Sometime in early December I began having severe back pain. It started in my lower back, worked its way up into my middle back, and finally settled near my kidney. The general consensus was that I might be about to pass a kidney stone, but I didn’t have any of the other traditional symptoms. A couple of handfuls of Advil a day made the pain bearable. <\/p>\n

And then, right before Christmas, the mostly dull and throbbing but occasionally stabbing pain morphed into intense back spasms. They mostly happen in the morning, when transiting from laying to sitting, and again from sitting to standing. I told Susan it feels like someone behind me occasionally hitting all the nerves in my back with an ax. It’s hard to describe any pain as a 10 out of 10, but that’s what it feels like. When it happens while I’m trying to stand, I almost always fall back into the bed. I’m never quiet when it happens, either. Involuntarily, sounds come out that sound like I’m turning into a werewolf. With no idea what was causing this, I begged Susan to throw away our new mattress and buy a different one. That made things worse. If anyone wants a $500 king-sized firm mattress that’s been slept on twice, hit me up.<\/p>\n

After visiting my doctor I was prescribed some Tramadol — stronger than Advil and Tylenol, but not good enough. An x-ray showed nothing and so I was sent to have an MRI. After two attempts to squeeze me into a normal-sized MRI failed (that’s a whole different story), I was finally sent to an open MRI with a pocket full of Xanax. They scanned my lower back and found minor spinal compression, but nothing that should be causing what I’m feeling.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Things came to a head Tuesday night when I discovered I could no longer lay down, sit up, or stand up without being attacked by the back spasms. After an hour of spasm after spasm, I couldn’t take it anymore and so just in time for the clock to roll over into Valentine’s Day, Susan and I arrived at the Mercy Hospital Emergency Room. After a few minutes in the waiting room I was whisked back to a room and promptly given an EKG to determine that my heart was okay. (The spasms were so bad that my arm and leg were starting to tingle.) Two nurses whose ages didn’t add up to mine took turns fishing for a vein to start an IV, and a dose of morphine brought the spasms down to a 5 out of 10 on the pain scale. (Their multiple attempts at finding a vein helped take my mind off my back for a few minutes.) The morphone was followed by either Vicodin or valium (I forget) and then I was rolled down the hall for a CT scan. <\/p>\n

Sometime between 3 and 4 a.m., we got our answer. The CT scan showed calcium build ups on my spine, some of which are apparently touching and\/or pinching nerves. The doctor said it looks like DISH, so here it is straight from Google: <\/p>\n

Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) is a form of arthritis that involves the tendons and ligaments around the spine. Also known as Forestier’s disease, this condition occurs when these tendons and ligaments become hardened, a process known as calcification.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As G.I. Joe used to say, “knowing is half the battle.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Reports are mixed as to what causes this. Approximately 25% of all men have some sort of calcium that builds up on their spines. Only the lucky ones have it in places that affects nerves. Some studies have linked it to type-two diabetes, some link it to obesity, but all of them agree that none of them are sure. <\/p>\n

Along with the Tramadol (for pain) and another muscle relaxer, I was also prescribed prednisone, a steroid to help reduce the swelling of the muscles and nerves. <\/p>\n

They’re scheduling me for another MRI, this time to scan my entire back. (Why they didn’t do that in the first place, I have no idea.) Short term treatment will include pain management through medicine, physical therapy, and potentially, steroid shots in the back. If none of that works the last recourse will be back surgery. I’ve been told my whole life to avoid having back surgery if at all possible, but I’ve since been told that this is an out patient procedure that doesn’t go near the spinal column, so even though it wouldn’t be my first choice it also doesn’t sound like the end of the world.<\/p>\n

Between all the medicine and the general lack of sleep that comes from random back spasms in the middle of the night (I’ve been averaging 2-3 hours of sleep a night for the past week), I haven’t been on my A-game over the past few days. I’ve changed when I’m taking my pills and am hoping to be able to make it through a work day tomorrow. Ironically, the two places that hurt my back the least are my office chair and my recliner, two of my favorite places. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometime in early December I began having severe back pain. It started in my lower back, worked its way up into my middle back, and finally settled near my kidney. The general consensus was that I might be about to pass a kidney stone, but I didn’t have any of the other traditional symptoms. A couple of handfuls of Advil a day made the pain bearable. And then, right before Christmas, the mostly dull and throbbing but occasionally stabbing pain morphed into intense back spasms. They mostly happen in the morning, when transiting from laying to sitting, and again from… (read more)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14589"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14594,"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14589\/revisions\/14594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}