Nine years ago today my life changed forever. I had played basketball with my brother that morning and afterwards my back was sore. I had been through this before and a little stretching and hot shower was all it took. That night I went to Taekwondo class and did my usual workout. While performing Juche, I felt something *happen* in my lower back and later couldn't kick much higher than my ankle. Afterwards, I still felt like I could just sleep it off. However, the next morning I couldn't move.
My wife and father got me into the car and to the ER where I got some pain meds and had an x-ray. The x-ray was inconclusive so I was scheduled for an MRI, but not for several weeks. In the meantime, I hobbled around with a cane and continued with the pain meds. The MRI showed that I had a herniated disc between vertebrae L5 and S1. L5 is the lowest of the lumbar vertebrae in the picture below. The Wikipedia entry has a lot of information on the subject. Apparently, this location is the most common.
Scans of the MRI are below. The image below shows most of my spine and you can see the herniation toward the bottom. It is the bulge that goes up and to the right.
A cross section of the disc is shown in the image below. You can see the bulge pressing into the spinal canal. That's what causes the pain.
What's Next?
Okay, I'm injured. What did I do next? Well, the first thing I did was start seeing a physical therapist. I had several sessions that included stretching and decompression therapy. I'm not sure this is the exact term for it, but it was basically like the medieval torture device "the rack." However, it felt pretty good. Afterwards, I felt a little light-headed like I'd just given blood. The physical therapy didn't help much.
The next thing I did was get epidural injections. If you're thinking that seems more like something a woman giving birth might have, then you're right. It's basically the same type of injection but a woman giving birth is getting a spinal block, while I was getting a cortisone shot. The purpose of the cortisone (a kind of steroid) is to reduce the inflammation of the herniation enough to take the pressure off the spinal canal.
(Side note: This is the type of shot a lot of professional athletes get to keep them on the field. It's common in the back and in the knees. Clearly this is "performance enhancing" and is a kind of steroid, but it is not considered an illegal PED. Go figure...)
Anyway, if the herniation isn't very severe, this may be a permanent solution. The idea is to give several injections spaced a couple of weeks apart. If successful, the injections, along with rest and PT, will be enough. I had three of these injections in December and they worked pretty well. I was in the best shape of my life a couple of months later. Anyway, the effect of the epidurals wore off and by then Brandi was pregnant with Joshua. The diet and workout schedule we had went by the wayside, unfortunately. I don't blame anyone but myself. I could have tried to stick with it, but I didn't. What's done is done. I had another couple of epidurals in May of 2001 prior to going to China with ASU and they helped me be comfortable on the trip, but they weren't a permanent fix either.
Surgery
That fall, I made the decision to have surgery. Joshua was born on November 15th and I couldn't comfortably carry him. As he got heavier, it'd be harder and harder. I didn't want to risk dropping him or not be able to carry him due to my back. When he got older, he'd understand what's going on, but as an infant, baby, and toddler he might just think he daddy doesn't want to be close to him. I couldn't let that happen.
I had surgery on New Year's Eve, 2001.
The surgery went well. Dr. Ercius told me that he's done hundreds of them and could do one every day, but doesn't recommend it to everyone. In fact, he didn't recommend it to me. I wanted it anyway because I wanted to be given a chance to heal. I was only 28 and didn't want to think that my healthiest days were behind me.
It took a while for me to get back on my feet and I stopped actively training in TKD. (Perhaps surprisingly, I continued to train for the 18 months after the injury but before the surgery. I couldn't train as hard or as often as I had, but I did do it.) I've written on my TKD blog about why I keep training, so it should be no surprise that I got back into it when I could. It just took a while...
Post-Surgery
For a while, I was taking a LOT of ibuprofen. My doctor (who was soon to be my former doctor) said I could take 1600mg every day. I didn't want to have what I basically thought was a drug addiction so I broke the habit and started seeing another doctor. I was also worried about the long-term effects of that much ibuprofen.
(Side note: I broke the habit while fasting using the Lemonade Diet in November of 2006. It worked very well. I felt great! I missed food, of course, but I wasn't hungry and I had all the energy I needed. I also got off caffeine while on that diet, but the following August visited Costa Rica. Being in CR without drinking coffee would be like going to Belgium and not eating chocolate. Couldn't be done! Even Brandi started drinking coffee there. I not only feel off the no-coffee wagon, but ran from it screaming!)
I also started seeing a chiropractor and a massage therapist. Both have helped me a lot. I credit my ability to get back into martial arts to the treatments I received from Dr. Chris of the Chandler Pain Clinic and the LMTs at his office. Getting my back and pelvis straightened out, and then relaxing the muscles around them, has been very helpful. I used to go every week, but now it's every month. (Many chiropractors get their patients "addicted" to the adjustment rush so they visit more and more often. Chris told me up front that his goal was to get me down to fewer visits. Any active person would benefit from regular adjustments, I believe.)
These Days
These days, I have good days and bad days. Good days are when I stretch early and am pretty active, but not doing too much strenuous work. When I push it too hard, or spend too much time sitting down, the sciatica comes back. It can best be described (the way I feel it) as a desire to stretch that can't be met. During really bad days, which only happen once every month or so, I have a hard time getting up and getting going. Any kind of bad day can usually be followed by a good day with an ice pack and some rest.
The biggest problem, though, is fear. I can still have episodes when my back just "goes out" and I never know when it'll happen. It is like a Sword of Damocles hanging over my head. One minute, I'll be doing something I've done a thousand times in the past nine years. The next minute, I'll be able to think of nothing but lying down with an ice pack. It is very frustrating. All I can do, though, is what I've always done: Plan and live every day as if it's going to be a good day and deal with the bad days as they happen. To do otherwise would make all days bad...
Take care!
Matt
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