Ouch.
Posted on July 9, 2009
Yeah, this post is going to be whiny. Brace yourself. I just felt bad that this has been going on for five days now and I haven’t written about it in the one forum I have to let loose and throw myself a pity party complete with all the trimmings.
On the 4th of July, while waiting for the Kazoo parade to begin, I squat down to take a picture of Chloe in her stroller and did something to my back. I say something, because I still don’t know what I did. All I know is I moved the same why I have hundreds of times since I had Chloe, and this time something went wrong. I felt it immediately, but I had no idea how bad it was. If I had, I probably wouldn’t have participated in the parade. However, that’s neither here nor there. I did something, and it hurt.
And it continued to hurt. It finally got so bad, I couldn’t walk. Ellen and I had walked to Mainstreet for dinner, and on the way home, I just couldn’t even take a step with out a sharp shooting pain going up my hip and into my back. Add to that the muscle spasms that tend to accompany a back injury, and I was in agony. I have felt a lot of pain in my battle with scoliosis, but this is really the only time I have felt agony. We had to stop walking, and made Ellen’s husband, Dan, load her kids in the car and come get us. (John was home with a sleeping Chloe.)
John took a half day on Monday, and we went to the local Urgent Care. The doc prescribed me muscle relaxers and pain meds that work, but make me so sleepy I don’t feel comfortable driving a car after taking them. And I got more x-rays. I also put in a call to the Orthopedic Surgeon I saw in January. He had recommended a pain management specialist, but after struggling with insurance, and waiting a month for an appointment that never happened, I shoved it to the back burner and went on with my life. Well, his response for this injury is I needed to follow through with pain management before he will see me again.
Soooooo….back to square two. (I say two, because “one” was finding out what was initially causing the pain.) I called the insurance company this time, and found my own Pain Management Specialist (who is also conveniently local) instead of relying on a referral. But, again, they couldn’t see me for two weeks, and this is only a consultation. I have to assume, and the doc at urgent care agreed, that I will have to have a new MRI done before any real decisions can be made about my treatment. The Orthopedic surgeon, believes that the PMS can give me injections that are some what like an epidural that you will get while giving birth. It will have to be done in a hospital, however I think it is an outpatient procedure and will not require a hospital stay.
In the mean time, I can’t stand for longer than 10 minutes without a sharp pain in my hip. If I do stand for too long, or walk too much, my back starts to spasm, and I have to sit down in order to settle it down. This means I can’t stand at the sink long enough to do the dishes. I can’t vacuum, I can’t carry the laundry up and down the stairs, I struggle with bending down to pick up Chloe’s toys. So, poor John is working ten hour days at Vonage, then having to come home and pick up my slack with housework.
The worst is I can’t pick up Chloe, and she loves to be held. Her favorite game is “chase” and I can’t run after her right now. Luckily, I discovered if I am careful, I can still push the swing on the playground, which is good. However, she has started complaining about her own aches and pains so that she can fit in with mommy. She understands that Mommy’s back hurts, but she doesn’t get that kissing it won’t make it better, and going to the doctor won’t make it better. Sigh.
To add insult to injury, John and I had decided to have another baby, and now there is no way I can even think about pregnancy. I keep telling myself “not never, just not now.” Let’s hope I can stick to that because I really want to have another baby.
So, feeling a little blue. I don’t really want to talk about it, because it just brings up too much disappointment and frustration, but I need to get some of it off my chest.
I do feel a little bit better knowing we have a course of action. Instead of just waiting for the next episode and hoping it doesn’t happen, we are taking a more aggressive approach to fix it. It kind of sucks that I see a long road ahead of me, but at least I do feel there is an end in sight.