update: the war on back pain

I posted a while back about my chronic back pain and promised I'd give an update after my visit with the orthopedic doctor.

My appointment was on September 22. My doctor was so booked up that I had to take an appointment at his other office, which is an hour away. That meant sitting in the car for an hour each direction, and sitting is what aggravates the pain the most. So, needless to say, I felt just fabulous by the time I got to the office. But that wasn't a bad thing, because I was able to describe exactly where it hurts and how it feels. He looked at my records and saw that I'd already been through physical therapy a couple times with another doctor, chiropractic care off and on since I was maybe 12 or 13 years old, Celebrex and muscle relaxers. I told him I think it's time for an MRI and he agreed. I was happy he agreed; however, I was also a little nervous about the cost, because I'm now on an HSA and it's my first year. He recommended an open MRI facility, as it tends to be much less expensive than going to the hospital.

I had the MRI on September 28. That was...not fun. Not because of the machine--I'm not claustrophobic and it was an open MRI, anyway--but because I had to lay on my back on a hard table and not move for 25 minutes. The tech put a cushion under my knees, but it didn't help all that much. After three minutes on the table, my lower back was in a lot of pain. It just got worse as the MRI went on. The first picture was 30 seconds, which was fine. The second was three minutes and it felt like double that. Then when he said the next two pictures would be six minutes each, I very seriously considered hitting the call button to tell him I couldn't continue. The three minute picture seemed to go forever, and now I'd have to suffer through four times the amount of time! But I thought about it and realized that I'd just have to come back again, or not have it done at all, which would likely mean no answers as to what's going on back there, which ultimately means no relief.  I decided to just close my eyes and zone out as much as I could. I alternated that with staring at the top of the machine, which seemed to be less than six inches from my face. They gave me earphones so I could listen to the satellite radio station of my choice (Hair Nation!), but I couldn't hear it because the machine was so loud. By the time I was done, I was in so much pain the tech had to help me up. (I seriously almost  cried, and I wanted, but I didn't. I guess I just felt overwhelmed with the current pain and just feeling exhausted in general from having pain all the time.) I was walking slow and hunched over for a bit, and my back was wrecked the rest of the day. All I did for my workout that day was 30 minutes of walking, plus some squats and lunges.

I came home with a disc of the MRI pictures, so I decided to take a look. Yes, I was Internet diagnosing myself all weekend after that; Google is such a rabbit hole! I concluded that I have at least two discs that are bulging, herniated AND deteriorating. LOL But all kidding aside, it really did look like I had a couple of bulging discs.  Here are a couple of the pictures. Pretty fascinating stuff. And I'm happy to see I have ab muscles. ;) Or maybe it's just my skin I'm seeing. We'll just say they're my abs.

I went back to the ortho Wednesday so he could read the MRI. Guess what? I DO have two bulging discs! I also have an annular tear.  It sounded super serious, like some terrible injury. Turns out it's pretty common, especially as you *cough* get older. (UGH I hate saying that!) Just part of wear and tear on the back, although it can happen because of a sports injury or something similar. I have no idea when it happened. Since I definitely didn't have any kind of injury that would lead to it, it's likely been brewing for a while and it picked the last month or so to show itself.

So, my treatment will be as follows:  a methylprednisolone pack, which is 21 steroid pills taken over six days; Percocet for the pain, as needed; physical therapy; and then cortisone shots if none of that works. I started the steroid pack yesterday and I already feel a bit of relief in that I didn't wake up in terrible pain this morning. It was more of a dull ache.

I also need to take it easy with working out, which is something I really did not want to hear; it's hard enough to stay on track without being given permission to take it easy. I can work out, but I need to be careful with weights, jumping, etc. My trainer told me to eliminate burpees, squat jumps, jumping jacks, lifting any weight over my head, and anything else that could be considered high impact, like sprints. That's OK, though. There are still plenty of things I can do. My trainer will be having knee surgery next week, so my plan is to start PT the week of the 16th, after I get back from my business trip. Hopefully once he's ready to come back to the studio, I'll be well on my way to healing.