A pain in the back

Tim has grown up riding BMX bikes and rode them professionally for several years of his life. He still rides them when he can but doesn't ride as much as he used to, obviously, since he doesn't do it for a living. A few weeks ago on a sunny afternoon, he decided to get out of the house to ride for a bit. Afterwards, I get a text from him saying that his back was sore and he can barely walk. We both just figured he'd pulled a muscle and it would be fine in a couple of days. He went to his mom the day after for some body work to try to get the muscles to relax a bit and it definitely helped.

Fast forward two days later: we are at lying at the beach and all of a sudden I glance over and Tim is in excruciating pain. I ask him if he needs to leave and he says, yes definitely. He cannot move. He cannot walk. The lifeguard comes over to ask if we need help or to call 911. It looked bad. I let him lean on me and led him a little ways away from the beach to a spot where I can pick him up. We get him in the car and it seems like an isolated moment that was just weird.

We get home and have some snacks. He is sitting on the couch and all of a sudden just starts screaming in pain. He cannot move and is almost moved to tears by how bad it hurts. We try to get him up to walk and he cannot move. He walks 5 feet leaning on me and then collapses on the floor onto his back, in tears, where he lays for the next three hours because he simply can't move. We are both soaked from him crying. It is bad.

Meanwhile, I am researching back problems, calling doctors, etc. I decide that he needs to get to the emergency room stat. The only question is how? He can't move. What the hell are we supposed to do?

Three hours later, somehow, someway, we are able to get him to the ER. Mainly with the aid of a back brace and me using every once of me to hold him up and support his back. He is relatively ok during the time we were at the ER- especially compared to the rest of the day. The ER doctor is -sorry, mom- a complete asshole. He gives no consideration to the fact that we are not there because we want painkillers. Tim appears to not be dying so he says, "Yeah, back pain just sucks. Here's a prescription for pain medicine."

We go to Walgreens to get it filled. All of a sudden he is hit again with unbelievable excruciating pain. For the next 4 and 1/2 hours, he cannot get out of the car. We tried 800+ mg of Ibuprofen, Percocet (that the doctor had prescribed), muscle relaxers, ice packs, heat packs. He ate in the car and just stayed there. We tried baby steps. It did not work.

Finally around 10pm, his parents came over and with the help of his dad and some ice we were able to get him upstairs in to bed. For the next three days, he would require constant care- he was essentially flat on his back. He literally could not move. He will hate me for saying this but he was peeing into bags! I was giving him sponge baths and when the weekend was over, I made him lunches and left him pee bags to pee in if he had to. It. was. horrible. For both of us, obviously... more him than me! At least I was not in pain but it is hard to watch someone in that much pain.

We finally decided that he was only getting worse. We decided to try to get him to a chiropractor. Getting him out of the house and up off the floor was the only issue. His dad came over to help him. We find out that he has essentially dislocated his back. HOLY. SHIT.

The next two weeks would consist of daily trips to the chiropractor to get him to the point where he can actually be able to be mobile again. At least after just a couple of trips to the chiro, he was at least able to get up to go to the bathroom.

My parents came into town when he was just starting to be mobile. He was out of commission for their first couple of days. On the third day, he was able to come with us. Unfortunately, his body was so used to being flat on the floor that it kind of freaked out. When we were just about to start a tour in downtown Seattle he passed out on the bathroom floor. We rushed him back to the chiropractor, and luckily everything was ok.

Needless to say, the whole experience has been a huge learning lesson... don't take anything for granted- your loved ones, your health, your life. Everything can be a lot worse (and I know that even this is not the worst that it could get!) but times that are challenging and hard makes you really appreciate what you have in your life. Luckily today I can say that even though Tim is still seeing the chiropractor some and still having a bit of back pain, he is on the road to recovery and doing much, much better.