I’ve spent the last two days being absolutely miserable and in pain. On Monday, two weeks after the move, I was walking down the hall at work when suddenly it felt like a knife stabbing through my lower back. It progressively got worse until I could barely get out of bed Tuesday morning. I immediately called the doctor and made an appointment. Having had major back surgery in 1996, I don’t take back pain lightly.
I suffered for several years with increasingly severe back pain. Since we all know someone who has a "bad back" and simply lives with it, I ignored the pain for some time assuming I would be one of those people with chronic back problems. As the pain continued to get worse, I was missing more work and suffering debilitating pain and numbness (sometimes to the degree of having my legs disappear from under me as I lost complete control and interaction with them).
Well, that was it. By this stage, I thought the problem was more than just the chronic back pain that even my father suffered with.
I had seen doctors off and on over that entire time, but had gladly accepted recommendations on how to sit, stand, walk, work, exercise, as well as the occasional prescriptions for pain medication or muscle relaxants.
That wasn’t going to cut it any longer. I pursued full diagnostic testing with a neurologist and found the problem was much worse than I had anticipated.
In early 1996 I was diagnosed with focally accelerated lumbar spondylosis (fusion or decreased motion of the joints) across several intervertebral discs, moderate central spinal stenosis (assumed to be congenital), significant narrowing of the right lateral recess (called lateral recess stenosis), and degenerative disc disease.
What that all meant was that I had arthritic bone spurs developing in my spinal canal and in the spaces between the vertebrae where the nerves leave the spinal column. These spurs were rubbing against my nerves, hence the overwhelming pain, tingling, burning, and numbness that I was experiencing. To top it off, some of my discs were degenerating prematurely due to the bone spurs pressing against them.
Well, at least it was simple. Because of the seriousness of the discomfort, I opted for surgery. The treatment would consist of broad spinal canal (lumbar) decompression or laminectomy (removal of the bone spurs and associated bone material in the affected areas) and mass lateral fusion (also called posterolateral gutter fusion, this procedure is used since the decompression would leave my spine unable to support itself, so bone grafts from my hip would be used to build a new supporting bone structure).
I had the surgery in 1996, and it certainly corrected many of the problems I was having. I’ve had a few episodes of pain and discomfort since then, but nothing that compares to what I was experiencing before.
And all of that leads me to today — when I can barely walk or move in any way and have this near overwhelming pain running down a good portion of my back. I doubt it’s anything like what I had before (the pain is very much different), but it’s still the kind and level of pain that brings tears to my eyes.
I went to the doctor to see what could be done. Since I couldn’t even climb the stairs at work (bad timing for elevator problems), my coworkers felt it was serious enough to kick me out of the office (it doesn’t help the work atmosphere when you can’t move well or fast and constantly have tears in your eyes that you’re trying desperately to hold back).
Doc says I’ve strained a muscle in my back and am having muscle spasms because of it. To add insult to injury, he says that the inflamed muscles are rubbing against the nerves each time they spasm.
OK, I guess that explains it.
So I got an epidural steroid injection to provide immediate relief and was placed on pain and anti-inflammatory/muscle relaxant medications to ensure I could function. I’m wiped out from the drugs and the pain, so I doubt I’ll be at work tomorrow. That’s what sucks — I hate missing work and really don’t want to be out any more than is absolutely necessary.