Thursday, February 02, 2006

One year ago today...(a cautionary tale)

I slept late, as we were working these long long hours then as well, and I was exhausted all the time. I woke up, took a shower and as I stepped out of the tub felt a little "tick" or "thump" in my lower right back. I thought nothing of it, got ready and went to work, by lunch time I almost couldn't walk, took an "early out" and came home. In the middle of the night I woke up because I needed to pee, tried to sit up, and put myself in such terrible pain I almost went right there. I tried several more times to get up, various ways, and finally gave up and crawled to the bathroom. Once there, I got my hands up onto the tub, then worked them up onto the vanity, and then to the toilet tank and managed to "go".

The next day I went to my Dr., got muscle relaxers and pain killers; I had an old back injury that flared up on occasion and thought it was just that. I burnt 3 vacation days, went back to work the next Monday, and ended up the same way again.

After several weeks of tests, scans, etc., it was decided it wasn't a disc and I should see a physical medicine doctor. When I got in to see him (almost a month after this started) he said it was a stress fractured ligament, due to the old injury that had never healed right, and that my weight had set it off. I started therapy, and finally went back to work the end of April last year. The therapist started a learning process that continues both about nutrition and my body; I am forever grateful to him!

My weight at the time was 288; I'm only 5' 8"...
My waist was 58", so you can imagine...

Today, I'm at 198, my waist is 34". The last time I weighed this my waist was 42" or 44", but weight lifting has rearranged some things, and cardio is trimming off the excess.

It wasn't that I wasn't concerned about my weight, but it wasn't important enough to deal with; somehow crawling to the bathroom changed that!

Maybe old dogs can learn new tricks?

alan

9 comments:

mckait said...

very painful

i too, struggle with my wieght.. i am not in a good spot right now..
gained some back

too much stress and not enough happy
:(

glad that you are well and fit, now.. that sounds horrible...

i have only ever dealt with run of the mill back pain.. but had ligament stuff with knees.. ouch.. can only try to imagine it as you suffered..

alan..
got the malibu
thought of you..
:)
thought how fun it would be to drive over and show you.. :)

ahhh the internet..
gives us a tempting taste of friends that we can only rarely enjoy fully..

glad you came to my blog..
you make me smile..
you are i think... a good man.. nice to "know" ya!

kath

Dr. Deb said...

I have had excruciating back pain too. Nothing like a crisis to make you redefine your life!

sttropezbutler said...

Alan..

This is good stuff. Glad you moved forward and found yourself!

STB

sjobs said...

Congrats on the weight lose. That is just fantastic....

Keep it up,

Mary

I n g e r said...

Man, I get it. All of it.

For me, it took seeing my Dad near death--hooked up to everything with a failing heart and a 290-lb body.

Not me. No way.

Nancy said...

I have had the back pain. I certainly have plenty of weight to lose. Never made the connection. I am happy that you have done so well. I truly commend you on all the weight loss and change in lifestyle by exercising. You are my role model now! Thank you for sharing this very important story and I love your happy ending, or should I say beginning?

b o o said...

started as a cautionary tale but ended admirably.

www.kimmy.cc said...

AWESOME! Go you!!

I am down 12 pounds, and still smoke free.

I'm just catching up before I hit the gym. It's super sunday ya know LOL

Blogzie said...

Your description of trying to make it from the bed to the bathroom is so well written and so true.

I was there once about ten years ago. Fortunately, it was the one and only time that I had ever a back problem.

I found a wonderful chiropractor who saved me and I still go to him several times a year for 'adjustments'.

Bravo to you for doing something about it and making a commitment to improve your health.

You're my new role model.

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