Since I have not spoken on it in a while, I figured I could share my experience with my back pain from beginning to now. I think it will be fun to look back on years from now. Enjoy a detailed story of the time I hurt my back and had to have back surgery at 33 years old.
I am not exactly sure what happened but my back has hurt off and on for years. I would go through days where it would be so sore, but then the next day after some rest it would feel better. I thought it was normal for my back to hurt sometimes since I worked a job where I was on my feet all the time.
Fast forward to March 8, 2021, I managed to tweak my back while cleaning my house and the pain did not go away. It was the worst pain I had ever experienced in my life. Like a shock wave across the lower part of my back. This pain was not like the pain I had experienced before and continued to get worse as the day went on instead of getting better like previous times (this was even with pain medication, heating pad and ice packs) Since my husband was trying to complete a test for his class, I tried to hold out on seeking any kind of help for as long as I could. Now earlier in the evening, I had noticed that sometimes when I would try to walk my legs would give out and I would fall. Luckily I wasn't anywhere dangerous and could usually aim myself for the bed. However, at about 1am I did not get so lucky. I was trying to get some rest, hoping that if I could just sleep, the pain would wear off. I got up to use the restroom after delaying it for as long as I could. My legs gave out and I fell to the ground. That is when I knew it was time to call for help. I yelled for my husband, the plan was to get me up and end the car to go to the ER. He was unable to get me off the floor without hurting me more so we made the decision to call 911.
Eric tells me that they only took about 15 minutes to get there, but to me it felt like a lifetime. They finally made it and after a lot of very painful lifting and pulling, I was up off the floor and in a wheelchair (I mention the wheelchair because I thought it was cool. I had never seen a wheelchair that could go down stairs before let alone ride in one). Now the ambulance ride was nothing to exciting, I was just in a lot of pain. If you are wondering though, they will ask you loads of times if you are sure you only fell in your apartment (I am assuming they are trying to see if your spouse is abusive and pushed you or something), that is at least what they did to me.
Once we made it to the hospital is where I got scans and pain meds to help alleviate my agony. If you did not know this, before getting any kind of scan you have to take a pregnancy test. This is when I got to experience a bed pan. Now this is not a very prideful moment in my life because at this point I had been "holding it" for hours. Since I could not get up to go to the restroom, bed pan was my only option. There's nothing like having your husband clean you up after you make a mess all over yourself and the hospital bed. But anyway, I wasn't pregnant so let the CT scanning commence lol. At the time, they thought I might have had a bulging disk but I would later need X-Rays and an MRI to be able to tell for sure.
After the hospital, going home was not an option as I would not have been able to climb the stairs up to my apartment. So we went and gathered some things and made the drive to my moms where I would stay with her for a little less than a week. In the meantime, Eric spent time trying to find a doctor he could take me to so I could get the additional scans I needed and hopefully find a solution.
The first doctor I went to was at the Spine Institute of Central Florida. At the time, this was the place that had the first available appointment, but looking back I wish I had never gone to. I did get my MRI and my X-Rays, but I felt like they were dismissive for the most part and were pushy with the injections. Looking back, I spent a lot of time still in pain and feel shitty about myself because they were not shy about telling me that I was fat so therefore it was my fault that my back was in the condition it was in. And to them surgery was not an option as they did not deem it necessary. Now don't get me wrong, at the time I trusted that and didn't really want to have to go through surgery so I continued on with the steroid injections and went through a round of physical therapy.
The injections worked for a bit, but that did not last long. It had got to the point where they were taking longer to kick in and were not lasting as long as they were supposed to so I needed to get a second opinion.
Luckily for me, there is a woman at my job whose husband also has back issues and has been seeing the same doctor.They referred me to the Center for Spinal Stenosis and Neurological Care. I will tell you. Dr. Sachs is hands down, the best doctor I have ever seen. Here I got updated MRI and X-Rays. Now before I could actually see him, since he is the surgeon, for insurance purposes, you have to exhaust all other options. Since injections had already not worked, I did not have to go through that again, but I did have to go through another round of physical therapy which is 8 visits. This time I actually really liked the physical therapist and although being done with that is great, I do miss her lol.
Dr. Sachs does not mess around. He is a straight forward and blunt doctor, for that I appreciate him even more. He explained to me what my back looked like and where the damage was. He gave me all the options, one of which included do nothing and if I'm honest, I considered it because the idea of surgery scared the absolute shit out of me. He was transparent with me and explained that I would continue to get worse and be in constant pain. Do not be fooled though, he was not telling me I needed surgery just to get me out of his office. He is one for trying to avoid it until you are at least in your mid 40s, so doing it on me was medically necessary for the betterment of my future. From the initial visit with Dr. Sachs, everything went pretty quickly after that. Once surgery is decided, they like to move quickly so more damage isn't cause by waiting even longer. I saw Dr. Sachs on March 26, 2024 and was scheduled for surgery on May 6, 2024. So a very quick turn around.
The idea of surgery was very frightening for me. As someone with major anxiety, I was constantly thinking about the worst case scenario. Let me be the first to tell you, being under anesthesia makes the time go by so fast that you do not even have time to worry about it so if you have a surgery coming up, don't stress it.
I will spare the details of surgery day. I will say, if you are having anxiety they will give you something for it, but be warned..it doesn't take the thought away, just makes you calm down. If you are curious, I ended up getting a double fusion on my L4-L5 and L5-S1 vertebra. The short of it....they take out the bad and put screws & plates in their place. I did have sign a pre consent to allow him freedom to make the second fusion decision once is was in my back because sometimes you can't see all that needs to be done until after you are already in.
Recovery for the first few days was brutal. I cried a lot and was in a tremendous amount of pain. A lot of it though was concern that I would reverse what I had been done (spoiler, you can't reverse it). I had to basically learn how to walk all over again and function in my normal life. After a few weeks of at home physical therapy, I was cleared to go back to do 8 more sessions of physical therapy at a facility. Again, I am glad to be done with that but I miss the physical therapist, Betsy.
Fast forward to now, just over 16 weeks post surgery. I feel better than I have in a long time. I still have pain from time to time, but that is completely normal. If you didn't know, it can take up to 18 months to fully recover from the type of surgery that I had. The pain I feel is nowhere near the same kind of pain as before. I can actually function for longer. I have even been cleared to go to the gym and amusement parks again.
The best advice I would have for anyone in my position.....continue to advocate for yourself. If you don't like it, change it. I would still be suffering if I had never switched doctors. Fight for yourself always. Dr. Sachs did an amazing job and for him I am eternally grateful.
Please enjoy a photo of my scars. This is 16 weeks post surgery:
