Broke Back
Two weeks before Thanksgiving, I was in a rush to complete some pieces for Small Business Saturday at my shop. I was rocking and rolling and went to pick up a deceptively heavy piece of furniture. Nothing I haven't done before, I just picked it up wrong. I picked it up so that the drawers were away from me and they slid out, quickly, and pitched the forward. I felt something "give" in my back and the pain started radiating immediately. I couldn't pick up my right leg or stand up. I slid to the ground and rolled over on my back with my knees bent and my feet on the ground. It was the only way I could find any relief.
Actual pic of me on ground waiting on The Robinator.
The Robinator was in his office on a series of conference calls before he had to go to the office and, since my phone was in my pocket, I slipped it out and called him sounding really calm.
Robby: Hello? (sounding like...WHY YOU CALLING ME FROM OUTSIDE??????? YOU KNOW I'M BUSY!!!!!!!)
Me: Heyyyyyy (sounding all casual like I'm just shooting the shit)...when you have an opportunity, can you come outside and help me with something?
Robby: Yeah, okay, okay...in a minute.
So...I did what any red-blooded American with a smartphone in their hand would do. I surfed Facebook until he showed up. Snapped a few pics. You know...the norm. LOL!
He came out about 10 minutes later casually strolling. When he saw me on the ground, his face registered mild confusion because hey...sometimes I just sit or lay on the ground...I'm country but when he got closer and I told him that I'd messed up and he saw the dresser on the ground near me haphazardly, he started moving faster.
I couldn't move. The pain was getting worse. He carried me upstairs because, I wasn't about to go to the doctor looking like I was looking, called the doctor and rushed me in.
Link Taylor piece that took me out. Old super heavy, super well-made nightstand. Humph.
Doctor determined it was a bad sprain. Yall...I couldn't move my right leg without severe pain and screaming. He suggested I get a steroid shot. I declined. He gave me some anti-inflammatory meds and muscle relaxers. Silly me, I thought muscle relaxers were pain pills.
They aren't.
After waking everyone up screaming a few times in the middle of the night because I was trying to turn in my sleep, I called the next morning for pain meds.
I was told that my doctor doesn't prescribe pain meds. To anyone. Of any kind.
Wait, what?
This has been our doctor for 3 years now. Neither of us have needed pain meds for anything. But baaaaaaaaaby...if we need pain meds...DAMMIT...WE WANT PAIN MEDS. So I did my thing I do when I'm trying to get what I want and or need. After going around and around, turns out, the truth is that our doctor (ex-doctor cuz yeah...no) doesn't have a DEA license so he CAN'T prescribe pain meds.
Oh.
And this is how the opioid crisis ends up affecting us. When we were in for real serious pain...we can't get pain meds. I was incensed.
Once I got some pain meds and was able to start stretching without that severe pain, I started moving better. The worst part, however? The drive to and from Houston for Thanksgiving at my sister's house. SO TERRIBLE. And the pain meds made me toss my cookies so I had to take half doses after eating two chewable Tums to coat my stomach first. My body was so filled with foreign stuff I never take that I looked and felt completely different.
When we returned home, I stopped taking everything to flush out my system even though my back still hurts. I can't deal with that hazy, super swole feeling and truly don't know how anyone can. So I'm doing yoga, stretching and, to quote The Robinator, "sit your azz down somewhere and stop doing stuff!"
But see...that's hard for me.
The Robinator has not let me pick up anything heavier than my toothbrush. He has been the most hilarious nursemaid the world has ever produced. Let's me know what I'm in for as we grow old together. *sigh* Pure comedy.
The whole, no DEA license thing was news to me and something I guess we all need to be aware of with our doctors. People like us aren't trying to score drugs so to leave us in pain because a doctor CAN'T prescribe something to take us out of pain is just WRONG.
Humph.
Did yall know about the DEA license thing? Would you use a doctor as your primary care doctor who didn't have one knowing that if you really hurt yourself he/she couldn't get you out of pain using pain meds?
Have you ever hurt your back? What did you do to fix it? Do you still have problems with it after you hurt it the first time? Or did it completely go away?