So today I will push my way through that.

It’s still an experiment; the steroids, after all, could be keeping me stable by dropping the inflammation to a manageable level. But I’m feeling hopeful that this new treatment strategy will get me home.

One wild, precious life, after all.

There’s nothing like a major, debilitating injury to reset your priorities.

I was so obsessed with finances, with growing the business, and with spending the travel budget in meaningful ways. But since my back injury, all that seems so unimportant. My business is nothing if I can’t travel and do the work. Travel is out of the question if I can’t get out of bed. And now, all that matters, is that my back recover from this new injury.

One step at a time. I’ve got meds to control the pain, and I’ve had the X-ray and MRI. Next I need to see if we can fix this with gradual exercise, rest, and steroids, either oral or injected, or if I need to go under the knife again.

New goal: Be able to walk and sit well enough to get a full day’s work done.

Another goal: Be able to drive again.

And in the mean time, learn how to live this new version of my one wild, precious life.

Trying to get over sciatica, and tight hips.

now i just gotta keep up with the exercises to strengthen it.

now only if i could get into the habit of stretching, before it goes out on me again.

from a slipped disc and pinched nerve. ouch. i vow to do the exercises to strengthen my back, every day, for the rest of my life. so help my spine.

Although I did modifications to some of the poses to take it easy on my back.

Back feels fine, but I’m going to be gentle with it a few more days before marking this as complete.