It's my back and I'll cry if I want to
For anyone not keeping track, I seem to have a "bad back" - which is the clinical way of doctors saying, "Yeah, it's messed up, good luck with that." At least I've not gotten very far no matter how often I try to deal with it.
The little bit of diagnosis I can say is there's no physical signs: no bone spurs, no outgrowths, no curvature, no obvious problems with the muscles or tendons. However I seem to be able to cause myself backpain by doing something as simple as coughing or sneezing too hard. Or being in a bus that hits a large pothole causing my back to tense up too hard to keep me upright. Or I fall down (man I hate these).
The pain and recovery is different and I've got different tools depending on how it feels, but the big one is trying to not do anything much like bending or lifting or moving. Yeah, like that really works out much.
Take this past week for an example. I survived the holidays with only mild discomfort, just the usual twinge of ow, that hurts, lemme straighten up or stop slouching or something. Then I'm guessing from packing up our stuff and travel, I did something that my back didn't like. And as usual lately, it took almost two days to show up. Midafternoon Friday (yes, NYE, I hate you too back) I got up from a chair and realized I hurt.
Friday's early pain was the kind that was bad only when moving, and there was additional weakness when trying to move my mid to upper back. Static sitting was only a dull roar, but getting up, walking, bending... aaaaaaaaaouch. And the capper was we had a NYE party to head to, that I'd paid good money to attend, spend time with friends, *and* eat and drink (DRINK) and I was not going to be stopped. So I figured I'd try one of my less-used pain methods - alcohol as a muscle relaxant.
(Aside: I don't drink much. Really. I drink a few times a year. I'm the poster child for a non-alcoholic person. Don't panic that I actually tried to get drunk for once :)
It worked, to some extent. I was actally drunk and it worked as a decent buffer between hurting and not hurting. It all still hurt when I moved, but it was something - and I was able to still enjoy the party, so long as I sat down. Sorry I wasn't able to dance guys, I really would have liked that.
Soon after we got home I was detoxed enough to take some Aleve and go to sleep. Morning found us up for brunch, again, and it all still hurt - but not quite as bad as the night before. For Saturday, lying down was helpful. I could only manage my left side, but it worked to "reset" the pain levels. This time the pain was more prevalent, as there were a few muscles that kept trying to tighten or loosen when nothing around them wanted movement, so that caused joint pain in the ribs and spine. Saturday night I slept okay.
Sunday we were up early, and the morning Aleve wasn't working anymore. The inflammation was down, but now everything just hurt. I stuck it out till it was safe to take something else, and switched to a Darvocet (*) and heating pad. Again, sitting was my friend. When I got up to move, my muscles would try to stretch a bit and some bone would move the wrong way in a cartilage socket and OW it would hurt. Once I got moving it was only little bits of ow, but I had a limited window till I had to sit down again.
Last night was NOT fun. I had that lovely feeling of, "I'm going to crack my ribs in by lying on them and all those back muscles won't help to keep things where they belong - try to sleep NOW buddy!" I hate these nights. I finally managed to wedge myself somehow such that I passed out, but it still hurts a bit today. I'm off the painkillers though - didn't take one before bed last night, none this morning. This way I know what hurts so I don't accidentally do too much. I can at least move my upper back without anything hurting, so I can lift my arms up to stretch ever-so-carefully. Standing is a negotiation on not tensing up all of my back, and I've tried to avoid bending much.
I've found when it's *really* bad I need to take something for the pain, because more pain makes everything tense up more and then it lasts longer. This used to be a two-three week cycle, now it seems to be more like 2-4 days on average.
(*) I know Darvocet is no longer "safe" according to the FDA, but my usage pattern is one or two in a row, no more, and that does not cause the heart problems they've seen. My doctor is aware and has said I can keep taking them till I need a prescription for something new. Which might be summer if my usage patterns hold. So no worries.
The little bit of diagnosis I can say is there's no physical signs: no bone spurs, no outgrowths, no curvature, no obvious problems with the muscles or tendons. However I seem to be able to cause myself backpain by doing something as simple as coughing or sneezing too hard. Or being in a bus that hits a large pothole causing my back to tense up too hard to keep me upright. Or I fall down (man I hate these).
The pain and recovery is different and I've got different tools depending on how it feels, but the big one is trying to not do anything much like bending or lifting or moving. Yeah, like that really works out much.
Take this past week for an example. I survived the holidays with only mild discomfort, just the usual twinge of ow, that hurts, lemme straighten up or stop slouching or something. Then I'm guessing from packing up our stuff and travel, I did something that my back didn't like. And as usual lately, it took almost two days to show up. Midafternoon Friday (yes, NYE, I hate you too back) I got up from a chair and realized I hurt.
Friday's early pain was the kind that was bad only when moving, and there was additional weakness when trying to move my mid to upper back. Static sitting was only a dull roar, but getting up, walking, bending... aaaaaaaaaouch. And the capper was we had a NYE party to head to, that I'd paid good money to attend, spend time with friends, *and* eat and drink (DRINK) and I was not going to be stopped. So I figured I'd try one of my less-used pain methods - alcohol as a muscle relaxant.
(Aside: I don't drink much. Really. I drink a few times a year. I'm the poster child for a non-alcoholic person. Don't panic that I actually tried to get drunk for once :)
It worked, to some extent. I was actally drunk and it worked as a decent buffer between hurting and not hurting. It all still hurt when I moved, but it was something - and I was able to still enjoy the party, so long as I sat down. Sorry I wasn't able to dance guys, I really would have liked that.
Soon after we got home I was detoxed enough to take some Aleve and go to sleep. Morning found us up for brunch, again, and it all still hurt - but not quite as bad as the night before. For Saturday, lying down was helpful. I could only manage my left side, but it worked to "reset" the pain levels. This time the pain was more prevalent, as there were a few muscles that kept trying to tighten or loosen when nothing around them wanted movement, so that caused joint pain in the ribs and spine. Saturday night I slept okay.
Sunday we were up early, and the morning Aleve wasn't working anymore. The inflammation was down, but now everything just hurt. I stuck it out till it was safe to take something else, and switched to a Darvocet (*) and heating pad. Again, sitting was my friend. When I got up to move, my muscles would try to stretch a bit and some bone would move the wrong way in a cartilage socket and OW it would hurt. Once I got moving it was only little bits of ow, but I had a limited window till I had to sit down again.
Last night was NOT fun. I had that lovely feeling of, "I'm going to crack my ribs in by lying on them and all those back muscles won't help to keep things where they belong - try to sleep NOW buddy!" I hate these nights. I finally managed to wedge myself somehow such that I passed out, but it still hurts a bit today. I'm off the painkillers though - didn't take one before bed last night, none this morning. This way I know what hurts so I don't accidentally do too much. I can at least move my upper back without anything hurting, so I can lift my arms up to stretch ever-so-carefully. Standing is a negotiation on not tensing up all of my back, and I've tried to avoid bending much.
I've found when it's *really* bad I need to take something for the pain, because more pain makes everything tense up more and then it lasts longer. This used to be a two-three week cycle, now it seems to be more like 2-4 days on average.
(*) I know Darvocet is no longer "safe" according to the FDA, but my usage pattern is one or two in a row, no more, and that does not cause the heart problems they've seen. My doctor is aware and has said I can keep taking them till I need a prescription for something new. Which might be summer if my usage patterns hold. So no worries.