The name is supposed to be a play on words for something that just resists all attempts at humor (but I try anyway).  If you are in the same boat as I am, you’ll certainly understand where I am coming from.

Last fall, just before Thanksgiving, I injured my back while flying a high-performance aircraft.  Or to be more accurate, my student hurt my back using the aircraft as a weapon.  We were flying formation, and were starting to get out of position.  I directed him to relax and move to the other side of the lead aircraft, which would correct our formation position.  I’m not certain what happened next, but the long and short of it is that he got my instructions completely backwards, and then proceed to execute the opposite of what I instructed him to do as hard as he could! We ended up way out of position, and exceeded the g-limits for the aircraft.  As I would discover in the next few months, we exceeded the g-limits for my back also.

For the next few days, I had some irritation and pain in my back, but nothing that I thought was serious.  In fact, right after the sortie where I was injured I didn’t feel pain, but felt like I was about a half inch shorter.  But as time went on, I began to experience more and more discomfort.  The discomfort at first was hard to pin down, but after several weeks, I determined that it seemed to be caused by sitting down.  Standing or lying down didn’t seem to bother things, but sitting, especially for prolonged periods, would cause quite a bit if pain.  I was sent to physical therapy to strengthen my core, buy I was able to perform the routine my first attempt at it, so I tempered my expectations that core strengthening would work.  In January a MRI was ordered, and this showed a tear in one of my discs.  I was referred to a spine specialist, who recommended that I receive steroid epidural injections in the injured area.  The first one yielded no results, except for lots of pain at the injection site, and some unusual side effects.  I became very flushed, with my skin hot to the touch.  My body temperature rose by about a degree or two for several days.  I had trouble sleeping.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have any improvement for my injured back.  The second epidural gave me the same side effects, but I also had severe pain with my sciatic nerve on my right leg.  It was extremely painful to sit down, and any forward bending caused intense pain.  It was painfully obvious that the steroid epidurals were not a success.   But now I had serious sciatic pain to deal with also.

After about a month I was able to get the sciatic pain under control using some very strong medicine, gabapentin.  The only trouble was the side effects of the medicine made me very lethargic and slow.  It did work very effectively on the pain, however.

After the flareup of the second epidural, my back returned to its state previous to the beginning of the epidurals.  I had another MRI done, with the same results.  The doctor then scheduled me for a discogram.  This is a painful procedure where needles are inserted into the disks in the suspect area of your back (in my case, the lumbar spine).  Dye is then injected and the doctor asks you if the sensation you feel duplicates your normal pain.  They can view the dye using a flouroscope, and the make a picture to show your specialist the condition of the disc.  I was given general anesthesia while the needles were inserted, and then woken up for the interactive part.  They didn’t wake me up enough to remember it, which was probably a small mercy.  The discogram confirmed that a disc was causing my pain.

My specialist recommended that I have a procedure where the disc is removed and the spine fused.  While this isn’t unexpected, it is a rather invasive surgery and I’m in the process of getting a second opinion.  Unfortunately, it has taken quite a while to get an appointment and I’m still waiting.   At this point, I am ready to have the surgery.  I am unable to travel and can barely go to work.  Since sitting causes the most pain and irritation, even light office duty is a problem.  In the works of some country song, “I ain’t seen the Braves play a game all year.”  I haven’t been anywhere except doctors appointments, church, and work for months.  I guess this is how house arrest feels, without the annoying ankle bracelet.

I’ll keep you updated.  I know that hearing other peoples problems, especially with back issues, is both encouraging and informative.  Hopefully someone will be helped by all of this.