Our flex money is gone by now, so I’ve been putting off going to the chiropractor. I had been going about once a week to keep my spine in place; it goes out a lot as I trip over toys and heave children hither, thither, and yon. Joel was going with me since his lower back and neck tend to go out. Our insurance covers chiropractic care, but even with just a copay due, all of those trips add up. Anyway, I was just thinking the other day that my back seemed to be holding up remarkably well considering how long it had been since I was adjusted, but yesterday my back apparently decided it had reached its limit. I wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary – just lifting Branwen into a chair with me – and I got a sharp pain across my lower back that took my breath away and made me nauseous. From that point on I couldn’t walk without pain, I had trouble changing positions (sitting to standing and vice versa), I couldn’t bend or lift easily, twisting was excrutiating, and bending backwards (which often causes my lower back to pop and releases some of the pressure) was impossible. The chiropractor wasn’t in yesterday, so I couldn’t get an appointment until today.
I injured my back in the summer of ’96. I was working at a special needs camp (a job that I didn’t end up sticking with because I came down with mono, strep, and a couple of other fun sicknesses) in a session involving working with children with physical and mental handicaps. (We also worked with deaf and blind children in separate sessions.) I was sitting on the sidewalk playing with one of the boys with sidewalk chalk when another child, one with braces on his legs whose balance wasn’t that great, walked towards us and tripped. I didn’t take much of his weight, but when he fell, the way he hit me caused me to twist oddly.
It’s funny how back injuries occur. I’ve heard stories of herniated disks from tug-of-war matches and even from sneezing hard while in an odd position. Mine was rather odd too. Some of the workers there didn’t believe I was really injured. The counselors didn’t know each other all that well and some of them thought maybe I was one of those people who would fake an injury just to sue later or something. I’m not – I don’t believe in lawsuits in most cases though I think there are a few appropriate times to use one. Even having everyone believe me and sympathize wouldn’t have helped too much, though. The first time I had the really debilitating back pains (the night after the sidewalk incident), the camp nurse came to my cabin and gave me Tylenol, the only pain killer she was allowed to dispense. As those of you with back pain probably know, it didn’t do a darn thing.
Once I left the camp, sick as a dog and rather depressed because I felt like a quitter, there wasn’t a whole lot more that I could do about the injury. I was on my parents’ insurance at the time and it was an HMO. They refused to cover any tests to discover what was wrong. For about a year and a half I was in and out of emergency rooms where they’d prescribe strong pain killers and muscle relaxers. I hated taking medicines, so I’d only take them when the pain was really bad. I finally was able to go to a Spine Care Center to at least talk to a specialist even though tests (such as MRIs) were still not approved. The doctor there examined me, asked me about symptoms, and determined that I had a disk injury. He gave me some exercises to do and some ideas of ways to relieve the pain when it happened. He also encouraged me to continue seeing a chiropractor, something I had been doing already.
Since then I’ve seen several chiropractors and I went to one other Spine Care Center. One of the chiropractors told me I’d probably be in a wheelchair by the age of thirty, but thankfully I believe he was wrong. I’ll be thirty soon enough, and I’m better now than I was then thanks to good care and more understanding of my injury. I was also told that I might be a good candidate for disk replacement surgery once it’s perfected. My mother also mentioned today a procedure that she’d heard of recently where they actually insert some kind of cement in between the disks to keep them from compressing. Anyway, I think I’d like to avoid surgery for now. I’ve heard too many back surgery horror stories.
My current chiropractor, Dr. Gregory Page of Page Chiropractic in Chantilly, is the best I’ve seen. I’ve been seeing him for about 5 years now, and he helps me understand what’s going on and how to prevent painful episodes instead of just adjusting me and having me come back later. He and another doctor at a Spine Center in Maryland have hypothesized that I may actually have two injured disks, so that will be something to check out if surgery ever does become more inviting.
I got in to see Dr. Page this morning and my back is feeling better now though the muscles are still sore. That should ease up over the next day or two. I know the whole ice/heat routine by now. 🙂
On a completely different note, I went to a very good concert last night. I might not have been able to go, but Joel came home from work early so that I could rest my back beforehand. (If I can lay down for a while in a good position, that often helps temporarily.) The concert was by two ladies who call themselves 2Moms. They’re sisters who have both become mothers (each of them has three children), and they travel around singing songs they’ve written about motherhood and doing motivational speaking. It was the type of concert (they also sometimes called it a conference) where you ended up laughing and crying, sometimes at the same time. They travel with their families, which was neat. Their children (who are still fairly young) and husbands every once in a while would take the stage with them to help them with a song. 🙂 I was very glad I was able to go. I wanted to buy some of the merchandise they were selling, too, but I decided to wait till our financial situation is a little better. I can always buy stuff through their website later.
Time to go read some stories with Alexis and get out of this office chair. The loveseat looks far more comfortable! 🙂