I remember it like it was yesterday, August 6th 2016, the day my entire world got flipped upside down. I had worked an extremely hard physical labor job for three years bending over stacking lumber, but bouncing around on a forklift in the potholes was the worst part. It was the day of my Mom's dance recital and she was running behind as usual, and I was supposed to help her come set up but I never got that chance. I was in a hurry getting dressed and I bent over to pick up a sock then felt the worst pain imaginable down my spine, and I've broken 7 bones and my appendix burst but nothing could compare to this. At first I was in somewhat disbelief and I thought it would heal up after a few weeks but I quickly realized this was far more serious than I ever imagined.
All day I pretty much just laid in bed on pain medication which didn't even help much. I really wanted to skip my Mom's dance recital but the year prior I didn't make it so this year I felt like I had to go. Sitting in those auditorium chairs at Lindenwood college was my worst nightmare, I had a swollen spot on my spine the size of a ping pong ball where the injury occurred. And just to make matters worse when I went to leave my truck had a dead battery so we had to find somebody to jump it which just prolonged my pain. I figured since this was the first day of my injury I was pretty much experiencing the worst of it but boy oh boy was I wrong.
The next day was even worse when I woke up I just laid there for an hour or so hoping some of the pain would get better but it didn't. We went ahead and went to the DR. and had an MRI scheduled but I had to wait about 2 weeks for that. The worst thing about back problems is there's very little they can do for you medically because your spine is such a complicated thing. Then one day I remembered I sort of knew a retired chiropractor so I called him and he invited me over to his house.
As he started to work his magic on my back I began to feel a million times better. He said he was pretty sure I had 2 bulging disks in my mid back but they were in alignment again and not bulging anymore. The only way to be 100% sure about what exact problems somebody is having in their back is to give them an MRI which costs thousands of dollars. But with skinnier people it's easier to diagnose and also put disks back in alignment because we don't have near as much muscle holding our spines together. The car ride home I felt great and I actually walked my dog when I got home which I hadn't been able to for weeks. The next day I was so confident in how my back felt I went out to the garage and started working on my four-wheeler. I got a ton done on it, and oddly enough I had a tad bit of back pain being bent over fixing it when the day before I had excruciating back pain just laying down. But then later that night I realized working on my four-wheeler was a mistake and it was way too soon to be doing anything like that.
The next morning I was in extreme pain again and back to the point I was at before I went to the chiropractor. So a few days later I went to him again and he popped my back in line and I felt pretty good again. Then it was time for my MRI so I went ahead and got that done but unfortunately it didn't even show that anything was wrong. Which the only logical answer to that is my chiropractor(whoshallremainnameless)had done his job right and my disks were back in line so it would make sense the MRI didn't show anything right? Well there lies my biggest problem. No pain management specialist, neurologist, or any other specialist will even see me because my MRI didn't show anything so they think I'm fine and just being a baby. Most chiropractors wont even adjust you without an MRI as evidence to what exactly the problem is. But with skinny people like myself its a lot less risky and that's why my chiropractor was willing to do it. Without my chiropractor I don't even want to think where id be today, he literally saved my life and for that I'm forever grateful.
