Silly back injury! UHGGGG

SmilingBluEyes · Jun 19, 2005

I hurt my back pushing my son out into the world. Yep, you go that right. Tore all the muscles in my right shoulder up, pullingmy legs up, curling, and pushing him out for 3 hours. I had to have physical therapy for a year after that. (and I was NOT in bad shape, a regular visitor to the gym, actually).

To this day, the area pains me during times of stress or when I work it hard. Somedays, I can't even do something mundane like fold laundry. I have to have massages and a lot of motrin to get by at times.

Silly? It may sound that way, but no back injury is insignificant, that much I KNOW! Please, please take care of yourself.

Antikigirl, ASN, RN · Jun 19, 2005

Oh honey, I hear ya! Yeah, doing the ice/heat thing...looked up some OT massage techniques to help (and wow..they do! LOL!), and routine pain meds with muscle relaxants for the first few days as not to injure myself further.

My FIL just told me about a case where his friend was sitting in a recliner, went to pull the release to stand and pop! Couldn't move...the paramedics had to lift him in that position and try to keep it for the 15min drive to the ER...OUCH! He seiriously COULD NOT move without serious pain or contractures from the spasms!

Bet he felt as silly as I do now....but these things can happen!

NurseNora, BSN, RN · Jun 19, 2005

Every year I spend 8 weekends working at our local Renaissance Faire. I get to dress up, talk funny, and insult people to their faces and have them laugh. It's great fun and I love it. The dressing up part can be a little difficult though. I'm tightly laced into a heavily boned bodice (modern woman can never know the exquisite pleasure of unlacing at the end of a long day) with no "give" to it.

One day, while tightly laced, I was using the porta potty and twisted around to wipe my butt. You know the rest: the pop, the pain, the incapacity. When people asked how it happened, I told them it was one of those tragic bodice injuries at the Ren Faire, and look mysterious. That just sounds more respectable than "privy injury", don't you think? It took almost a year for it to get better.

Antikigirl, ASN, RN · Jun 19, 2005

Oh my...can you imagine what pain those people endured for the sake of their clothing! I look at a bodice and shreek!

I wish I could get into those faires! I don't have the time with my job, and money to buy a fun outfit...nope (and my sewing..yeah right! LOL!). Fun stuff...if you don't get hurt by your natural needs and lacings!

Aneroo, LPN · Jun 19, 2005

Working for a medical transport company as an EMT, was helping to move a client from the stretcher to the dialysis chair, and twisted my back funky. I went to a football game that afternoon to work EMS, back was kinda achey. Woke up the next morning, couldn't get out of bed. Almost called EMS, finally got up, somehow managed to get dressed, and went to urgent care. Managed to get a script for Flexeril and a note for work. I was much more careful with my body mechanics after that! -andrea

hollyster · Jun 19, 2005

So I was at work yesterday and I have a cart that I take while doing my insulin/CBG runs. Now the thing has been lifted up so we can push it with an upright back...but sadly the bottom shelf is only about 6-8 inches from the ground and the only place we can store the glucometers per patient, the gloves, the needles, and the little trash container.
Well...I was in my nursing office and drawing up a patients insulin. I turned my body to the cart (so I was facing the cart) to throw my gloves away and sign my MAR (which was on the cart) and BOOM! A HUGE pop felt in my lowest lumbar! It was only a slight bend if anything! UHGGGGG!
I stood there deer in the headlights wondering "WHAT!" then I attempted to move...oh brother, searing pain on both hips down my legs! OH goodie! I popped my back!
I haven't had any back probelms before, lucky for me for sure, but this OUCH! I tried to walk, no go...was too painful on my right hip area especially. NO numbness thank goodness but took my breath away with each step!
Okay yep...all that workers comp stuff...went to ED, and after 4 long hours the MD concluded that I must have pulled my psoas major (that muscle goes from lumbar 5-12 and over the hip trochanter to the inner thigh to balance the spine and helps with flexion of the Lumbar), and with exersize and OTC pain meds and a bit of ice/heat therapy I would be okay in a week or so. I have an occupational health visit weds...
Gotta love all this hype on workers comp don't ya!? The MD said this would perhaps be too hard to prove I did it since I was one, alone when it happened, and two...can't confirm for 100% sure it was a work related injury! UHGGGG all the repetitive bending I do in a day..and at happened at work doing what I normally do up to 50-80 times a shift??? YEAH RIGHT! (but I know he is right, workers comp is a nightmare!!!!).
Oh well...so lots of pain, work release for the weekend, OT, and light duty. Great...all the RN's I have seen get a injury wind up being fired in a week or so! But lucky for me this injury is fixable and short lived (I hope!!!!!!).
Anyone else hurt their back doing something rather mundaine or routine???? Please do tell! There is a part of me thinking that I should get an injury like this doing something more worth the pain than throwing away gloves on a cart..LOL!

I would go talk to an attorney right away. The md had NO BUSINESS to talk to you like that. If people can get carpal tunnel from repetive movements why couldn't you injury your back that way. Be careful with your back. I have been housebound for the last six months due to an on the job injury that was first diagnosed as a muscle strain. I lived with it for a while and the pain continued to increase. I did PT, phsyiatry and NSAIDS. The pain never left.

Four caudals and three epidurals later the lumbar strain turned out to be two herniated disk, one torn disk, and a cracked verterbra and my lower spine is completey adhesed due to all the inflamation. I have lost the reflexes and feeling in my left leg. The hospital being the caring souls that they are fired me, after being there for six years and numerous comendations, the day I found out that I had to have surgery. The head of HR told me "We will pay your medical but we fired you so we will not pay for you to take a six week vaction." I hired a workman's comp attorney and he was able to get my back pay plus interest and penilaties. I learned the hard way that you cannot count on your employer to treat you with any respect or caring. When it comes down to it all they care about are profit margins.

Audreyfay · Jun 20, 2005

I hurt my back one night, helping a little 100 lb. lady back to bed from the commode. She lost her balance a little, and I bent quickly to the (L) to help her catch her balance. I didn't really feel anything at the time because I was only thinking of her. When I went back to sit down and chart, I could feel a stiffness in my lumbar region. I got home in the morning and went to sleep at 0800, taking my usual benadryl, tylenol, and thought I pulled a muscle. Without thinking, I went to sleep with a heating pad to help relax the muscle. I woke up at 2200 that evening, to my alarm telling me it was time to get ready for work again. I slept the entire day, without waking up once! Never did that before or again. When I tried to get up, I had excruciating back pain. I had to get up, take a shower and get ready for work. I knew it was too late to call in sick and tried to "tuff it out." By the time I got to the shower, my back hurt so bad that all I could do was bawl like a baby.

I ended up filling in an incident report, seeing a chiro, seeing the employee health nurse, etc. etc. The hospital treated me very nicely. I was out of work for 1 week and went back to light duty (worked initially as a unit clerk), for just a few hours, and then increased the amount and intensity slowly. I remember being so scared that I thought I would never walk normally again. I pray it will never happen again, but I know I have a bulging disc and pamper it continually.

All I remember is going to the chiro every day for a week, in -60 F temps. (Minneapolis in the coldest winter ever!) It was the worse time in my life, physically. Couldn't even wipe my own tush! Thanks to hubby, I survived. Hope and pray it never happens again. Never take the back for granted. We only get one.

grannynurse FNP student · Jun 20, 2005

One may not hurt their back seriously, the first, second or third time. It is the cumulative effect of back injuries that general results in disability. I first hurt my lower back in the middle 70s. The next time, it was in the late 70s. I finally herniated L4-5 in 1988. I required surgery. Word of advice, take care of your back.

Grannynurse :balloons:

rach_nc_03 · Jun 20, 2005

at the gym, doing yoga. ended up on st disbility for 8 weeks, even though i was a telecommuter- couldn't get out of bed for 7 weeks.

NurseyBaby'05, BSN, RN · Jun 20, 2005

Was watching my niece who was about 4 or 5 months old at the time and a tiny little thing. I bent down to pick up a rattle off the floor and couldn't straighten back up. Told her five year old sister to get her dad so he could take the baby dangling from my arm and tipped backward into a chair. Fortunately, my bf (the girl's mom) had a script for Flexerill. It was a godsend. :rolleyes:

CashewLPN, LPN · Jun 20, 2005

Hi...

about 4 years ago, while attempting to boost a patient that maybe weighed 110 lbs soaking wet with a person who forgot that we pull on 3.... I tore my trapezeus. I was on light duty for about 8 weeks... which was when I begged my physiatrist to put me back on full duty... the wonderfully intelligent manager I had (forgive the puddles of sarcasm that you're now all wading through) decided to make me do chart reviews... problem is that I couldnt lift the charts very easily... it actually hurt more to do that than to push around the med carts. Turns out now, it just gets sore sometimes.... a joy in the rain... I'm a human barometer... but, it is still absolutely horrible.

Fast forward to about 6 months ago... a resident of mine climbed the side rails, fell out of bed onto the floor, scurried under the bed, and grabbed the bed springs with his hands and feet and refused to come out...

needless to say, this was in the tightest room, and this was a rather large now naked guy. (he removed his gown, and shredded his diaper into pp popcorn. yuk)

it took 4 of us to pry him out from under the bed.... then, in an attempt to get him up from the floor to the bed (area was too small to safely maneuver a hoyer lift.... I felt a 'pop, snap, crackle' as my back went. Almost immediately, my legs went tingly and numb,like they had fallen asleep, and I had stabing fire pains down both of them.... like... i dipped them in sterno, the wrapped them in plaster casts, then lit the sterno....

it was horrible... I went to the ER that night (my supervisor drove me... I have to say, for the two of us who really didnt see eye to eye on nursing, we actually got along... goddess only knows why) and, I stood in front of the triage door, crying my eyes out (which I dont do. I got the pain tolerance of a bull.... ) until the patient rep said 'hon, why dont you have a seat' to which I replied, if I sit down, I'm not going to be able to get back up... (I was just shy of hysterical, and propping myself up using that handrail on the wall... I was so afraid to walk not holding onto anything)

I got triaged in next, and was so scared of falling, i had that nice triage nurse (actually one of my mom's best friends) lead me in, and interview me... I so didnt want to fall on her shift...

Worst part was, about an hour and a half into this ordeal, the bed jumping resident did it again, and was brought in to sew up a head lac. joy. I grumbled.

I got some Toradol, Flexaril and a few hours sleep... About 4 hours later, I was steady enough on my feet to start heading home... I took the bus ride to my house (2 busses, thankfully they transfer really close to eachoher) as I left my car at my job... I was too stoned from the flexaril to drive anyway. They say, its sciatica... which sucks... the numbness in the legs is now intermittant, thankfully the numbness is rare-ish... (maybe 1 or 2 times a month, usually when I first get up in the am...) the straight pain to my lower back, and down the back of both legs is pretty continual... it gets better and worse... some days, I cant even stand up on my own, but you do what you will... I am not beneath hiding ice or hot packs in my pants to soothe the back. (high waisted pants with an abd binder or stockings will hold the packs to your body. it works, if you can stand strange lumps.)

what sucks the worst, even though i can deal with it... I'm only 23, I'll be 24 in 8 days. I do have to say, my depression started after my back injury, and, I feel like I'll never lose weight because I cant do impact exercize.. I swim alot... I eat decently (I have gallbladder sludge... no fried food for me, without an ugly bout of biliary colic) Turns out too, I've been turning out kidney stones occasionally too.... I've got nurses bladder (occasional niggling UTI's... but perfect blood glucoses)

I think I'm much too young to feel this damned old.

Thanks for the vent.

--Cashew