Back pain: does it exist?
I am currently experiencing Back Pain: The Sequel. Like most sequels, it's not as intense as the first episode, and thank God for that.
Because I've been so blog-happy, I can now read my past posts on back pain, and on allll the things I was going to do to prevent recurrence. Let's see, I was going to lose weight, strengthen my core, avoid high impact exercise, and pay more attention to the little aches and pains that can signal the bigger ones.
Sigh. The road to hell etc etc. Suffice to say I've been feeling better and I mistakenly thought I was completely fine. So why not go snowboarding? Why not! Why not do a few minutes on the rowing machine? It's such good exercise! Oh self, self, self, how quickly you forget.
So now I'm not in agony, but I am in pain. It's localized for the most part across my lower back, but I do feel a twinge on the right side of my right calf, and I'm feeling it more in my hips than I want to.
When I was first going through this, it debilitated me to the point where I couldn't walk for more than a few steps without crying. I got an MRI, which showed I have a herniated disc in my L5-S1. The disc is bulging and may be impinging on my sciatic nerve.
Now, here's the thing: apparently, you can have a herniated disc and have it impinging on all sorts of nerves and not feel anything. My dad told me he was having pain in his right shoulder, so he got an MRI and found he had a disc impinging on a nerve on the other side of his neck - his left shoulder, where he felt no pain at all. Weird, right?
When my back first flared up, it hurt so much I couldn't think straight. It was the worst pain I've ever experienced. My treatment options that night were some ice packs and some ibuprofen. Ten minutes after I took the ibuprofen, the pain abated to the point where I could sit in a car. I went to the doc the next day and got some mild muscle relaxants and nothing else.
By the next weekend, I was back to square one, and had to get serious muscle relaxants and codeine. So why, if I needed the heavy drugs a week after the incident, did I only need a few ibuprofen the night when the pain was the most intense? I discussed it with my dad, and apparently most pain doesn't really exist. It should be a signal that something is wrong with your body, but sometimes it isn't. Sometimes, if you think the pain is going to go away, it will. If you don't, the nerves keep firing and muscles respond by spasming, pinching the nerves more so the pain increases. So when I first had issues, I took the ibuprofen expecting it to help, and it did via the magical placebo effect. Then later I learned that the pain was beyond OTC meds and they stopped working.
And the way that painkillers work is odd. I don't know a ton about it, but each class of pain killer works in a different way. Some interrupt the signals from the nerves, and some work more with your brain, so you still feel the pain, but you don't care about it.
I looked on WebMD for back pain treatment options. They say that back pain goes away in three to six months, with or without treatment. So I'm experiencing pain, and whether I can choose to have it treated or not, it'll go away.
Personally, I'm very much in favor of not feeling pain. I think pain is physically and mentally tiring, and if you're tired all the time, you can't heal as efficiently. Also, I think bad things are vicious circles, and it's important to interrupt the cycle if you can. If pain is a signal that something is wrong, and you recognize it and fix the underlying cause, then you shouldn't have to feel it over and over. So Dear My Back: message received. Thank you. Please stop calling.
Because I've been so blog-happy, I can now read my past posts on back pain, and on allll the things I was going to do to prevent recurrence. Let's see, I was going to lose weight, strengthen my core, avoid high impact exercise, and pay more attention to the little aches and pains that can signal the bigger ones.
Sigh. The road to hell etc etc. Suffice to say I've been feeling better and I mistakenly thought I was completely fine. So why not go snowboarding? Why not! Why not do a few minutes on the rowing machine? It's such good exercise! Oh self, self, self, how quickly you forget.
So now I'm not in agony, but I am in pain. It's localized for the most part across my lower back, but I do feel a twinge on the right side of my right calf, and I'm feeling it more in my hips than I want to.
When I was first going through this, it debilitated me to the point where I couldn't walk for more than a few steps without crying. I got an MRI, which showed I have a herniated disc in my L5-S1. The disc is bulging and may be impinging on my sciatic nerve.
Now, here's the thing: apparently, you can have a herniated disc and have it impinging on all sorts of nerves and not feel anything. My dad told me he was having pain in his right shoulder, so he got an MRI and found he had a disc impinging on a nerve on the other side of his neck - his left shoulder, where he felt no pain at all. Weird, right?
When my back first flared up, it hurt so much I couldn't think straight. It was the worst pain I've ever experienced. My treatment options that night were some ice packs and some ibuprofen. Ten minutes after I took the ibuprofen, the pain abated to the point where I could sit in a car. I went to the doc the next day and got some mild muscle relaxants and nothing else.
By the next weekend, I was back to square one, and had to get serious muscle relaxants and codeine. So why, if I needed the heavy drugs a week after the incident, did I only need a few ibuprofen the night when the pain was the most intense? I discussed it with my dad, and apparently most pain doesn't really exist. It should be a signal that something is wrong with your body, but sometimes it isn't. Sometimes, if you think the pain is going to go away, it will. If you don't, the nerves keep firing and muscles respond by spasming, pinching the nerves more so the pain increases. So when I first had issues, I took the ibuprofen expecting it to help, and it did via the magical placebo effect. Then later I learned that the pain was beyond OTC meds and they stopped working.
And the way that painkillers work is odd. I don't know a ton about it, but each class of pain killer works in a different way. Some interrupt the signals from the nerves, and some work more with your brain, so you still feel the pain, but you don't care about it.
I looked on WebMD for back pain treatment options. They say that back pain goes away in three to six months, with or without treatment. So I'm experiencing pain, and whether I can choose to have it treated or not, it'll go away.
Personally, I'm very much in favor of not feeling pain. I think pain is physically and mentally tiring, and if you're tired all the time, you can't heal as efficiently. Also, I think bad things are vicious circles, and it's important to interrupt the cycle if you can. If pain is a signal that something is wrong, and you recognize it and fix the underlying cause, then you shouldn't have to feel it over and over. So Dear My Back: message received. Thank you. Please stop calling.
posted by walkinhomefromthethriftstore at 8:38 AM
5 Comments:
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Back Pain
Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying it! I mean, you're enjoying reading about my PAIN, so I dunno what that says about you... ah, I kid, I kid.
Then there's the pain of childbirth, which is really bizarre . A contraction would make me stop what I was doing and double over in agony. Then, after how ever many seconds that it lasted, the pain would completely go away, like it never even happened.
It's good to have the break. It's also good to have the epidural.
I've wondered how painkillers work and I decided that I just won't think about it too much. Instead I'm grateful for modern medicine and whomever stumbled on willow tree bark or whatever it is that aspirin comes from.
Ooh, maybe I could get an epidural. My spine is hurting, so a spinal block seems like the way to go, non?
Werl, if you want to use your legs, mebbe not so much the epi.
Wired had a really interesting article on new options in anesthetic that are being developed. It also talked about how current anesthetics work, how chronic pain affects the brain, and what the possibilities are for using targeted anesthetics to reduce the complications of setting up a surgery. It's not really applicable to your specific situation, but it is fascinating, so. And also in the Iraq.
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