About six months ago I was just getting into the groove of running. I was slowing building up my endurance and increasing my speed. I went out early one morning and decided to do a 3 mile run around my neighborhood. It was going to be relatively easy terrain mostly on the sidewalks with a gradual hill in between. I took the uphill area slow and made it up without walking.
Coming back around I was feeling really good about my pace and decided to pick up the speed. I did this as I was coming to the downhill part of the street. I starting going really fast down the hill and felt the sting of the pounding sidewalk under my feet. After about 40 feet I started to feel a shooting pain in my back.
I slowed down to almost a crawl. I knew I had screwed up my back somehow. I was about ¼ mile away from my house, and had to walk slowly home because with every step it was like someone was stabbing me in my lower back with a samurai sword.
The next week was very painful, I tried IcyHot, ice packs, heat packs, and nothing seemed to work. Being the stubborn person that I am, I just told myself to suck it up and deal with it.
After a couple weeks the pain became manageable. I continued training and doing obstacle races. After my second Tough Mudder and four months later, I decided it was time to go get it checked out by a doctor. I was told I probably strained or torn a ligament in my back. I was sent to physical therapy and given a handful of prescriptions. After lengthy physical therapy sessions, it wasn’t getting better. It was very frustrating not knowing exactly what was causing the pain and not knowing why nothing was helping.
Just by chance two weeks ago I met a chiropractor, and told him about my pain. He said he would like me to come to his office to see if he could get to the bottom of my problem. I had never seen a chiropractor before, so I was a little hesitant. But I agreed to go.
After a detailed evaluation and x-rays he told me that I had a compressed vertebrae that was pressing on the nerves in my spine, which was causing the pain. The official diagnosis was compressed nerves in the lumbar vertebrae. He showed me right on the x-ray where the vertebrae were compressed and it was exactly where the pain was resonating from.
So now I have agreed to go for treatments twice a week in his office. And I was given stretches and exercises to do at home. So although I feel like I still have a long way to go, I am glad to finally have an answer as to what was causing all my pain.
I suppose the moral of my story is don’t be stubborn like me and wait so long if you are in pain. And don’t be afraid to try alternative medicine.
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