My Back Pain Adventure Story

 This is my story about the problems I've had with my back pain over the years, maybe there will be some tips or ideas that may give you some 

relief if you also have back issues, so i'm a 59 year old male that hurt my back when I was 15, so 44 years I've been dealing with Back Pain.

I was a passenger in a car that rolled 4 1/2 times, back then no one wore seat belts, it was crazy how much I was thrown around inside that

vehicle, anyways that's when my back issues began.

So after a few days of being sore I healed up and felt fine, I don't remember having to many back issues in High School, I was an athlete who 

played football, basketball and baseball, i'm sure these sports were probably not helping my back at the time, but I was young and in pretty 

good shape and felt fine, I graduated from High School, got a job as a Mechanic with a Trucking Company and this is when my back problems really

started to bother me.

After a couple years I started have more and more back issues all in my lower back, I think working on a cement floor all day and lifting heavy 

parts, jumping out of trailers (dumb), doing things when your young that your going to pay for when you get older, so by the time I was in my 

middle 20's my lower back pain was bad, I would have to slide off the bed onto the floor on my knees and then use the bed to push myself up into

a standing position, I would move around for a while to loosen up so I could get dressed, I would sit on the side of the bed, slide my boots on

but my wife had to tie them for me, i was not able to bend down to tie my shoes, after an hour or so I would be loosened up enough to go about

my day, but I knew it was time to get some help.

I decided to see a Chiropractor for my lower back pain, I did see a regular doctor and they tried some traction that did not give me any relief, 

so I made an appointment with a Chiropractor, he took some x'rays and adjusted me, I instantly felt better, for the first month I went twice a week, 

for the next month I went once a week, after that I would go every 2-3 months, I was pretty good for about 7 years or into my early 30's, the 8th

year I was seeing him more and more and not getting any relief, he decided to take another xray and found that my L4 and L5 there was something wrong, 

so they sent me for an MRI and found that my disc had ruptured on the left side, I was having alot of left leg pain on the Sciatic Nerve down to my 

toes, I also remember the top of my knees always felt hot and burning.

1993, My 1st back surgery, I had a Laminectomy, it's a surgery that creates space by removing the lamina, the back part of a vertebra that covers your 

spinal canal. Also known as decompression surgery, laminectomy enlarges your spinal canal to relieve pressure on the spinal cord or nerves, what they 

did was cut off the part of the disc that was protruding out, I still had part of my disc between my Vertebrae in that area, if you took a pencil and 

made a line, that's how much of the disc I had left, I do remember after waking up from surgery being able to feel my legs again, they were numb and

hot all the time, that was gone.

So I spent a week in the hospital and was released to go home, I had to walk everyday, a little further each day. I think I was supposed to be off

for 4-6 weeks, at that time I had moved into a management roll so I was not working on the floor anymore but I was still on the cement all day, after 

a couple weeks I was going in a couple hours a day and after a month I was back full time, by now I realized I needed to do things smarter, 1st

thing was absolutely no jumping and lifting properly, I also found out I needed a really good pair of boots for working on that cement all day, what 

I found worked the best for me was the Wolverine DuraShocks, they have one called the Multi-Shock but I preferred the DuraShocks, they seemed to

help my legs and lower back the best.

Now over the next 20 years everything with my low back pain was not perfect, I was functioning fairly well but still having some lower back pain

issues, not as bad before I had surgery, I was still seeing a Chiropractor 3-4 times a year, I was using ice, at that time ice seemed to work the 

best for me, I tried to stay away from medications, then I decided I wanted to try an Inversion Table, so I purchased one and found out it was a great 

investment for me, I learned over time if I took a Hot bath so I was really relaxed the Inversion Table worked better, I was not so tight when

I got on it, i'm still using the same one to this day.

Then in the late 90's and early 2000's I was able to get a Tens Unit or a Shock Machine, this also worked well for me on my low back pain, it also 

worked well in any other areas of muscle tightness, the little portable Tens Units are very affordable now day's, also over this time I had a few 

Cortizone or Steroid shots in my back, the very 1st shot I had worked for a year, I thought this was the best thing ever made, as I had them more

they worked less time, the last one I had about a year ago lasted me a week, and the last couple I had times where I felt like my heart was beating

out of my chest.

2013, Was having issues when I turned my head would get a shooting pain down my left arm, had an MRI done and found that the C3-C4 disc in my neck

was bulging, ended up having surgery where they went in through my front side of my neck, they pushed my wind pipe to the side, took the bulging disc 

out and replaced it with Cadaver Bone, then a small titanium plate is screwed to the Vertebrae holding the Cadaver bone in place until it fuses itself

to the Vertebrae, had to wear a neck brace for 8 weeks, did not like that.

December 2017, had my second Laminectomy, they found that I had a small bulging disc but was having more issues with the scar tissue that had built

up from the 1st lower back surgery I had in 1993, so they went in took the scar tissue out, opened up one of the holes that my Sciatic nerve ran

through and they cut off one of my facets off, it's the hooks or fingers on the back of your Vertebrae, I had surgery at 7 am and I was home at noon,

a lot of difference between 1993 and 2017 surgeries, I went from December of 2017 to December of 2018 and never felt better, i could not believe how

well I felt, I woke up a year later, sat up and something popped in my back and I have not been right since.

So since then I've had back issues again, I've been having issues with my fingers and my toes hurting, so I meet with a Nuero Surgeon, they are on 

Aug.31st, 2020 are going to do a nerve test to see if it's coming from my back, we will see how that goes, if you read through this article I would

like to thank you, I hope maybe you found some ideas that may help you if your have back pains, another thing I would like to mention is it seems if

I use heat instead of ice it seems to be working better, also stretching helps me a lot, if there is someone who can help you stretch that's even

better, again thanks for reading and good luck with your back pain.