So last Tuesday (Feb 3rd) I managed to slip, fall and in the process mess up my lower back pretty bad. So bad that I got to go to the hospital in an ambulance on one of those damn completely uncomfortable back boards. Side note—- how is a hard rigid board that makes your back feel worse, suppose to make things ‘better’ and don’t get me started on that C-collar that is not designed for people like me with no neck! Back on topic, I spent 10hrs in the ER after getting a cat scan and a bunch of x rays (which was not fun since I had to keep rolling over for different angles). All scans came back clear and was told that due to my prior back issues that I have had for years, this fall has overly stressed the muscles and spine and that it will ‘just fix it self’ after some time of rest.

The ER doc suggested or told me (I blocked that part out) to take 2 weeks off to allow my muscles to heal correctly. I’m a little pig headed and I went back to work that following Sunday. Well needless to say that was a mistake, not only am I walking with a walker like I’m 80yrs old, but it takes me 5-10mins to get in and out of my car due to the pain. The original doctor put me on two pills; Valium and Percocet . Neither of those really helped. Hell in the hospital I was given IV Valium and morphine, these didn’t even take the edge off. So I added some 750mg Vicodin to the 2-3 times daily med treatment. This A) didn’t do anything for the pain and B) caused me to sleep or zone out all the time, which I believe led to me blacking out on my way home Tuesday night causing me to hit a curb pretty decently.

Fast forward a week and and pain is still killing me so I suck it up and go to the doc which I should have done last Wed/Thurs when the pain didn’t go away. There was some underlying reasons for holding off on going back to the doctors but I prefer not to share that info on here right now. So I go to see my primary care doctor that has his good and bad traits. Like he will listen to what I say, but I think it just goes in one ear and out the other. Anyways, he took me off the original meds I was on and then put me on three different types of drugs. Well actually 4 but the forth one was just for my memory issues and not related to the current back issues. Side note – Memory drug he wants me on is currently NOT covered by my lovely insurance and if I pay for it out of pocket its $400 for 30 pills! So waiting for possible waiver from insurance company, and the Skelaxin cost $96 bucks and that’s with using the insurance!. So now I am on the super strong and slightly addictive Lortab 10’s (500mg), which per the doc is the strongest he will give me before sending me to the pain management center. Along with the Lortab, I’m also on Skelaxin(800mg) a muscle relaxer and Naproxen(550mg) an anti-inflammatory. So I started on the Lortab when I got home from the doc this afternoon and combined with the 2 Vicodin 750s from this morning it totally knocked me out till about 5pm this afternoon.

So around 10pm tonight I took my Skelaxin and the Naproxen to start things on the recommended dosage times. I can say I do feel ‘different’ but I think by this coming Sunday(when I return to work again). Its just a wait and see situation right now, but I think with these new drugs things will be different this time around. I will be back to running around the office getting things done where this past two weeks has been a wash due to the back pain and not being able to focus through this pain.

Per my primary care doctor, if I lose weight I will not have as many back problems. When he told me that I did LOL and he was like yea I guess you hear that a lot. Good news is once the pain is gone in my back, I’m going to start down the road to gastric bypass. I cant wait, I know it will be an uphill battle with the current insurance company but my doctor things he can ‘convince’ them that its needed. And those that know me know that bariatric surgery is something Ive talked about for years.

Those that care, please wish me well and hope for the best. The pain will subside and I will be back to my normal self shortly. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad think is totally a toss up!

Yea that was a little rambling but I dont like crib notes and I did leave parts out =-)