Spinal/Biopsy Pain

At 6:30 this morning, I got up for the third time to use the bathroom...  which itself is becoming more and more common as I get older...  but what was a bit unusual this morning is that I ended up in excruciating pain as a crumpled mess on the bathroom floor. 

Getting up out of bed was extremely painful so I knew I was in for a rough morning at least for a short while.  I certainly wasn't expecting what happened though. 

Getting out of bed was so painful this morning that I actually thought about grabbing my cane.  I quickly dismissed that idea, I think, because if I had to wake up enough to remember where I left my cane or to go looking for my cane, I would not be going back to bed after using the bathroom.  Too much thought would wake me enough that falling back asleep would be impossible.  I actually have two canes now but I have no idea where my older cane is located at the moment.  

After carefully and painfully swinging my feet down off the bed and standing, I limped toward the bathroom taking very small steps.  This was a more painful short walk to the bathroom than usual.  Well...  this has definitely happened in the past quite often due to my extensive spinal injuries but it is an intermittent thing and I have not experienced this in the past few months.  I have pain all the time, for the past 25 years, but this pain was more like the months after injuring my spine.

By the time I made it to the bathroom, I knew I should have grabbed one of my canes.  By now, the pain was excruciating.  The pain was around an eight or nine on the ten point pain scale and I really needed to urinate so getting to the toilet was absolutely necessary at this point.  The pain was definitely beginning to affect my ability to hold my pee though!  I bent down, slightly and very carefully, to lift the toilet seat and that was it...  the pain instantly jumped to a solid ten on the pain scale and I ended up crumpled on the floor.  Shifting my center of balance forward is always painful but not this painful!

I knew this crumpled position was only going to make things worse for me so I didn't want to linger on the floor in this position.  Besides, I really needed to relieve myself before I made a mess so I needed to get up off the floor so I could do what I came to the bathroom for in the first place.  At the moment, I was tightly grasping the toilet seat but I couldn't pull myself up from this position.  The excruciating pain wasn't helping any either.

Moving in any direction made the pain worse but now the pain was making it extremely difficult to keep my pee from making a mess everywhere.  I took a deep breath and grabbed ahold of the small ridge of wainscoting top rail.  This top rail is only about 3/4" square so it is just a fingerhold but it was enough of a ridge to power through pulling myself up to my feet again after years of rock climbing.  The pain felt like my right pelvis was on fire while a red hot spike was pounded into the area where I had my last bone marrow biopsy.  I was seeing stars!

After relieving myself, fortunately in the toilet, I just stood there without moving trying to decide my next move.  I stood there, completely still, for a short while breathing deeply trying to keep my spine in a neutral position and in the hope to lessen the pain.  I didn't even want to slightly bend to flush the toilet or to put the seat down on the toilet.  I just stood there breathing deeply.  

After a few minutes, I decided to leave the toilet as is and slowly made my way back to the bedroom to find one of my canes.  

After about a half hour or so, I was able to think more clearly and I started wondering what may have caused this pain.  I often experience horrendous pain due to my extensive spinal injuries.  Just sleeping in a bad position can cause unbearable spinal pain and I was uncomfortable in bed last night.  Actually, the previous two times I got up to use the bathroom in the middle of this night had been painful but not this painful.

I was mildly active in the yard doing landscaping for a couple of hours on Friday and a very short while on Saturday morning.  This caused some typical spinal pain that has lingered since then but this pain this morning was definitely centered right on the site of my last bone marrow biopsy.  This particular pain has come and gone since the biopsy but it was never this bad...

Well...  I keep forgetting about one particular incident a week or so after my last bone marrow biopsy when the pain was indeed this bad for a little while after that incident.  

About a week or so after my biopsy, we had a couple of feet of snow.  I had to go out to remove the snow from the roof and run the snow blower around the house and driveway.  At the time, I felt my biopsy site was healing very nicely and I felt well enough to tackle this snow removal.  

After cutting a path to our oil tank so we could get oil again, I was pulling the snow blower backward while backing out of where our oil tank is located on the back side of the house.  I had both hands on the snowblower so I was not looking behind me as I was stepping backward.  Unfortunately, there was a big chunk of snow that fell off the roof behind me where I was attempting to turn the snowblower around.  I tripped over this chunk of snow and landed square on the site of my recent bone marrow biopsy.  I was seeing stars and the pain was a solid ten!  

As I laid there in the snow, I was wondering how I was going to get up.  The snowblower was still running and making a lot of noise so if I was going to call out for help I would need to drown out the snowblower.  Sheila was on the opposite side of the house cleaning up the driveway.  

As I laid there looking skyward...  trying to breath deeply and waiting for the pain to subside enough to move...  I was trying to figure out my next move.  My initial attempts to get up were not at all successful.  I felt like a turtle on his back.  Actually, I felt like I was 90 years old!  I fell and I couldn't get up...  and, I was in significant pain.  

It was cold out...  I was lying in the snow...  and I was immobilized.  The pain was partially immobilizing me and the position I landed wasn't helping at all.  My hips were raised because my pelvis was resting on this big chunk of snow which was now a small rounded hill of snow.  On each side of me was two foot high snow.  My pelvis felt like it was wet and on fire at the same time. 

Within a few minutes, fortunately, Sheila came looking for me,  Even over the sound of the snowblower engine, I could hear her snow pants swishing with each step as she rain toward me.  Once I conveyed that I just needed help getting up, she helped me to my feet.  

I think this fall did something to the site of my bone marrow biopsy.  Up until that incident, I seemed to be recovering just fine from my biopsy.  Now I was experiencing as much pain as during my biopsy!  

Over the subsequent months, this pain has come and gone depending on what activity I do.  I don't know what happened in that fall but the pain, when it flares up, is intense and excruciating.  Today I am experiencing one of those flare-ups worse than I have felt to date.

This pain originates at the site of my biopsy and is radiating through my groin and mostly toward my right hip since the biopsy was in my right pelvis.  My left hip might have a little pain but it is overshadowed by what I feel radiating toward my right hip and down into my right thigh.  

Today will be a day of ice packs, Aleve and the couch.  Oh...  and my cane will not leave my side for the foreseeable future.