My Poor Back

I don't talk about my back much. At least I don't on this site. My family hears about it (and sees it) pretty much on a daily basis. The truth of the matter is I live with chronic back pain. I don't take many drugs to help me out with this as I prefer to stay clear headed. Instead, I meet the pain head on and do stretches, yoga exercises and when really bad, I go to my chiropractor.

There are two women who run the chiropractic office I go to. Both are good and have different ways of getting the job done. It's Dr. Maria I dread seeing when I drop in unscheduled, but she will stretch the living daylights out of me. This deep stretching business, beyond what I can do by myself, is what helps the most. Deep heat and electrical stimulation are beneficial as well.


This past weekend, my patient workload was 557 pounds (divide by 2.) One was on a continually rotating bed which was a Godsend, the other required frequent manual turns. Patients like these are the reason I can't do my job anymore. I am 100% convinced that this backbreaking workload and chronic pain have worn my psyche to the core. In one article I read in the American Journal of Critical Care, according to OSHA recommendations, I shouldn't be lifting so much by myself. In fact, 46 pounds should be my limit. OSHA also says the following to try to prevent back injury:

"A reduction in the size or weight of the object lifted. The parameters include maximum allowable weights for a given set of task requirements; the compactness of a package; the presence of handles, and the stability of the package being handled."

I've never had a patient come complete with handles (we aren't talking love handles here) or conveniently weighing only 46 pounds. I don't work in peds but I don't think they come with handles either. Although other areas of the hospital have lifts, our ICU does not. The lifts in our unit are human. My, but isn't this patient pictured here cooperative? Not reality.

Yesterday wasn't a bad day for my back but today, I could hardly roll out of bed. I couldn't do it without stretching first and then I had to apply my tens unit (I obviously need to see Dr. Maria today.) This seems to be how it goes for me. After a couple of days of work, on my second day off, I will be brought low by excruciating pain. I measure the injury by where I feel the pain. If it's centrally located in the middle of my lumbar back, I've overdone it a wee bit. If I feel aching deep in my left gluteus most maximus, I'm heading toward trouble. If I feel it behind my left knee, I've been an idiot.

Nothing, nothing was like the initial few weeks of this insult 3 years ago. I felt pain in my toes. It was weeks before I had the MRI that diagnosed my problem: herniation of L4 to L5 and L5 to S1 and piriformis syndrome. This explained why I had a throbbing toothache-like pain in my toes. It was weeks before I could sit on a soft surface. I would work a full shift and never sit down (since I was training a new nurse, all I did was teach and supervise; she did the backbreaking work.) When at home, I sat on the hardwood floor or had family drag a kitchen chair in front of the television for me. It was a celebratory day when I could finally place my ass on a balance ball and sit there. It was even better when I could once again do a back-bend over said ball.

Nowadays, I try very hard to listen to my back when it starts squawking at me. It's a bit hard to listen when I'm at work and responsible for lifting, turning and repositioning objects that weigh more than 46 pounds and have no handles. Five more shifts and this will end.