Spinal Injuries
Over two decades ago, I suffered two separate line-of-duty spinal injuries during my career in the Air Force and Department of Defense. These injuries have affected my life drastically and continue to affect my life every single day.
These two line-of-duty injuries have left me with two herniated disks, four bulging disks, six compressed disks (I've lost two inches of height at this point), two areas of spinal stenosing, a broken up disk/vertebra in my neck and osteophytosis. These injuries have also left me in a lot of pain each and every moment of every day. Pain management techniques are a mandatory part of my everyday life now.
These injuries are so extensive that I have not been a viable candidate for surgery nor do I want to take that risk. I do not take narcotics/pain killers and I am an adamant advocate for non-surgical and non-narcotic treatment of chronic injuries such as what I live with each and every moment of every day.
Every day involves pain management techniques, proper diet and physical therapy. All chronic illness must be managed closely as it ebbs and flows and these spinal injuries are no different. There is a fine line in what my spinal injuries can handle and what they cannot handle and that is part of the ebb and flow of these injuries. Some days are better than others. Some days it is incredibly difficult to walk across a room. I must say that even after more than two decades, I still struggle to find this fine line... and, admittedly, I inadvertently cross it far too often!
After my first line-of-duty injury, I continued working in my usual duties for almost a month before reporting the injury. I was constantly 'graying out' because of the pain as I continued my duties. My spine was not improving so I had to report it so I could get the time to recover. Well, of course, I wanted to find some relief from the unbelievable pain too!
I went through a few months of rehabilitation while the Air Force pushed me into a light duty position. The level of debilitation is difficult to describe when it comes to spinal injuries. People complain of having a 'bad back' so often that most people just think it is a lame excuse for laziness. Let me tell a story of where my level of debilitation was after just my first injury...
It was Christmas, almost two months after my injury, and I was home attempting to put up our Christmas tree while my wife was at work. As with everything else I attempted to do during this period, this turned out to be extremely painful.
These two line-of-duty injuries have left me with two herniated disks, four bulging disks, six compressed disks (I've lost two inches of height at this point), two areas of spinal stenosing, a broken up disk/vertebra in my neck and osteophytosis. These injuries have also left me in a lot of pain each and every moment of every day. Pain management techniques are a mandatory part of my everyday life now.
These injuries are so extensive that I have not been a viable candidate for surgery nor do I want to take that risk. I do not take narcotics/pain killers and I am an adamant advocate for non-surgical and non-narcotic treatment of chronic injuries such as what I live with each and every moment of every day.
Every day involves pain management techniques, proper diet and physical therapy. All chronic illness must be managed closely as it ebbs and flows and these spinal injuries are no different. There is a fine line in what my spinal injuries can handle and what they cannot handle and that is part of the ebb and flow of these injuries. Some days are better than others. Some days it is incredibly difficult to walk across a room. I must say that even after more than two decades, I still struggle to find this fine line... and, admittedly, I inadvertently cross it far too often!
After my first line-of-duty injury, I continued working in my usual duties for almost a month before reporting the injury. I was constantly 'graying out' because of the pain as I continued my duties. My spine was not improving so I had to report it so I could get the time to recover. Well, of course, I wanted to find some relief from the unbelievable pain too!
I went through a few months of rehabilitation while the Air Force pushed me into a light duty position. The level of debilitation is difficult to describe when it comes to spinal injuries. People complain of having a 'bad back' so often that most people just think it is a lame excuse for laziness. Let me tell a story of where my level of debilitation was after just my first injury...
It was Christmas, almost two months after my injury, and I was home attempting to put up our Christmas tree while my wife was at work. As with everything else I attempted to do during this period, this turned out to be extremely painful.
Standing at this tree with my hands out in front of me was excruciating. My lower back was on fire and sharp shooting pain was running down both legs and into my feet. My feet felt like someone had stabbed each foot with an ice pick. It was really brutal but I was experiencing this everyday, all day, anyway so this was "just another day".
The pain got so bad that I decided to lie on the floor at the base of the tree and try to hang decorations on the tree while I laid on the floor. I placed a flat box of decorative glass balls on the floor next to my head and started hanging decorations at the bottom of the tree as I laid on my back hoping for some relief to the intense spinal pain.
Unfortunately, this would prove to be a bad position to be in with my particular spinal injuries. Within a short time, my legs went numb and I could no longer move my legs at all. Although my legs were numb, my lower spine was feeling as though someone drove a railroad spike through my spine. I couldn't move... I don't mean that the pain was so bad that I didn't want to move and make it worse... I mean I could not move. The pain was indeed excruciating but no matter how hard I tried, I could not move my legs.
So, here I was lying under our partially decorated Christmas tree, lying on my back, unable to move. The pain was unbearable but I was having fits of laughter because of the ridiculousness of the situation. My head was under a Christmas tree and my legs were sticking out into the living room. I felt like the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz trapped under the house. I just found this to be a rather funny predicament to be in even though it was extremely painful.
A few hours passed before my wife arrived home from work. I was still stuck lying under the Christmas tree unable to move, it was now dark outside while the house was only illuminated by the Christmas lights on the tree. When you walk in the door to the house, you'd see the Christmas tree with my legs sticking out from underneath.
The pain got so bad that I decided to lie on the floor at the base of the tree and try to hang decorations on the tree while I laid on the floor. I placed a flat box of decorative glass balls on the floor next to my head and started hanging decorations at the bottom of the tree as I laid on my back hoping for some relief to the intense spinal pain.
Unfortunately, this would prove to be a bad position to be in with my particular spinal injuries. Within a short time, my legs went numb and I could no longer move my legs at all. Although my legs were numb, my lower spine was feeling as though someone drove a railroad spike through my spine. I couldn't move... I don't mean that the pain was so bad that I didn't want to move and make it worse... I mean I could not move. The pain was indeed excruciating but no matter how hard I tried, I could not move my legs.
So, here I was lying under our partially decorated Christmas tree, lying on my back, unable to move. The pain was unbearable but I was having fits of laughter because of the ridiculousness of the situation. My head was under a Christmas tree and my legs were sticking out into the living room. I felt like the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz trapped under the house. I just found this to be a rather funny predicament to be in even though it was extremely painful.
A few hours passed before my wife arrived home from work. I was still stuck lying under the Christmas tree unable to move, it was now dark outside while the house was only illuminated by the Christmas lights on the tree. When you walk in the door to the house, you'd see the Christmas tree with my legs sticking out from underneath.
My wife came into the darkened house and asked what I was doing. For a few seconds, she thought I was just kidding as I laid there, again laughing through the pain and ridiculousness of the whole situation. Once she realized I wasn't kidding, she helped roll me onto my stomach, applied some ice packs to my spine to lessen some of the inflammation, then helped me out from under the tree, then to a chair, then to the couch before I applied more ice and took some more anti-inflammatory medications. Each step of the way required about 15-20 minutes and breathing through intense pain before moving on to the next step. I eventually made it to the couch though.
Trying to do any little thing was difficult.
Five months later, after months of physical therapy, rest and recuperation, I felt I was ready to go back to full worldwide duty. I jumped through all the hoops required of the Air Force but I immediately re-injured my spine in the line-of-duty yet again. This time, however, the injuries I sustained to my spine were far worse than the original injury and required far more extensive and intensive rehabilitation and physical therapy.
Trying to do any little thing was difficult.
Five months later, after months of physical therapy, rest and recuperation, I felt I was ready to go back to full worldwide duty. I jumped through all the hoops required of the Air Force but I immediately re-injured my spine in the line-of-duty yet again. This time, however, the injuries I sustained to my spine were far worse than the original injury and required far more extensive and intensive rehabilitation and physical therapy.
It is now two decades later and I am still struggling every single day with enough spinal pain to buckle my knees.
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