I just got off the phone with the orthopedist’s office. I apparently have a herniated disc, which is likely what’s been causing me pain in my left leg. This isn’t great news, but it’s nice to put a name to it, especially when it’s something that will hopefully respond well to treatment. I absolutely hurt my back when I was in New Orleans at the end of March*, but I’d felt like I had made a full recovery right away.
Well, maybe not. I don’t know that the herniated disc has anything to do with the slight but persistent numbness I’ve been getting in my opposite toe, but I have an appointment with the orthopedist next Wednesday to discuss all of this — and one with a neurologist in July, if it turns out to be unrelated.
Again, it’s not great news — hooray! my spine is falling apart! — but it’s preferable to being in pain or discomfort all the time and not knowing why.
* Did I mention this? How I went to the convention center across the street from the hotel, carrying maybe forty pounds of books, only to discover (after I first registered at the wrong conference and walked three or four city blocks carrying those damn books) that the conference I was looking for was actually inside the hotel? I was in a little bit of agony the rest of that weekend. It didn’t help that the hotel bed was ridiculously soft and high off the ground.
That sucks. Sorry to hear it. I was diagnosed with several herniated discs last year. In my case, there was no single moment where I hurt my back. It was years of bad posture while sitting at the computer.
First thing I would recommend is a kneeling chair. My physical therapist recommended it. I got one for work and one for home. Sitting in a regular chair for a long amount of time hurts, but I can usually sit all day in a kneeling chair with little or no pain.
Be sure to stand up and stretch frequently. I have a little program on my PC at work that pops up a break reminder every 15 minutes.
The seats on mass transit tend to be crappy, so I put a rolled up towel behind my lower back. That helps a lot too.
Hopefully your back isn’t as bad as mine. Hopefully with some physical therapy, exercise and a better chair, your problems will clear up.
Thanks, that’s my hope too. And thanks for the suggestions, which I’ll discuss with my orthopedist next Wednesday.
Ooo…I guess you’re not a cylon after all. 😉
Sorry to hear it’s a herniated disc…that doesn’t sound fun at all. I’m glad you’re spine isn’t falling apart, too.
Oh I dunno… even cylons bleed. (They do, right? I have about a month’s backlog of BSG episodes still to get through and find myself growing hazy on some of the finer details.)
This has definitely not been fun, though. The pain in the back of my thigh is manageable if I don’t, y’know, move. But sitting down — and, much more so, standing up or bending over — are at best uncomfortable propositions.
Next Wednesday, when I’ll discuss with my orthopedist what to do next (and possibly be referred to a physical therapist), seems very far away right now.
I’m glad you now have a reason for that pain in all the diodes down your left side…
Bummer. Sorry to hear that. But you’re in good company – a large portion of the population has some degree of herniation. And a lot of them respond well to treatment (so I’ve been told). I’m full blown degenerated so my options are limited to grin and bear it while destroying my stomach lining on 800 g of ibuprofen three times a day. And steroids and vicodin, when it gets really bad. They’ll probably give you some back exercises to do once you start healing to strengthen the “core” and lessen the chance of reinjury. In the meantime, you’ll invent lots of interesting contortions to make moving tolerable. My personal favorite is bending over to pick something up off the ground, which entails standing on the left leg and stretching the right leg out behind me, perpendicular to my body at hip level. It looks painful, but its really somehow less so…