Monday, December 03, 2007

If only I don't bend and break

I hurt my back over the Thanksgiving holiday. A few years ago I had back surgery to remove a portion of a herniated disc that was compressing my sciatic nerve, and it feels like I've re-aggravated the same part of the nerve. At first I was hoping it was something that would go away, but after a week with no improvements I went to see a doctor about it. The doctor said that he didn't think I'd herniated the disc again, but that I'd pulled a muscle, the inflammation of which was probably just pinching the nerve. He prescribed some steroids, an anti-inflammatory agent, a muscle relaxer and told me to take those and heat it for twenty minutes twice a day and to come back and see him in a week.

I took the pills as prescribed, but there were no real improvements over the past week. I had a follow up appointment scheduled with him on Thursday, but it got bad enough that I went back today. He was off, so I got a different doctor. She had a different opinion. She thinks that I've re-injured the same part of my back that I had surgery on before, and she sent me to get an MRI this afternoon. Luckily, I was able to get right in for an appointment.

While I was in the waiting room at the radiologist an elderly couple walked in. They were probably in their sixties, and the man was definitely having some trouble walking. As he limped through the office and into the bathroom I felt sorry for him. However, my empathy was short lived, narcissitic as I am, and I thought "I hope that's not me in thirty years."

Then the thought occurred to me: "Wait, that's me now."

Life sucks.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pathetic, huh?

:)

steph said...

ugh! i hope you feel better soon...it sucks to be out of commission.

Jenny said...

Awwww - I'm really, really sorry. Back problems are the devil.

AnoMALIE said...

You know what that means! Yoga time!! J/k
Whenever I hear someone has a bad back, I immediately think of that one King of the Hill episode where Hank is reluctant to take yoga class to fix his back problem... and when he finally does, he likes it, but he changes all the names to the positions and teacher all his friends.
Anyway, I'm probably the only person who still watches KOTH, so I'll shut up now.

Hope you feel better!

AnoMALIE said...

Correction: teaches. Sorry, I'm Mexican.

Dee Ice Hole said...

I am sorry you are still having problems with your back---I have had them on and off for most of my life---the one thing constant in all those episodes with back problems is when my stomach got out of shape my back got out of place---moral---keep your stomach in shape and your back will take care of itseld.

Anonymous said...

Same here...exercise that core... :) Psycho

flieswithoutwings said...

Yeah fatty.

Anonymous said...

Sad!! It's ok...after finals we can hang out and take our drugs together. I'm only 24 and I'm all f***ed up...it could be worse...that could have been you at 24!!! At least I'm a chick though...that's better. Yeah.

mindy said...

yowch! I'm sorry. Didn't you used to work at UPS? One of my brothers did for a while and he had to have back surgery a few years back, too, but he was in his late 30s I think. I really hope you get feeling better soon. Back pain is terrible.