Urbanjourney
Newcomer
Over the years, I've had the occasional muscle spasm in my QL muscles which put me either in bed for a week or in hospital via ambulance overnight. Usually things would improve over a week or so and i'd be back to normal. I'm a very fit, athletic guy who grew up on a diet of constant activity and adventure. I was also very competitive in my athletics and was the best in my school and my club. I took that competitiveness through to anything that i'd do in way of sport as an adult and most recently, enjoyed dominating (this is the ego that's part of the problem) the spin (RPM) class - something i very much looked forward to each week.
Late last year, my wife and i were invited to do a bit of twilight sailing on the river which sounded nice however it turned out to be an actual race and during this event, i was thrown violently into the side of the boat impacting on my lower back. Although it was quite distressing and hurt a lot, I seemed to make the normal recovery within a week or so albeit with a tender spot on the lower pelvic bone. After that dissipated, during the xmas holidays i was bending over the pick up a lawnmower grass catcher and felt the muscles in my lower back grip and spasm on the same side as where i'd had the boat accident.
I rested up for a period as wasn't due to go back to work for another week or so but it didn't seem to be getting any better. I had trouble sleeping with the pain and so saw a doctor who said we'd have to hit it hard with Tapentadol and anti inflammatories and strong paracetamol. This definitely helped reduce the pain however as the week went on, i still wasn't feeling like i was ready to go back to work. I had a new team member starting so felt pressure to be there and was anxious that my usual "Gooder" mentality was going to be degraded if i had to take more time off. I saw my regular physiotherapist and she said it was typical discogenic back pain and so started a program to rehabilitate. I went back to work still feeling sore but persisted as thought it was still early days yet and had some optimism it would be fixed soon. My wife left for a short holiday away with her family and i continued on with home projects on the weekend. I'd come in to do some stretching as was feeling very tight and sore then suddenly experienced an excruciating muscle spasm in my QL which sent me to the floor - laying on my back I had to use Siri on my phone to call for assistance from my Dad and then ultimately an ambulance had to attend. I remember feeling very scared, frustrated and angry at the situation.
After being sent home the next day from hospital feeling a little relief i again had to take time off from work - more anxiety came from that as I'd gone from the person everyone can rely on to now being unreliable.
8 weeks later, having physiotherapy every week and having the physio scratching her head saying "You're going 1 step forward 2 steps back - i'm not sure what is happening" I was sent for an MRI which showed the usual disc dessication, degeneration and slight protrusion and some mild arthritis on my left L5-S1 facet joint. Still believing this was disc related, i was sent to clinical pilates which also was not providing necessary relief and after around 6 or so weeks of this i left to pursue other options.
Since then there have been more physios, Osteopath, massage, lots of anti inflammatories, Tapentadol and strong paracetamol along with a host of diagnostic checks, more frustration and anger at having to fight for testing along with constant anxiety about my ability to do my quite physical job.
As much as i felt strongly there was something else at play and linking things possibly back to the boat accident, it felt like the year was getting away and i was constantly coming up against resistance from my clinicians who were now adamant that the facet joint arthritis is the cause of the pain.
I can't remember where i came across Dr Sarno's book Healing Back Pain but it was in the past few weeks and was the moment when i thought "This is possibly what is going on with me". Since reading through that and immersing myself in the world of TMS, I feel like i've still got a way to go however feeling strongly optimistic that this journey will end with me being able to resume my physically active life without the pain i've been enduring for the last 10 months.
Everything makes perfect sense to me in way of my symptoms, evidence of days of no pain then pain then different pain area and the fact that the success stories present people who have had far worse MRI results than me and who are no longer in pain.
I'm very much looking forward to not only connecting with others here but also being able to assist in some way through my story.
I'm in Australia and so a lot of our medical professionals are not up to speed yet on the mind-body connection - this Forum is an amazing resource i'm just scratching the surface of so i'd like to put out a massive thanks to the team that have put this together!
Late last year, my wife and i were invited to do a bit of twilight sailing on the river which sounded nice however it turned out to be an actual race and during this event, i was thrown violently into the side of the boat impacting on my lower back. Although it was quite distressing and hurt a lot, I seemed to make the normal recovery within a week or so albeit with a tender spot on the lower pelvic bone. After that dissipated, during the xmas holidays i was bending over the pick up a lawnmower grass catcher and felt the muscles in my lower back grip and spasm on the same side as where i'd had the boat accident.
I rested up for a period as wasn't due to go back to work for another week or so but it didn't seem to be getting any better. I had trouble sleeping with the pain and so saw a doctor who said we'd have to hit it hard with Tapentadol and anti inflammatories and strong paracetamol. This definitely helped reduce the pain however as the week went on, i still wasn't feeling like i was ready to go back to work. I had a new team member starting so felt pressure to be there and was anxious that my usual "Gooder" mentality was going to be degraded if i had to take more time off. I saw my regular physiotherapist and she said it was typical discogenic back pain and so started a program to rehabilitate. I went back to work still feeling sore but persisted as thought it was still early days yet and had some optimism it would be fixed soon. My wife left for a short holiday away with her family and i continued on with home projects on the weekend. I'd come in to do some stretching as was feeling very tight and sore then suddenly experienced an excruciating muscle spasm in my QL which sent me to the floor - laying on my back I had to use Siri on my phone to call for assistance from my Dad and then ultimately an ambulance had to attend. I remember feeling very scared, frustrated and angry at the situation.
After being sent home the next day from hospital feeling a little relief i again had to take time off from work - more anxiety came from that as I'd gone from the person everyone can rely on to now being unreliable.
8 weeks later, having physiotherapy every week and having the physio scratching her head saying "You're going 1 step forward 2 steps back - i'm not sure what is happening" I was sent for an MRI which showed the usual disc dessication, degeneration and slight protrusion and some mild arthritis on my left L5-S1 facet joint. Still believing this was disc related, i was sent to clinical pilates which also was not providing necessary relief and after around 6 or so weeks of this i left to pursue other options.
Since then there have been more physios, Osteopath, massage, lots of anti inflammatories, Tapentadol and strong paracetamol along with a host of diagnostic checks, more frustration and anger at having to fight for testing along with constant anxiety about my ability to do my quite physical job.
As much as i felt strongly there was something else at play and linking things possibly back to the boat accident, it felt like the year was getting away and i was constantly coming up against resistance from my clinicians who were now adamant that the facet joint arthritis is the cause of the pain.
I can't remember where i came across Dr Sarno's book Healing Back Pain but it was in the past few weeks and was the moment when i thought "This is possibly what is going on with me". Since reading through that and immersing myself in the world of TMS, I feel like i've still got a way to go however feeling strongly optimistic that this journey will end with me being able to resume my physically active life without the pain i've been enduring for the last 10 months.
Everything makes perfect sense to me in way of my symptoms, evidence of days of no pain then pain then different pain area and the fact that the success stories present people who have had far worse MRI results than me and who are no longer in pain.
I'm very much looking forward to not only connecting with others here but also being able to assist in some way through my story.
I'm in Australia and so a lot of our medical professionals are not up to speed yet on the mind-body connection - this Forum is an amazing resource i'm just scratching the surface of so i'd like to put out a massive thanks to the team that have put this together!
You're right to question it, and I'm not sure how old you are, but a lot of adults would have mild arthritic changes, yet most don't have pain. As you correctly pointed out too, there would be people with far worse/progressed arthritis than you with no pain. Assuming that the neurological exam is clear, I think there's a very high chance that it's TMS and therefore that this is the way out for you - happy to help further (feel free to message me) 
