Crazy EJR, How did this injury origonally occur? I keep checking in on this thread hoping ill read you tell us your all better now. Whats the plan now, and hows the pain been as of late?
The best I can tell, when I felt and heard and actual pop, I was 19 years old, moving a large oak tv entertainment center, and the guy above me let go, and I tried to muscle it so it wouldn't crush me against the wrought iron fence, and then boom, I felt and heard a loud pop in my back. It hurt for about a week, I put ice on it, and every once and a while it would hurt very mildly, like a tingle in my back if I really over did it and worked out a lot. Believe it or not, I was not always the fat fuck that you see now. Before my back troubles, I worked out religiously and kept in good shape. I even had six pack abs every once and a while. Well fast forward quite a few years, I was probably 26 or 25 and boom, one day it really started hurting bad, worse than anything I had felt up until that time, and BOOM! it hit me while I was in Kroger like a baseball bat to the back, while I was looking for back pain medicine, I fell to the ground screaming and crying, and I couldn't move, because every time I did I had this crazy muscle spasm. People that I had been stabbed or shot or attacked or something, scared my wife and everyone around us half to death. Every since then, it has hurt. It actually got a little better through the years as I tried to work out hard and keep the muscles ok, but then about two months ago, I was at the beach, and I tried to pick up a diaper that my daughter had dropped, and boom, I bent over wrong and I felt those same disc pop again. Same damn feeling. Well ever since then the pain has gotten worse, until last Saturday, I got another huge bomb dropped on me, even worse than before. At least this time, I thought I knew what it was, and it was.
Anyway hope that helped you understand.
The pain has gotten slightly better today, and its because I'm so hopped up on so many legal medicines that I cannot even count right now.
As I get older this will just get worse, and the doctor thinks I have a disease called degenerative disc disorder, which is something I was born with at birth if that's true.
I have an appointment coming up soon with my Neurosurgeon who burned the nerves for me and did some other procedures, and also gave me my legal medicines to try and help with the arthritis from the bones touching and getting too close back there, which are high powered anti-inflammatory. Also, he gives me a strong muscle relaxer, to help with the horrible muscle spasms although we see that is not even enough to stop the really bad ones. They also give me medicine for the leg pain and numbness, and they also give me high powered pain relievers that barely even though the horrible pain sometimes.
He will look at the MRI pictures that you saw, and make a decision on what he will think is the best action to go forward with. Either just more horrible powerful drugs that I hate taking, cuz they make me feel funny and sometimes really don't even touch the pain, and I just don't like them. I can do some very painful physical rehab and try to strengthen my muscles to an even better place, and as a last resort I guess they might do disc replacement surgery.
I live in a life of pain, day in day out, but this kind of pain is unbearable.
If SHTF right now, I'd be so screwed man. Its a horrible feeling knowing that you have to depend on other people to take care of you, I'd much rather be taking care of myself and be the one taking care of my family. Guess that wouldn't be the case if SHTF soon. But hey, if it comes to that, maybe I'll go out in a fight at least. LOL
A part of me would rather have the surgery, hope SHTF doesn't happen, and then hopefully come out on the other side totally good, (if I'm lucky) and then hopefully be completely normal again, able to do whatever I want to again, and I WILL become a PT God if that happens. I'm going to make sure of it.
