My back problems flared up today big time. I have some hinky stuff going on with my C4/C5 vertebrae- arthritic growths/bony spurs, microfractures, and stuff like that. Once in a while something happens and the bones pinch the nerves that run through/near them, or at least that’s how it was explained to me.
I’m not a doctor, but I can say this: it translates into a lot of pain. And the really irritating thing is that it isn’t “heroic” pain: I can’t claim I hurt my back playing rugby or sky diving or something. Instead, more often than not, I have no idea what I’ve done to make things bad.
Today, the pain started when I put on my shirt: it was bad enough that I couldn’t breath (the pain sort of runs right through my back and into my chest). I was contemplating working from home at the time, and the pain pretty much cinched my decision. Of course, since I’m hurting, I’m not able to be particularly productive.
In fact, at the moment, I’m on enough drugs that its actually getting a bit hard to concentrate. The pain is still there, but its wrapped in a nice layer of cotton batten, or perhaps more accurately my brain is, and so it seems less important. I spent an hour with a heating pad on my back, and that seemed to help. But I really don’t know how people with more severe problems handle it- I doff my hat to people living day to day with pain that probably makes what I feel right now seem trivial. Thank the powers that be that my concerns are relatively trivial.
