The back injury that set me back

Note: I was going to write one post about my injury and my comeback, but it got long so I broke it up into two parts. Part two to come later this week. 

I took a significant break from blogging throughout last summer and fall and haven’t really shared a lot about it. During the summer, I was truly trying to enjoy life and the time with my family and didn’t feel compelled to write on a regular basis. When the inspiration isn’t there, it isn’t there. This is something I do for fun and if I don’t want to do it and don’t find it fun, I don’t need to do it. That’s always been my approach, but right now I’m in creative writing mode.

In September, however, I hurt my back. I’ve had a few back injuries and this was pretty miserable. I had pain near my tailbone during a shortened Labor Day run and I took it seriously because I had a misaligned tailbone in 2015 that kept me down for months. I figured running aggravated it and thought I’d be ok, but I couldn’t finish a boxing class the next day, which was a sign of something bigger. Usually boxing helped.

I ended up going to physical therapy for a few weeks and then got the ok to box again. I even ran a few times. I felt better. Then some in and out jump squats during an active rest at boxing did me in. I was worse than I had been before. It was frustrating and I was miserable. My physical therapist was convinced I blew a disk, and she said I needed to go back to the specialist I saw back in 2015. Crap. She said this in early November, the day before I left for a road trip to Philadelphia, a trip that had been planned for months so that I could run the Rocky Run with my family. I made the most of a disappointing trip, but there was no running for me.

I saw the doctor a few days after my return from Philly and she ordered an MRI. The only deal I got on Black Friday was an MRI that I didn’t have to pay for because I’d already met my deductible. Of course I did. The MRI revealed arthritis in my sacroiliac (SI) joint, a joint that is within the hip and pelvic area. This makes sense because of the previous injuries I’ve had. The doctor said that she recommended a course of a Medrol dose pack (short-term steroid like prednisone) to break the pain cycle, continued PT and a referral to a pain specialist for a possible cortisone shot. The steroids broke the cycle and within days I was noticing a difference. I did PT for another month or so and while I had a slight flare up at one point right before Christmas, around-the-clock ibuprofen helped and I was better within a day or so. I didn’t see the pain management doctor until January and I pretty much have to be in significant pain to have a cortisone shot. The good news is that I haven’t seen her since that first visit.

More to come on my comeback……..