1. After the diagnosis
The fall/winter of 2016-2017 I spent hours at PT, getting labs, and imagining. The Pilates based Physical Therapy by three separate therapists I saw was not helping. Again I was having more wide spread issues, not just pain in my lower back. I was fully inflamed.
One therapist, a DTP (Doctor of Physical Therapy) suggested another approach. She said let’s try an internal approach. Meaning soft tissue release from the inside of my body, and how is that accessed? Well, from the vagina or course. Did it help? Absolutely not and it was like having a 45 minute pelvic exam. Awkward as hell. I think we tried it multiple times to no avail.
During this period I bought an inversion table and started exercising again. I slowly worked up to hiking, elliptical, and paddle boarding.
Within months of starting PT I had another major episode that sent me to the ER. This time I had been working on a project for several days that had me standing for hours loading and bending (hip hinging) to place business cards inside my laser. To get through my day I had ice packs on my lower back, took about 1600-2400 mg Ibuprofen, used tiger balm, medical marijuanna, and muscle relaxers.
On my last day working on this project I was in pain and exhausted and not thinking clearly and made frequent mistakes at work. I became more desperate to just finish it. I wrapped my torso over my clothes with an entire roll of masking take to hold myself upright. My core just couldn’t tolerate doing its job. The following day I woke up nauseous, dizzy, sore, anxious, and with a migraine. I took the Ibuprofen and tried to eat. I couldn’t. I cried a little, I was overly exhausted and defeated. I still had several hours more till the project was finished. I begged my husband to help and alternate running the machine with me. He agreed. It was Sunday afternoon. When we got to the studio it was clear I couldn’t run the machine, let alone, stand. He got out the folding cot and I supervised from there. I took the remaining doses of Ibuprofen and medical marijuanna and the muscle relaxers. I was not finding any relief. Tears started to run on their own and the migraine was intensifying. There was only one thing to do… go to ER.
When I got there I kept telling myself this wasn’t like my first trip to ER. This wasn’t as bad. This wasn’t level 10, this was like 8.5 or 9. Like before I couldn’t get up on my own or sit. Unlike before there wasn’t a wait and I saw a nurse immediately. She took my vitals and insisted I had to sit while doing so. Tears started to stream down my face due to pain. I had no control of the tears. It was getting harder to speak through the pain and the migraine was making it harder to find the words. She literally thought I was a drug addict looking to score. I told her over and over I cannot take opioids, I do not want opioids, and here are my MRI images (I was holding all my ortho records and CDs in my hand). She wasn’t buying it. She whispered to another nurse upon showing me to my ER bed. I couldn’t hear what she said but that nurse immediately handed me a pee cup.
Then I waited and waited. On ambulance gurney without blankets or pillows. I assume once my pee came back clean that’s when they decided they’d try and treat me. I was offered a “migraine cocktail” and it was immediately given IV. First drug was Benadryl, it burned up through my mouth as it went through my blood, it immediately made me tired and panicky. Next up was a steroid for the inflammation. I immediately had racing heart, anxiety to the point I thought I was dying and tried to pull out the iv, convulsions, spasms in my diaphragm, difficulty breathing and speaking, and full body muscle spasms. They immediately pushed phenergan during all this for the nausea. The nurse was terrified and left the room and my husband, Jan, held me down and tried to calm me. I seriously thought I was dying and for the first time in my life I was a prisoner in my body, a mere passenger, along for the ride with zero control.
This was the night of the Oscars, February 26, 2017. I stayed overnight in the hospital because it took hours for me to calm down. It wasn’t until my first dose of Tordol that I started to improve. Since this day I have had consistent pain. The lowest pain level I had over seven months after that ER visit was a level 7. The pain was so bad I was disassociating. I dreamed about taking a vacation out of my body. I was exhausted. I couldn’t work. My shop sat vacant frozen in time from that day for months. I couldn’t drive myself let alone sit upright for about three months.
Was this not as bad as my first ER episode back in December 2015? No, it was much much worse. I realized that during the event in December I wasn’t on medication, this time I had maxed out my daily allotment. That’s why it never felt like a 10, my body probably was experiencing 12 and my mind was saying no it can’t be.
Having followed up with my Physical Therapist and the Ortho following the ER trip and both not knowing what else to do, what to recommend, or any advise at all I was back out there looking for doctors and getting recommendations.
