Live long back pain

by Elke Schmitt
(Maricopa,, AZ USA)

Hi, my name is Elke and I have a story to tell.

Since the age of 16 I have had back pain. As I got older my back pain got worse. I remember when my 4 kids were still small my back pain was so bad I couldn't carry a bucket of water, or bend over to reach for a stack of magazines. I had x-rays done, but nothing was found.



I have to say both of my parents had back problems, they wound up wearing some kind of corset, it looked like a weight lifting belt. One time when my youngest son (now 13) was about 1 year old, I bent down to put some clothes into his chest of drawers, when suddenly I wasn't able to get back up. I had to fall over on to my side and roll on to my back. Luckily my husband was home that day and he had to bring me a chair so I could put my legs on, because I couldn't lower my legs to the floor.

I laid there for about 2 hours, until my house doctor arrived (I am from Germany and back then doctors still made house calls ).

He then gave me an injection and some pain pills and said I should come and see him in the morning, if I was able to get up. After taking the medication I started to feel real dizzy and really like I was in a daze, like when I had my oldest son in England and they gave me some kind of gas for the pain.

Well the next morning I did manage to get up and drive to town (1.5miles)but as I sat in the waiting room I got sick to my stomach and had to vomit. When I saw my doctor I told him about it and he apologized, he had given me the wrong injection, normally he would inject something that is made from ants some kind of acid, when you inject it, it starts to tingle like some low form of electricity. And the pain pills on top of that, well that did it for me. So I gave him the rest of the pills and told him I wasn't going to take them, I would rather deal with the pain.

The next incident was some time later and that incident took me to an orthopedic doctor, he gave me injection in my lower back. The needle was about 5 inches long and scared me half to death when I saw it.

I had 6 of them within a week, by this time my back ached 24/7. I don't know how I fell asleep. But I was in pain when I fell asleep and I was in pain when I woke up.

Then my adventure took me to a Naturopath, recommended by someone I knew. She did acupuncture and it worked wonders. There was a time when I walked into her office bent over my hands almost touching the ground and by the time she had 2 or 3 needles in my ear I could stand up straight, mind you I still had some pain but I was able to stand up straight. Today I still get some episodes and now I have some energy work done in conjunction with some acupuncture. I also did yoga for many years.

Most of the time these incidents occur when I am angry or really tense. I suppose pain can be a great teacher too once you become conscious of what the cause is. It took me many years and a lot,a lot, a lot of pain. Just today I noticed my lower back going into knots. I am watching my 2 year old granddaughter for a while and she wasn't
listening and I got angry. So I had to change my attitude towards the situation so I wouldn't get into a situation again. But it is not always easy, we are so unaware of our own feelings and emotions.

Good luck on your journey to health.

Elke

P.S. I am now 46 years old hopefully it won't take you this long.