Of all the nerve!!

My back and hip joints are messing with me again. They are angry.

I sound like bad Hemingway writing. "The spine was angry that day..."


WHY is my back sore? I mean, why is my back almost always sore???


In June of 1998, we were in Toronto, to celebrate my in-law's 50th Wedding Anniversary. My back and legs were HURTING. The poor sciatic nerve on my right side was in trouble. Ow. Ow. Ow. So we found a chiropractor close by to where we were staying and went to him. The somewhat flamingly New Age-y twit told me if I felt a sneeze coming, to curl forward.

I was clueless, so I believed him.

WHAT.
AN.
IDIOT.

That Saturday, we joined hundreds of friends and family in downtown Toronto and had a blast celebrating John and Stella's 50 years together. I was in an excruciating amount of pain. I was swallowing Advil and Tylenol and anything else I could get my hands on. I'd find a couch and lie down and weep. 

Late that night, actually, at 12:30am Sunday morning, I discovered I was pregnant. Joy mixed with worry because, holy cow, I had been taking some seriously strong pain killers!!!

Everyone was very happy, but I was still in a whack of pain. Monday morning, we drove a few hours to the little town where we lived before moving to New Brunswick. A party awaited us, but I hid in the kitchen, catching up with my friends as we put the finishing touches on dinner.

Then I felt a sneeze coming. So I curled forward. And what happened next can only be described as feeling like someone had shot me, at point blank range. And I swear on a stack of Laura Frantz and Lori Benton books that I have NEVER EVER been in that kind of pain. I've had 4 babies. I know pain.

Long story short, we found out after I had the baby, that the soft little padding between L2 and L3 blew open. The intervertebral disc was now emptied of most of the fluid and I was laying in a heap on my friend's living room floor. I cannot begin to explain how bad it hurt. But I can tell you, I couldn't fully feel both my legs. As in, I couldn't walk. I couldn't stand up on my own. I lost 10 pounds in 10 days because it hurt to eat, drink and go to the washroom.
I cried for weeks.

We made it home, Lord knows how I survived that drive, and I called my doctor and began physiotherapy. No one knew the damage because I was pregnant, hence no x-rays. 
In 8 months of pregnancy, I had 9 pain free days.
9.
Think about a knife in your back, for 8 months.
Yes, 8. My son was 4 weeks early.

Now think about delivering a 6 pound baby with the knife in your back.

That was 16 years ago. That baby? Perfectly fine. Not a single health problem.  

But, my back will never heal. Surgery is a last resort and even then, the surgeon said that the risk of scar tissue forming over the initial injury is too high, unless I was in pain, 24/7.

So, there you go. 

And yes, he was worth every moment of pain.