I hope you’ve all had a nice Christmas. But I’m pretty sure you’ve all had some bad ones. This is one of those for me.
As if I didn’t feel bad enough with depression, probation, and other stress factors. I got to visit the ER for Xmas!
I was bending over to put on my pants and I threw my back out! I had no idea I could feel so much pain. I’ve had abcessed teeth that were less painful! It’s a miracle I made it to the phone and got my friend to take me to hospital. I just hope I don’t have any lasting damage. My dad has had 2 back surgeries in his life and I’d rather not go through that.
Thankfully the ER was empty and the hospital staff were friendly and efficient. And I can still play whistle!
Oh, man… back pain is the pits and worse! Not a good way to spend any day, let alone a holiday.
I hope it eases and the problem is not a chronic one. i can relate to that in the past, and the rest (minus the probation) in the current, this too, shall pass. hang in there, friend. and whistle on!
They only give you 3 days worth of meds from the ER. I hope that I won’t need them when they run out. I’m a cook by profession and I need to be able to move. I got Motrin, Flexeril, and Loritabs…but it only brings the pain down to a dull roar at the moment. And I’m taking it very easy on the “holiday cheer”. I’ve seen first hand the effects of combining meds and booze in large quantities.
If you can use heat on it, get some of the Thermacare wraps (and yes, I work for the company that makes them - but not in that division). There are 8 or 12 hours versions and ones for both the upper and lower back, they really help my back when I’m having problems with it.
I hope this finds you on the mend and feeling better. (I can’t imagine being able to function at all on Loritabs. I had to take them following surgery and they knocked me out.)
I’m getting better. The Loritabs help a bit but I think the napping and relaxing are doing the most good. I just hope I can get through 12 hours of work tomorrow. Luckily, my employers are very accomodating
Mercifully, I’ve only had two or three major back problems in my life. The worst was 20 years ago when my father was dying of cancer. I had to travel back and forth between Birmingham and Little Rock, Arkansas. On one of those trips, I spent a couple nights in a row in his room with him in the hospital sleeping in an awful chair. That and the accumulated stress had my back feeling pretty stiff. I flew on that trip and had a layover in Nashville. So, I bought a hot dog for a vendor and I reached out to get the hot dog and when she put it in my hand, I felt my back seize up. I couldn’t raise or lower my arm and I guess I just looked stricken. I still remember how it felt–sort of like what I imagine it would feel like if a very large predator just chomped down on my back. She called security or something and they came over with a wheelchair and lowered me into it. Asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital in Nashville, or get on the plane and go to the hospital in Birmingham. Chose the latter. I was down for a week on that deal.
I imagine with idea that you’ll be able to see your regular physician and get a referral to a specialist if needed.
I hope that I won’t need them when they run out.
Why take a chance? Make the appointment with your reg. Dr. as soon as you can. If something miraculous happens and you have a total recovery with 24 hr.s to spare, you can call and cancel.
hyldemoer, it’s not so easy to see a regular doctor when you have no insurance. That’s why I’m hoping this clears up. Thankfully I woke up in far less pain than I did yesterday.
A visit to the emergency room last month would have cost me over $2,000. if I didn’t have insurance. All they did was take an x-ray and give me an IV to rehydrate me with a shot of steroid in it.
The visit to a dr. the next day cost $75. to walk in the door but she set me up with enough drugs to get me past the next 2 weeks and she also had a clue what I was going through so she could give me another Rx over the phone if needed.
How many visits to an emergency room can you afford?
My emergency room visit came after 2 weeks of self medication for what was going on. The dr.s there agreed with (and encouraged) my self medication therapy, but it just wasn’t high powered enough for what I was going through.
I agree, it would be really nice if what is going on with you clears up on its own. Depending on age, nutrition, weight, and activity level, most things that don’t kill people clear up on their own with or without a dr. having looked at it.
Meat needs time to heal. How much time do you have?
Myself, I don’t heal fast. Rather than chance a second visit to an emergency room I’d see a dr. even if the pain was down to something I could manage. #1 to find out what really happened. Putting on a pair of pants shouldn’t mess up a person so much that they resort to an emergency room for pain management.
If you know what happened you can take steps to correct the situation so it doesn’t happen again.
#2 to get emergency pharmaceuticals to deal with the remaining pain and possible pain in the future if it happens again.
It’s quite often some little freakish thing that does it. Pulling up nylons, putting on pants, reaching out for a hot dog . . . yup. You get into just the right position and . . . there you are–incapacitated.
Do you really think so?
Na, it’s more likely that there was a big old chain of events (as in the story Dale shared with us about what preceded his reaching out for a hotdog), the body reached a point where it says “enough!”, and then what ever is most vulnerable on a person makes noise.
I’ve had a couple teachers tell me that its the ones who become ill easy who are the lucky ones.
They learn to pay attention to what they’re doing.
I suppose you could say that every event in history leads up to the moment your back goes out but when it happened to me I was bending over to pick up a twig.
I was picking my daughter out of the child-seat in the car when I did-in my back. You would be hard put to do the same action without the props. Bending, twisting, lifting a heavy weight. Ak! I can feel it now.
