Back Injury

 The weather station temperature reads 89 degrees in Zumbro Hills and I am freezing. No, we didn't break down and turn on the air conditioning... Why? Because I'm icing my back. I figured if I have to do it, I may as well be in front of the computer. Can you believe this weather by the way??  What a strange spring... Anyway... I've vaguely mentioned before that I "tweaked" my back in mid-February. It's been sort of an ordeal ever since...  I can live with the pain, and I can do most everything...although not exactly as I normally would. I can still vacuum--with the old Oreck vacuum... I can still scrub the base of the toilet...on a stool... I can still cook and do laundry and have company and even disc golf.  But everything is slower and more tentative than it should be. And if I make a wrong move, there's a price to pay. I figured it was about time I knew what sort of injury I was dealing with and what to expect my recovery to be like. So, I broke down and made an appointment with a chiropractor. I've had mixed experiences with chiropractic care in the past, so I wanted to try someone new.  I prayed about where to go, and I ended up choosing Chiropractic First Wellness Center in Rochester. So far, I couldn't be more pleased.  The staff was so kind and seemed genuinely caring. So, the appointment began with a series of x-rays and nerve scans to determine what my injury was. He took an x-ray of the area of my back that was injured... ...and he looked at the screen for awhile zooming in and out... (And I stood there in that hot, sticky x-ray room hoping this nice gentleman didn't notice that I was soaking my hospital gown in sweat...) ...and then he asked if he could take one more x-ray for a closer look... ...and he looked at the screen for awhile zooming in and out... And he said that the injury I'm dealing with is a fracture way down in my lower back. It probably didn't happen for the first time when I opened the garage door (although let me tell you I have nothing good to say about the stupid garage door considering what it's put me through the last couple months). He said it's typically a sports injury... But I suspect that in my case, it very possibly may have happened during childbirth. It seems unlikely and I can't prove it...it's also possible that it happened even before that and I re-injured it during childbirth.  But I remember very well the first time I felt this particular pain in my lower back.  I had the most unbelievable back labor, and as Elizabeth descended down into my pelvis, I heard bones cracking.  You could hear a snapping noise when I moved, and I said to Mike, "Do you hear that??  I think it's my tailbone breaking!"  I always jokingly said it was "bone crushing" labor...and maybe I wasn't too far off! Well, she was worth every minute of it!  Every minute of twenty-four and a half hours of bone-crushing labor...  Ha! But, I went through about a year of treatment after I had Elizabeth, and very gradually, I recovered well. Today, he could press on the exact point of the fracture and I coulda climbed the walls when he did!  But I'm glad that we finally know what we're dealing with.  Unfortunately, it's not going to "go away", and this probably won't be the last time that I tweak this particular injury.  But at least I know that there is hope for rehabilitation and that I'm not damaging myself further. He said that I may even be able to go to that waterpark hotel in Wisconsin Dells yet this month!  We shall see... So, I'll be back in the chiropractor's office on Thursday, and he'll make his recommendations from there. I'm just glad that my injury finally has a name...and hopefully I'll get some relief soon!