Runner Insight

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Imagine you’re in bed one morning, and you sneeze.  Now that may not seem significantly life-altering, and you may be asking yourself (or me), “So what?”  Well, that was the catalyst that sent my back into some sort of spasm on Dec 30^th, the day before New Year’s Eve this winter. 

I had been having some mild lower back pain off and on for the past couple of weeks, but I thought it was from shoveling snow. But this pain resulting from an innocent little sneeze was something entirely different from just sore muscles. 

I hadn’t really ever had serious back pain before, so needless to say, I was concerned.  I rolled myself out of bed, but found the pain too severe to stand, let alone walk!  I ended up crawling, and feeling faint and sick from the pain. Okay this was not going well at all. And all this from just one little well-intentioned sneeze…who knew how fragile we are?

I managed to get dressed in my sweats and then crawled like a lumbering tortoise to the living room, (I swear it was literally that slow) where I tried to sit in the recliner.  That lasted less than a minute, as the pain in my lower back and right leg was way too much when I was in an upright sitting position. I got back down on the floor on my hands and knees and curled up like a rolly-polly bug. This was the only position I could tolerate.

My partner, obviously concerned that I was rolling around the floor like a beach ball, asked if we should maybe go to the E.R.? Of course I said no at first…I almost always do.  But upon consideration, realizing that there was no way I could work in this condition, I soon agreed.

But first I wanted to take a shower.

“What? Why? Let’s just throw a hat on your head, brush your teeth, and call it good. Nobody cares. Besides, you can’t even stand up. How are you going to take a shower?” 

Good point. 

I managed to get into the front seat, and was instantly sorry for that decision.  I endured the agony of the seated position for a couple of minutes. Then a couple of blocks later at a stop sign, I crawled into the back seat, and resumed my fetal position.

Since I had been curled up like a rolly-polly bug in the back seat for the 10 to 15 minute ride, by the time we got to the hospital my back didn’t feel so bad. As we entered the hospital, I was walking nearly normally. I said, “Maybe I’ll be okay. Let’s go home.”  Since I previously hadn’t been able to sit without excruciating pain, T, in her infinite wisdom, told me to sit down in the wheelchair at the Emergency Room entrance to see how my back felt.  The instant I sat down, I could feel my back start to pull and the pain seared my back again and continued down my right leg. That decision made, we proceeded to the E.R. check in. 

There was no one in front of us, and I was processed quickly.  A nurse named Kim took my blood pressure and my history, as she helped me get comfortable on the exam bed. Lying on my left side, with a pillow between my knees helped to relieve the pain a little.

Dr. Westin would be coming on shift in 15 minutes. It would be faster to wait for him, than have the other ER doctor see me, as he had 8 patients in his care at the moment.  So we were happy to wait a few minutes.  As promised, the Doctor arrived in the exam room in about 15 minutes. 

He had me lie on my back and raise each leg, while he gently pushed down.  When I raised my right leg, it was painful.  He looked at my back and had me get up and do some bends. He came to the conclusion that it was my sciatic nerve.

He thought that I may have had some injury to my disk causing the nerve to become irritated and inflamed.  He prescribed steroids, pain killers and muscle relaxants. He told us his mother-in-law was now his best friend after she had sciatica and he prescribed steroids. He reassured me that they should start to kick in within a day or so.  He told me the sciatica didn’t seem too severe yet, but if I had weakness in my legs to come back right away.

So with Rx in hand, we left the ER and went to the Pharmacy.  It was going to be about 20 minutes for the prescription to get filled. I was of course tucked away in the back of the van, starting to feel pretty good from the pain killer I was given in the ER, so I could stand to wait 20 minutes or so. 

We decided to drive over to the Post Office to pick up our mail while we were waiting, since it was only a few blocks away.  When T came back to the car with the mail, she mentioned that we had received what looked like a gift from our Financial Advisor, Judy.  I figured maybe it was a calendar, as she gave my mom one. 

 “No,” T said, “It feels more like a box of chocolates.” 

 Chocolate? Did someone say chocolate?

Still in my curled up position on the back seat, I insisted on having the package. T passed it back to me, and I ripped into it like a hungry monkey…Hey my back hurt, not my stomach! 

Now with pain pills and chocolate on board I was pretty much set, life was good…Pain pills talking… except for my Starbucks…which we had to stop for on the way home. Now life was complete…

When we got back home, T made me a cozy cocoon on the couch where I stayed for most of the day, dozing on and off. 

Part two will be coming on Monday…so stay tuned!!

How ‘bout it?

-Vision Runner

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Tags: back care, back pain, back spasm, chocolate, emergency room, sciatic nerve problems, sciatica

This entry was posted on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 2:13 am and is filed under Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.