How I *Threw My Back Out*.

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Sigmund

Sigmund

Waiting in Uber.
Jan 3, 2010
13,979
44,046
In your mirror.
Hey!

I kinda/sorta understood when people said "I threw my back out".

What? They injured their spine while lifting something heavy? You're an old fart that tried to do something you should never have been trying to do? :icon_eek: :laugh:

I threw my back out suppressing a sneeze. Yes, you read that correctly. Suppressing a sneeze! Ha!

Let me set this up for you.

I was making some awesome, goodie-roonie ham sandwiches for my husband and me. All the fixings were on the kitchen counter and I was putting them all together. Yay! All of a sudden! I had to SNEEZE!!!! Like, RIGHT NOW! Rather than sneeze on the food I ... swallowed...??? ...held my breath...??? (Don't ask me. IDK what the he11 I was thinking. :laugh:)

I didn't sneeze and in the effort to suppress the sneeze...my back locked up. (I'm an idiot. Kill me now.)

I had no idea what had happened but I knew I was in trouble. (I'm smart that way. :a11:)

I quietly called out to my husband. He came into the kitchen, took one look at me and said, "Siggy! What's wrong?" He came towards me and I said, "No! Stay away from me! There's something wrong with my back."

Long story short (Too, late.) EMS came and took my silly azz to the hospital.

(Do you have any idea what it's like to have to explain why you were in the hospital and walking like a human question mark? "I sneezed. Or rather, I refused to sneeze."

Have you ever thrown your back out? Do you know anyone who has?

:rofl:

Peace.
 
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kingricefan

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
30,011
127,446
Spokane, WA
Been there, done that. I was at work and handing a bad of items across the counter to a customer and *WHAM* it felt like somebody had stabbed me in the back. I couldn't move. I'm sure I turned white because the customer exclaimed 'What's wrong?!' I wish I could say that the bag was 50 lbs but there was only a shirt in it, so it was probably 2 lbs. at the most. I couldn't hardly even walk for a few days, let alone stand or sit. I feel your pain......
 
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DiO'Bolic

DiO'Bolic

Not completely obtuse
Nov 14, 2013
22,864
129,998
Poconos, PA
Yes, once.

I picked a boat up wrong. Felt something snap, instant heat in the back, and hit the ground like a sack of potatoes. Laid there for about 15 minutes amongst the goose crap before being able to stand again. Then moored the boat through the pain. The 10 minute drive home felt like an hour with tears running my cheeks. (And don't ask about the smell).

Took weeks for the pain to go away.

Have been very careful to lift correctly since then.
 
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swiftdog2.0

swiftdog2.0

I tell you one and one makes three...
Mar 16, 2010
7,095
35,344
Macroverse
Strained mine a couple times.

First time was way back in the day when I was a Swiftpup. I was pulling a tree stump out of the ground and felt something strain as I was pulling. Took a couple weeks for that to get better.

Second time was a few years later as I was pulling my dog out of the living after he whizzed on the rug. That took a couple weeks to get better as well.

Also have a couple of compression fractures in my back from a fall in my parent's driveway when I slipped shoveling snow about ten years ago.

Nothing since then, thankfully.
 
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skimom2

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
Heck yes. Nearly 20 years ago, I was in a store with my 18 month old son. I went to lift him out of the play area and it was like someone shot me in the back. Down on the ground, totally unable to move without extreme pain. You know how sales people follow you around truing yo be helpful, until you want to scream, "Get away from me!"? Not that day. I lay there for quite a while before someone noticed me & I could ask them to call my husband for me. Turns out I herniated a disc at L-4/5. It eventually healed...then went out again a couple of years later, when we were at Disneyland for my son's 4th birthday. This time we had 2 kids and a rented teeny tiny car. Seeing as The Man had to drag me to the bathroom that first morning (legs refused to work at all), it's not surprising that our doc had to get me scripts for muscle relaxers and pain pills for me to make it to the plane and home. That was a bad, bad time--took a lot of time and PT to heal. Now I have periodic flare ups, but nothing that bad since.
 
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Grandpa

Grandpa

Well-Known Member
Mar 2, 2014
9,724
53,642
Colorado
The back takes a lot of stress. Nearly everything we do involves the back. It is the fulcrum for the body, and the L5-S1 joint (lower back) is the fulcrum for the back.

Wear and tear happens, whether it's your car, or the washing machine, or the light switch, or your body. You keep using it, and the parts start to wear.

Whether it's a nerve getting out of place, or a weakened muscle, or disk material within the spinal cushions, they're subject to wear and tear. They get nearer and nearer to a breaking point with every little stress, and then finally....

Might be a sneeze. Might be an orgasm. Might be turning while brushing your teeth. Might be bending over to pick up that penny on the sidewalk. Whatever it is, if the structures are fatigued enough, you do something that's the straw that (almost literally) breaks the camel's back, and the weakened structure goes, and your fulcrum is suddenly disabled.

If you're lucky, it's a soft-tissue sprain or strain that you can baby, work to heal, and get well again. If you're unlucky, something happens like the disk material erupts and pushes against your spinal cord, and you're screwed.

Sounds like the people in the thread have been more or less lucky, and that's good. But materials do weaken and give out. It's the way of things.
 
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Neesy

Neesy

#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
May 24, 2012
61,289
239,271
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Grandpa said:
The back takes a lot of stress. Nearly everything we do involves the back. It is the fulcrum for the body, and the L5-S1 joint (lower back) is the fulcrum for the back.

Wear and tear happens, whether it's your car, or the washing machine, or the light switch, or your body. You keep using it, and the parts start to wear.

Whether it's a nerve getting out of place, or a weakened muscle, or disk material within the spinal cushions, they're subject to wear and tear. They get nearer and nearer to a breaking point with every little stress, and then finally....

Might be a sneeze. Might be an orgasm. Might be turning while brushing your teeth. Might be bending over to pick up that penny on the sidewalk. Whatever it is, if the structures are fatigued enough, you do something that's the straw that (almost literally) breaks the camel's back, and the weakened structure goes, and your fulcrum is suddenly disabled.

If you're lucky, it's a soft-tissue sprain or strain that you can baby, work to heal, and get well again. If you're unlucky, something happens like the disk material erupts and pushes against your spinal cord, and you're screwed.

Sounds like the people in the thread have been more or less lucky, and that's good. But materials do weaken and give out. It's the way of things.
Click to expand...
I think osteoporosis or osteopenia can contribute as well.

Drink more milk/drinkable yogurt, eat cheese (both hard and soft), eat the bones out of the canned salmon (I just crush them into the mix) etc. I think even sesame seeds may have some type of calcium. I am pretty sure almonds are a good source.

and take your vitamin D supplements, too - I take 2000 I.U. of vitamin D every day.

Since I am not a vegetarian, I am not so clued in as to the other sources of calcium, but I know there are other nonmeat/dairy sources out there, too.
 
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