Oh what a difference a day makes....or two

Well if you've read my last post you may have noticed I mentioned my back being out. Well, Sunday I woke to a very nasty surprise in that my back had seized up...so much that I could hardly get in and out of the shower and I was moving extremely slow. I went to church anyway. I sat in the back row corner seat for my classes with a hymn book wedged against the chair and the wall to lean against and my purse crammed into the small of my back (I don't care how padded those chairs are....they are torture devices to sit in!) I squirmed in my seat through the lessons and then came home and made some lunch. I was hurting but still moving fairly well. I had about 20 minutes before I had to be back at church for a meeting with my bishop so I decided to sit down...when I went to get up off the couch I almost couldn't do it. Seriously. By the time I was standing my top half was so bent over and twisted I looked terrible and felt worse. I cried a bit but forced myself to somehow make it to the car, get in and drive to the church. It took a few more minutes to get myself back out of the car and, still hideously bent over, I shuffled into the church and waited for my interview.

I went home afterwards, changed into jeans and then drove to Jason's for our Sunday dinner....not really wanting to go but deciding I needed to. Jason was sweet enough to cook everything and afterwards had me go downstairs with his heating pad to sit in his recliner (thank you Jase!) I'd already downed about 16 extra strength Tylenol for the day to no effect but that heating pad felt so incredibly good. A few episodes of Smallville and then I was slowly walking back upstairs (freaking OW!) and then to my car. As you can probably gather I didn't sleep very well that night.....

Monday morning I was in so much pain that the first thing I did was call my chiropractor's office and essentially beg to come in as early as possible. The receptionist was very sweet and told me to come right in and they would fit me into the schedule. I'd called Dan to let him know I would be late to work and then drove to the clinic. I was still bent over like some twisted old crone from a scary story and I didn't end up waiting at all but was ushered immediately into a treatment room.

"Dr Devin" (they all go by their first names at this clinic) came in and gave me an adjustment, then walked me to another room (I was walking mostly straight by this time) for another treatment before they iced my back and did an electrical massage-stimulation treatment. I felt pretty good until they rotated the table upright for me to stand. All of the sudden I seized up again and was clinging to the table in pain. They lowered me back down and iced me up for another 10 minutes before putting me on a machine to decompress my spine. No kidding but it is a distant cousin to the rack used in medieval times. Devin came back in and had me do a set of partial push-ups that would help push the disk back into place and then I was iced for another 10 minutes. I was still hurting and not fully upright but felt better so they decided to let me go home.

I didn't make it far past the lobby. Right outside the door I seized up worse than before and I admit it actually hurt so bad that I had to hold onto the wall and I cried out aloud. I turned around and went back in to sit in a chair in the lobby. The receptionist took one look at the tears streaming down my face and called Devin who immediately came out and helped me into a treatment room where they iced me up again for nearly 40 minutes before I said I thought I could make it. Getting back to my car was an ordeal, getting in was even worse. All told I was at the chiropractors office for a little over 3 hours.

My roommate was home for lunch and was sweet enough to run and get me a couple of icepacks from the K-Mart just down the street along with ibuprofen (since the Tylenol obviously wasn't cutting it) I got home, took forever easing myself out of the car and, once safely in the house, parked myself on the recliner. The icepack was still freezing up so I took some ibuprofen and tried to stay as still as possible. Amazingly enough by the time I got up to get the pack my back was feeling better so I sat back down with the frozen pack behind me and fell asleep in the recliner for about 4 hours. I only got up because I had a prep class for about and hour-and-a-half that I had to attend and then came back home and iced back up. About midnight I decided to try lying in my bed and fell sleep until 6:30 this morning. I may not have been perky and bouncy but it wasn't bad getting out of bed this morning and getting in and out of the shower only caused a few twinges.

I had another appointment this morning at 8 and everyone was surprised to see I was pretty much walking upright and not in as much pain this morning. I was happy too since yesterday Devin had mentioned the possibility of an MRI if I didn't improve by Wednesday. The receptionist was a sweetheart and was telling me that he was all concerned after I left yesterday and how relieved everyone was to see me doing so much better today. I had another adjustment, was hooked up the rack again today and will have to go again tomorrow before Devin will evaluate how many more times he thinks I should come in. The concensus at this time is that I will probably have to go in one day next week and then probably one last visit the following week.

I have to admit that the ice is really helping...and the fact that Devin isn't charging me full price was a nice surprise (it probably helps that my chiropractor is also my brother's friend). The receptionist pointed out that he isn't charging me for the additional equipment that he is throwing me on...for which I am extremely grateful. I hadn't budgeted for chiro work (really, who does?) so to have 3 appointments in 3 days with the odds of at least 2 more appointments in the next 2 weeks to look forward to is quite an unexpected expense.

It just proves to me that I need to keep adding money to my savings account (of course to pay for these visits I just pulled most of what I had in there back out since I hadn't saved much yet but I definitely need to keep adding money to my account for emergencies).

Of course the fact that I am mostly pain-free now and mostly walking upright was well worth the money I have spent.

Besides, did I mention that my chiropractor is downright drop-dead gorgeous?