Back, in Action
Published: Friday, March 16, 2018
The thing about backs is that you don't think about them much unless they get itchy. They help hold your body up, and that's about it. Oh, and they contain your spine. So the back is there, doing its thing.
Until.
Until one day you wake up, and, with no provocation, at least none that you can remember, your back is in hideously excruciating pain. Pain that won't let up. Pain that actually makes you think, "Those lucky dead people. They don't have back pain!"
Such was the case for me starting Feb. 26. I woke up, got a shower, bent down to get some clothes from my dresser, stood up, and pow! I was in misery. For the next few days, I could do very little. Basically, I moved from bed to sofa. Happily, by that Thursday, I was very much on the mend.
Then it happened. For no discernible reason, the pain got much, much worse. And for the ladies reading this who have given birth, you'll understand the following: It felt like constant labor pains in my back. Terrible, mind numbing pain. The kind that makes you whimper and cry out.
For the next 48 hours I tried muscle relaxers—can't use them. They make my heart race and my throat close. Disposable heat wraps, and massive amounts of naproxen (Aleve) barely touched it. On Saturday night I went to the emergency room. They couldn't do much.
I started thinking I was going to live with constant labor pains in my back the rest of my life until my dear friend and retired nurse, Sally, said, "You need a heating pad." As in a real, electric heating pad. Not the disposable kind.
Turns out, Todd has one. I turned it on, gingerly manipulated my back onto it, and rested. An hour later, I was feeling a tiny bit better. By the next morning, I knew I was on the mend. By Monday I was feeling pretty good. Then the massive head cold arrived.
The cold I could deal with, but that back pain, wow! It's so terrible. It's monstrous. I now have so much sympathy for people with chronic back pain. I see why they constantly need chiropractic services, why they go to pain clinics, why they'll seek any help they can get.
I usually try to offer advice in my columns, and I will say that I think muscle relaxers could be effective if you aren't allergic to them. And I'll bet physical therapy helps. The best I can do this week is to say: Get a heating pad. A big one. You can buy really huge ones for back pain. I just had a regular size one and it did the trick.
Back pain is one of the most common types of pain. It interrupts life to an overwhelming degree. When you have it, it envelopes your mind. It becomes the whole world. Meditation didn't even help me, and it usually helps me with everything.
So here I am today, unable to offer much advice for back pain except, see a doctor, use a heating pad and take some over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs. And know that I stand in solidarity with you. I have your back.
If you'd like to share your own home memories or tips (or recipes), send ideas to tkwolford@aol.com. Or you can write me via traditional mail at The Farmer's Exchange, P.O. Box 45, New Paris, IN 46553.
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