My Back

Early in February, I experienced pain like I'd never felt before. the day of the President's annual State of the Union address, it happened that I had to do a lot of overtime at work on a project. The next day, another big project was being wrapped up, and at home, I was also absorbed in a extensive round of Sid Meier's Civilization. so there were two days I was sitting around a lot.

Late Wednesday night during that first week of February I noticed a little pain on the left side of my rear as I stood up from the computer chair. Thought, "Hmm, that's odd," and went off to bed. Thursday, the pain was bit more noticeable. By Friday, it started getting exponentially worse. I had already scheduled to take the day off to relax after the grueling week, ended up laying down most of the day to minimize the pain down my left leg. Saturday morning, it was dreadfully painful to walk. When my lovely wife asked if I thought perhaps I should see a doctor, I readily agreed! The thought was already on my mind. So I went off to a nearby clinic.

Turns out, I had sciatica. I was supposed to go help some friends stuff envelopes for their wedding invitations, but there was no way I could help out. I had my appointment, got my medicine, and spent most of the day in bed. Also ended up missing a presentation I was supposed to give on Wednesday because I couldn't walk to the offices in downtown DC, and I was forced to miss CPAC for the first time in 7 years. On the following Wednesday, I made an appointment with a regular doctor who scheduled me for an MRI. Thursday morning, it felt like something clicked into place in my back and I started to feel marginally better. But the recovery was slow going, but mostly steady, at least.

Another 2 weeks went by, I was feeling somewhat better, but still limping, the doctor called back with the MRI results. Turns out I have a herniated disc. That was depressing news. Got over it after a few days.

It wouldn't have been so bad if maybe there was something that obviously caused this, but it really just crept up on me. Maybe it was a combination of Civ and OT, who knows?

Thinking back over the past few years, my left leg was always a little tight and sore when I stretched, early symptoms that I would have never noticed. So it goes.

After digesting the news about the herniated disc, I decided I shouldn't mess around with it so I got a prescription for physical therapy.

Several people told me that for them, PT was a bust and they didn't get anything out of it. That wasn't the case for me. It was worthwhile and beneficial.

The insurance approves 6 visits without another doctor referral. At that point the PT place automatically sent over the proper forms to the doctor. I tried to call my doctor to see whether I should keep going. I had no point of comparison to where I should be recovery-wise. The doctor's response was the equivalent of, "Duh! It's up to you." So that wasn't entirely helpful.

Went to a few more PT sessions before I decided I'd had enough and could just as easily do at home most of what we did in the sessions. And I couldn't shake off a nagging sense that while, yes, they were interested in my recovery, they were also very interested in having a paying-patient for as long as possible.