Baby got (bad) back

Long time no post. Life has been busy. Work has been busy. I’ve been injured. I tend to spend what little free time I have stretching and strengthening, and icing what has been a very bad back.

This all began back in March of 2009. I was working crazy hours at the startup and it was stressful, but I was generally in OK shape. One weekend we tried to demolish our backyard for a landscaping project and I think — I know — I overdid it with a sledgehammer. Ow.

A couple weeks later I was laying in an MRI machine, only to discover two herniated discs. I took 50% of my orthopedic doctor’s advice and began trying to loosen up and swimming regularly (the other half was physical therapy, which I deferred). The pool workouts were going great – I was swimming over a mile each time out. The back pain and sciatica never got better. I started seeing a locally well-respected chiropractor and therapeutic/sports masseur. Over time, the pain became tolerable with 2x daily exercise and stretching.

Flash forward to September 2010. New job, less overall stress, but more kids to hoist. I was in Oregon visiting family, and while venturing out with my sister we were rear-ended pretty badly in her car. She and her husband were taken to a hospital for observation, while I stayed behind and sorted out insurance and cops. I didn’t feel any immediate pain. A few days later, my shoulders and neck started tightening up. Over a week or so, the tension began moving down my back, and eventually locked in the same spot as my previous back injury. A couple days later, I was laid out on the floor, unable to move. My back muscles had tweaked so badly that I couldn’t straighten my torso. I was bent in a weird angle, and couldn’t get out of it. I could barely walk. My hips started to hurt because they were tweaked so badly, my left leg longer than the other. I spent some of that time on the floor sobbing. It’s a bizarre feeling for someone who’s always been active and relatively fit to be literally crippled. After a few days, even though you tell yourself it’s temporary, the pain and crookedness of your body starts to mess with your head.

Tried the chiropractor, tried stretching, ibuprofen, heat and ice. Nothing worked, and the pain worsened. So I loaded up on meds and went back to the doctor who said the accident probably re-injured the discs and that the muscle was doing its job to tense up and protect the area. The doc gave me a week’s supply of vicodin to “break the mental chain” between the pain and tension. Then and on her advice, I found a physical therapist.

So the loosening and strengthening continues, only this time it’s much more regimented. Strength workouts are focused on core, hips, and legs. The insane back tension that floored me is gone. Now we’re starting to think the discs are healed but that tension in my piriformis muscles are causing the general low back tension. We’ll spend the next few weeks working on that. I haven’t had any ibuprofen for about three weeks. Victory!?!? I won’t say that until I wake up without sciatica, or can sit in a chair longer than 30 minutes.

I’m starting to think about getting back in the pool for very light workouts. I’m focused on getting strong enough to surf a bit during our trip to Kauai in March. I can’t go snowboarding. Worse, for a few weeks I couldn’t pick up my kids. The family is sick of me being in pain and I’m sick of dealing with it. You’re probably sick of reading about it too, so we’ll leave it at that. Only stories of improvement from here on out.