Ahh my back is messed up again.
Quick history, a few years ago at work, a couple of big burly students had a big physical fight, bashed a female teacher out the way and such. So I intervened. Not sure how much I accomplished on their part but it did end.
I got up and crack... oh shit. And I got myself 3 herniated discs.
Well that was an agonising few weeks, painful few months, and uncomfortable few years. But I mostly got over it, with the general life change of having better posture, getting out of cars more carefully, and being wary about heavy lifting, generally.
Still, I started to forget about it in daily life, as I was still lugging around two big suitcases down stairs and across the world, among all kinds of various normal human tasks without issue.
That is until the other day when I decided to work out on my abs thinking '... ahhh it'll be FINE'.
It wasn't fine.
Note to self for the rest of my life: NEVER GET ABS.
You lost your chance by living a sedentary lifestyle and forming weak posture which over time lead to this permanent injury. You will now never get abs. (I guess I can still get a chest, some biceps and such, though if I wanted).
So yeah, after that brief workout, I've been increasingly uncomfortable, despite a whole weekend of resting on my back pretty much. Now I made it to work but it was a struggle - and that was just sitting in a taxi for an hour (Couldn't bear to risk the subway commute in this condition).
My wife keeps suggesting seeing a doctor or acupuncture (Asians, eh?) but when this originally happened, I was offered, well, Acupuncture, or real medicine, which was basically just painkillers.
The only other thing I was told was to rest easy.
And to be fair, short of taking things seriously like surgery or steroids, what else can be done?
I could take painkillers or anti-inflammatories, but they don't really address the issue. The issue is permanent. I knew this long ago. Even when it heals, the scar tissue is weaker and prone to herniate more often in the future - like it just did, I guess.
So I'm taking all the measures the doctor told me, as well as various physiotherapy techniques such as leaning on a surface and dangling my legs to have gravity pull my spine apart for some relief.
The rest is just a waiting game - unless I want to go the surgery route, which I really don't unless it gets REALLY bad.
But I mean, it hurts, and I'm struggling, but I feel like I'm doing all the right things, and I've been through it before with successful results. I have this support thingy wrapped around my waist with an inflatable pillow thing that pushes into your spine and forces you to have really good posture.
Right now as I sit, it already feels better. I look almost military in my seating stance. I feel a foot taller!
It still hurts on my left but I can actually stand up without struggling. It should be enough to get through the day until I can lie on my sofa all evening again.
It's pretty depressing that I'll have to deal with this forever but I guess that is the cost of growing old.
I'd rather this than something like Diabetes or any number of lifestyle-based ailments, tbh.
Sigh