Diary of my back pain, part 1.

Diary of a bad back Part 1.

Although I spend most of my time treating back pain, I personally haven’t really suffered from it. I’ve had the occasional few days of soreness from lifting or landing awkwardly during sport here and there but nothing too extreme. 

This week began in a slightly different way to most because we have friends over from the US, I’ve just completed a spartan race, and I’m currently sleeping in our spare room, which has a particularly soft bed. 

I put the first few days of stiffness down to the tough spartan event, which was great fun for anyone who hasn’t done it before. A few other changes to my daily routine I think are important to shaping my week and subtle changes in my lifestyle. I find it’s small changes to a persons normal routine that can be catastrophic yet they never even know they are happening. I normally wake up around 7am to walk our dogs around the hills and this is normally a great barometer of how I’m feeling. Sometimes after football, I’ll go for an easy walk due to feeling fatigued and stiff, but by the end of it I’m usually ready for work. This week our dogs were at my mother-in-law’s house, so no walks for me. I felt it was a good chance to get some extra rest, as I’d been feeling slightly flat in the last couple of weeks.

Roll on Wednesday, there was nothing unusual about the work day. I wasn’t feeling anything major, except stiffness, especially when getting in and out of chairs and getting up off the ground. I didn’t feel as fluid as I usual do. I was demonstrating a mobility exercise to a client on the ground and as I went to get up, I felt a little twinge in my back. It didn’t stop me, but it was like a little jab or that feeling when you trip slightly but manage to catch yourself. I continued with our session but something definitely didn’t feel right. I had a couple more clients to see that day, so I thought I’d just soldier through. I found massaging and manipulating clients increasingly difficult so in a short break I headed back into the gym to do some gentle mobility work, to see if I could loosen up my lower back.

The fact I didn’t have a chance to sit down after feeling the initial pain was probably what helped me finish the day. As I pulled into my drive that’s when I realised I was really struggling. I had to haul myself out of the car using a ‘spider grab everything you can technique’ and really felt like a climber free-soloing up a cliff face, trying in vain to avoid the now sharp stabbing pains caused by certain movements.

Walking into the house I’m greeted by my wife and our guests, looking slightly bemused at this Quasimodo-looking healthcare practitioner that never shuts up about good movement and wellbeing. They think I’m messing around, but the pain is very real. Now, every time I put my right foot down I’m getting a sharp punching feeling above my hip and under my ribs. I ignore my wife’s advice to “take some painkillers”  as I’m usually against taking painkillers and anti-inflammatories too soon or after what I perceive as non-serious pain because so many people are addicted to them I replied, “No, it’s fine, pain is my body talking to me. I have to know what it’s saying.”

As the evening goes on, in between the feeling of being stabbed with a hot poker every time I try to adjust or even fidget, I’m left with this dull, nagging ache in my lower back, which is dragging me down. I shuffle off to bed with the promise of “if it’s still bad in the morning I’ll take something.”

Slowly I drift off to sleep after wrestling myself into a half comfortable position. 2am: bang! I wake up feeling as though I’ve just been impaled by a gladiator’s sword straight through my kidney and out through my stomach – the pain is intense and instantly wakes me up. I let out a weak yelp, as making any more noise just increases the pain. I now know that I have to get to the medicine bag to get some pain relief. The house is silent, so navigating my way in the dark, trying to avoid waking three young children is more challenging than the spartan race.

It took me twenty minutes to get down the stairs into the kitchen. The first obstacle was getting off the bed. Now, here’s the thing with back pain, it’s the small shuffling, adjusting and perturbations we normally take for granted that cause the most pain. So, turning over, pulling your legs into position, pushing your hands off the bed etc. Every time, it feels like a stab, pinch and pull. So, you try to avoid those moves that makes things ten times worse, because moving slowly causes more contractions. I hold onto the walls while I shuffle along the landing to the dreaded stairs. I can’t go down them on my bum, as I can’t get down that low, so I hug the wall as I slide down each step knowing that any wrong move and I’m in trouble. By now I’m sweating and my heart is beating out of my chest.

I find the analgesics and swallow the highest allowed maximum dose, but hoping it would kick in ASAP was somewhat optimistic. By the time I get back up to bed I’ve noticed fifty minutes had gone by. Time to get my head back down. 

I can’t even toss and turn as every movement is painful, so I lay still waking up frequently, and having to turn using all my concentration and skill. I just can’t get comfortable or even stay in one position for any period of time. By 6am I find myself needing to go to the toilet. Time for another battle with this gladiator. The pain is now a constant 8 out of 10 with frequent surges of 10. Now, I’ve had several surgeries and a few teeth extracted and this is right up there with the worst of them.

Getting on to the toilet is an absolute mission and adjusting to be in the correct position takes its toll. I find myself in a cold sweat and feeling dizzy like I’m going to faint. Sorry to paint such a grim picture but I’m hanging onto the sink, PJs round ankles, hoping I don’t faint – more because of the pain involved getting up afterwards rather than the actual fainting. I’m in a bad way. The painkillers and anti-inflammatories have already played havoc with my bowels and any type of pushing is starting a war with my bowel and my back muscles. I can’t even begin to think what pregnancy is like if this is even a glimpse.

The next 24 hours is pretty much a repeat of all the above, although I take myself downstairs to the sofa, as the bed is giving me the ‘Fugees’ killing me softly. I have to drop out of our family trip to London and also cancel the next two days in clinic. Currently I have painkillers and anti-inflammatories on their four-hour rotation. Luckily a friend brings me my go-to anti-inflammatories so I don’t have to subject myself to a trip to the local GP to argue my case. I will go to the GP if I feel that after the first 48 hours (the inflammation stage) my symptoms are getting worse. The GP is not going to tell me anything I don’t already know about my back issue. My temperature isn’t up, there’s no blood in any of my toilet battles, I’m not getting numbness or referred pain into both legs or any severe abdominal pain/cramping so I’m pretty certain I’m clear of any red flags (these are symptoms that suggest a most serious medical condition). However, if you are unsure it’s important to seek medical attention immediately. I’m trained to understand symptoms, so although going through them is horrific, I can tell the difference between what requires further medical attention and what doesn’t. Always be on the safe side. Your health, your responsibility. 

I’m currently trying to get up and move around gingerly every hour or two between naps. Although I have no appetite whatsoever I’m grazing on all kinds of food/junk just to get me through the next couple of hours. I’ve been using a hot water bottle and I’ve now started gently mobilising my lower back. Currently at about 6/10 constant dull ache with sharp pains hitting about 8/10.

I’m planning on detailing everything I do to return to health. In part 2 I’ll be reporting what happens in the next week and how my recovery is going. I’m aiming to do this in real time so I can give an accurate account of what it’s like for people who suffer acute back pain, facet joint inflammation or disc pathologies. What they may go through and thoughts they may have.

Please let me know your experiences or if you have any questions?