Though my chiropractor says that these events have no connection, I can't help but think they have. I've never been bothered by back pain before, so it has to be some connection. Remember back in spring 2009, when I went to Fredrikstad and slept on a mattress that was about an inch thick and got severe back pain afterwards? It was only in my lower back and went away in a decent time. Then this summer, the bed in the hotel in London was so damn hard. I'm usually a busy sleeper, all over the place, but those nights I amazingly enough slept in one position all through the night, on my left side. At least I fell asleep and woke in the same position. When I came home, and after one night in my own bed, my back turned wonky again. It got better quickly, but I had this pain down my left leg for a while. I did not draw a connection between that pain and my back until much much later. Then, November 13th 2009, I walked upstairs to get the bed I sleep on in Fredrikstad, and when I sat down to put my make up on, I noticed that something had happened again. Clearly I'd done something I shouldn't when carrying that bed down. And I've had little to very much pain ever since that damned day.
At first it was just a little bit in my lower back, then it radiated down my left leg, with a bit of a pulsating, irritating, weird feeling at the back of my thigh and the back of my knee. It got worse and worse. December 21st, I showed my chiropractor a few Yoga exercises Ann-Marie showed me when I was in pain after the London trip. It worked then, so I thought I'd work now. But it only made things worse (I would realise why a few weeks later). On December 26th I bent down to take baguettes out of the oven and fell to my knees on the kitchen floor in pain. My back had locked itself again. I went to the doctor on December 30th, since my aunt talked about Sciatica and mom talked about inflammation and a shot in my butt. The doctor didn't exactly say anything or did anything that helped much. But after a very painful day at school I called the chiropractor for an emergency appointment. I discussed my doctor appointment with him, and everything that had happened since the last time I was at the chiropractor. He seemed to take it more seriously now, and did several tests on me, checked resistance in my toes, the sense of feeling in my feet and all that. This is what he said:
Apparently this is an old injury that's not been bothering me before now. A couple of discs in my spine are a little out of place. I've shamelessly copied from Wikipedia:
A spinal disc herniation (prolapsus disci intervertebralis), informally and misleadingly called a "slipped disc", is a medical condition affecting the spine, in which a tear in the outer, fibrous ring (annulus fibrosus) of an intervertebral disc (discus intervertebralis) allows the soft, central portion (nucleus pulposus) to bulge out.
Symptoms of a herniated disc can vary depending on the location of the herniation and the types of soft tissue that become involved. They can range from little or no pain if the disc is the only tissue injured, to severe and unrelenting neck or low back pain that will radiate into the regions served by affected nerve roots that are irritated or impinged by the herniated material. (...) Other symptoms may include sensory changes such as numbness, tingling, muscular weakness, paralysis, paresthesia, and affection of reflexes. If the herniated disc is in the lumbar region the patient may also experience sciatica due to irritation of one of the nerve roots of the sciatic nerve. Unlike a pulsating pain or pain that comes and goes, which can be caused by muscle spasm, pain from a herniated disc is usually continuous or at least is continuous in a specific position of the body.Doesn't this sound like fun? This is from the Wikipedia article about Spinal disc herniation. So it seems that the tissue between two of my discs are bulging out, and according to the symptoms, irritating my sciatic nerve, which is the longest nerve in our body, from the lower back, through the buttocks and down the lower limb. Norwegian Wikipedia article about the sciatic nerve here.
So, to treat this, I have to either lie down or walk. Before Christmas my chiropractor wanted me to start exercising to strengthen my back, especially by doing exercises that was similar to the bends and twists that normally give you this spinal shit. He suggested aerobics. But now, after Christmas, when he started taking it more seriously, I am not allowed to exercise, not before it's okay again. Then I can start strengthen the muscles, and keep it from happening again. You see, if you've had it once, it's very likely you'll get it again. And I am not having any of that. So because I'm not allowed to exercise now, I probably shouldn't have done those Yoga exercises back in December. If you break your leg, you don't go out running a marathon, do you? If you knock a hole in your head, you don't go head-banging do you?
So, I am pretty damn tired of this. I won't be able to finish my school assignment, and everything else I do goes a lot slower than usual. Stupid shit.
So that's was that story. Long and boring.
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