I used to play football when I was in high school. At some point I'm going to write a post about that, but just a bit about that for now. I was 16 at the time this took place, and it was during one of my football practices we were doing blocking sled drills. For those not familiar I will explain, this is what our particular sled somewhat looked like, although much older and rusting, paint chipped, etc :
Now the idea is five people line up, each about a foot in front of one of those pads (ours weren't people shaped just a boring old rectangle), get down in a three point stance, and then at the same time drive their whole body into it and push it down the field. It sucks, it sucks alot. No one wants to do it but it's just the best way as a lineman to improve at blocking. Now the day before I had been paintballing and my lower back was already sore, along with my arms, legs etc, so this was going to take an already tough activity and make it worse. I had no idea how much worse.
It started out as usual, nothing out of the ordinary, but then after a few tries a distinct pain in the center of my lower back. After every run the pain grew and grew. I was starting to get to the point where I can't stand up under my own power, I have to use my arms pressing on the back of my hips just to stand up straight. After a while the defensive coach starts yelling at me that I'm slowing everybody down. During the next attempt the pain was so bad I have to quit. They go another few rounds then we walk back to the the field with the rest of the team. What I don't know is during this break my back had started to swell. The offensive coach asks why Im walking funny and I tell him my back is sore. He has me bend side to side, its difficult but not particularly painful; twist back and forth, that's all fine; then he says okay bend forward. At around half way down the jolt of pain that hits me is the most excruciating feeling I've ever felt in my entire life. Worse then the time I broke my ankle (the second worst), worse then the time I sprained my shoulder (the third worst). I screamed, loud. I was not expecting that, it was way worse than anything I had felt on the sled earlier. They both laughed, oh yeah bone bruise the offensive coach said. Now to this day I don't even know what a bone bruise is, or if I did or did not have one, but I know that was beginning of several more incidents of back pain.
The next day at practice it was still incredibly sore. I can't run, I can't bend forward at all, I can barely do anything. When we start doing line skirmages the coach just asks me to stand there so the defense can at least run around me. One time the defensive end accidently makes contact with me, it was incredibly painful. This continues for the entire week. Finally on game day its recovered enough that I can at least get in a stance and make very weak attempts at blocks. At one point I take a bad twist during a block and am floored, the pain is incredible, I have to be helped off the field and am out for the rest of the game. It was at this point I decided I needed to see a doctor.
After the game I head to the hospital and get it examined, have xrays taken, etc. There's no fractures, no slipped discs, anything; the X-ray is completely clean. The doctor says it must me a soft tissue injury and the best thing to do would be to see a physiotherapist. I don't remember how I found this particular physio place but clearly I did not do enough research beforehand. The first appointment was alright, they asked me to put on some shorts they had. I don't know why I remember this but they were hornets basketball shorts, I don't even know where (or why) someone would even get those. They test out my flexibility and then when they ask me to bend forward the therapist said "what that's it?", yep I couldn't even get halfway to my waist level.
They decide for treatment to try ultrasound and some other machine that basically just gives you repeated small electric shocks, I can't remember what its called. The ultrasound is just weird, they put gel all over the area and just smear it around with this plastic device on a cord. The electric shock thing is just some pads they stick on you then they put a giant ice bag on top of it to relieve swelling, then they leave you there to get shocked for twenty minutes. Honestly I think what helped the most out all of that was the ice. The therapist said some people actually enjoy that electric shock machine, yeah well not me.
After about two appointments my therapist starts canceling my appointments with less then a days notice. They eventually just start scheduling me with a new therapist, but after another couple appointments this one also starts rescheduling my appointments with less than a days notice. I get so annoyed with it I quit after not even doing half the recommended appointments. At this point Im pain free, and the football season is over anyways. There was one more game after the above mentioned one, which I did play in without incident. I honestly don't know if my further back troubles are related to this whole injury, or if completing all the therapy would have fully fixed it, but I can say the pain did return and in the exact same place.
Fast forward about six to seven years. I don't remember how it started but the back pain is back. Going from a sitting to a standing position is incredibly painful and takes a good minute of effort. After standing up for awhile it becomes bearable again. Anything that requires leaning over is painful. The thing I remember that was the worst was washing my hands. If I could lean over and support myself with one hand I was fine, but you can't just wash one hand at a time. Just that slightest lean forward to put your hands under a faucet was enough to really set it off. At home I starting getting on my knees to wash my hands, in public I just rinse one at a time, no soap, yeah gross I know. Every night I ice it for an hour, and it feels fine, but by the end of the next day it's incredibly painful again. This pain lasts for several weeks, until it finally dies down. I was able to manage it, but I don't know what caused it. This particular bout was almost certainly inflammation, anti inflammatories helped and ice helped more than anything else. The symptoms and the treatment that worked are similar to my previous injury so it's pretty safe to say this was related, but why would it just flare up out of nowhere? I didnt and dont know, at least it wasn't as bad as the first time.
Episode three: revenge of the sit, fast forward a few more years. Im sitting at my computer desk for many hours working hard, okay I was playing a video game. My eyesight had been getting worse, so I found myself frequently leaning in to see my monitor better, especially to read small text. I think the leaning forward was the major contributor to this. After several hours I noticed my lower back was starting to get sore, it wasn't that bad so I just ignored it, but it definitely persisted. I really didn't think that much of it and it was getting slowly worse, but never even got close to the point where it was unbearable. Then out of nowhere it started spasming.
I had never experienced a back spasm before of any kind, and for anyone else that hasn't let me tell you, its number four on the most painful list I had created above. I immediately react by attempting to stand up, but I have to use my arms to lift myself. Luckily for me my desk is near my bed so I just launched myself at my bed. I landed face up with my feet still on the floor but from the thighs up i'm on the bed. The spasming subsides now, but as soon as I try to move it starts again. All I can do is move my neck, if I even try to lift my shoulders it starts again. I spend about an hour like this, my feet both go completely asleep, until I finally can get the rest of my body on the bed with only mild spasms. I spend another six hours like this without even being able to turn over. There was a genuine concern I wasn't even going to be able to go to the bathroom. Finally I'm able to get up, still fairly painfully but without spasms and move around. Not long after standing I notice my back is getting sore again, similar to before the first spasm. I drive to to the drug store and by some muscle relaxants. Luckily I only have to take one and I never have another spasm, but I can't sit at my desk now at all without experiencing pain. It's at this point I decide it's time to finish my physiotherapy and get this taken care of, hopefully for good.
I make an appointment at a different physiotherapist, one recommended to me by a family friend, and luckily for me this one turns out to be much better. First appointment is a similar assessment, still can't bend forward, etc. It also ends the same way, face down on the table, electric machine shocking me, big ice pack, but the middle is quite different. This physiotherapist is really spending a lot more time poking and prodding me to see exactly how my bones and joints are situated. They tell me that my pelvis is twisted and that it might be a contributing factor to instability in my back. Now this is something I genuinely attribute to football. If you'll remember earlier I mentioned that starting the sled drills involved taking a three point stance. Well that was the year I really developed the mechanics of my stance, and by the end of that year Im no longer able to do a three point stance with my left leg back, but am very comfortable taking a stance with my right leg back. This is the exact way my pelvis is tilted (although admittedly there's only two ways it could be). He starts bending me around like a pretzel to correct the tilt. Then at the very end he puts some tape on my lower right side to support the muscles there. This works very well and for the first time since since the spasms i'm able to drive home seated pain free.
Now for the next few weeks while Im getting physio, I still can't sit down for any length of time. To adapt I start wearing knee pads and kneeling at my desk. It's the only way I can use the computer, and I work on a computer all day. I also realize how much I had been leaning forward to use the computer and decide to just make all the fonts bigger (and yes I eventually went and got an eye test, and now where glasses). I complete all the sessions which are similar to the first, and at the end Im completely pain free and able to sit for extended lengths of time with no issues and I've also stopped leaning.
Episode 4: a new hope. Fast forward another few years, im sitting again in another marathon session with what might even be the same stupid game. I feel my back start getting sore again. I have not experienced any real consistent back pain since the last incident and it seems to have come out of nowhere. I don't wait for it to get to spasm, I take a relaxant and I go lay down (the same pack, they're expired now but they're still fine), I'm done with the computer for the day. The next day I go and dig out my knee pads just in case, and sure enough when I go to sit down its painful again. Keep in mind I have glasses now, I keep seated back. I also completely finished my physio sessions last time and my physiotherapist said It looks fully recovered. I decide if I have to Ill do therapy again, but I want to see if I can fix it on my own.
I start with the ice and have some success, it reduces the pain from just my lower back being sore, to two single points on my the sides of my lower sine, just next to my spine. This information becomes key to further diagnosis later. I try a heating pack after with mild success, but nothing really is fixing it. Im still unable to sit at this point and am still using the knee pads. My relaxation time is spent laying down flat on my back, with at most a pillow to raise my head up. I can sleep on my side but that's about it. I decide to do some research online and that's when I find this video:
Even from the thumbnail I instantly recognize that's where my back pain is, but only after I had reduced it from icing. The inflammation pain was my entire lower back all the way across. I believe that pain was from my injury, however I believe I had developed new pain from excessive sitting leading up to my third episode. After I watch the video the symptoms he described are exactly what I have, but I'm skeptical I can fix it as easily as he makes it seem. I do the move where you lay down and press it and move your hip. I can't even express how amazed I was. After literally five minutes my left side was completely pain free and my right side had a 75% reduction in pain.
I then try the exercises, specifically the one where you raise your leg and arm then lift and lower your hip. The left side is challenging but I do all ten. The right side right away is incredibly difficult, before I've even started the muscle feels exhausted. I can only do three. Just feeling the side of my hip the muscle feels warm to the touch. I try the heat pack and as soon as I put it on it starts to feel incredibly hot, like I'm burning, but when I feel the pack with my hand it's only warm. It took another week or two of doing those exercises and heat pack every day, but after i'm completely pain free and able to sit again.
If anyone ever reads this and has back pain, I wish you the best of luck in dealing with it. Just remember watching a video isn't a substitute for seeing a medical professional. I already had an x-ray, I already knew I didn't have any bone fracture or slipped discs or anything else that required medical treatment. There's also no doubt physiotherapy helped me both times. I should also mention I have seen a chiropractor, in between episode 3 and 4, and while I did find it beneficial in other ways, it did not provide any benefit in regard to these incidents. I did get an appointment with my chiropractor during episode 4, and his assessment was while my lower back muscles were so tight it felt like I had been mixing cement, my joints were still functioning correctly so there wasn't much they could do. They did do an adjustment though and I did notice some relief thankfully. Just like physiotherapists there are good and bad chiropractors, so do your research before you go see one if you're considering it. I can't really say if I had one or multiple different problems, but there's no doubt the back is a complicated system that can have many different problems that can all feel similar.
I continued to do the exercises every day for a few months, but then I started slacking. I haven't had any back pain since but I think I'll do a set right now and continue on tomorrow.
