Newish RN with new back injury - help!

[CranberryMuffin]

I'm a relatively 'new' RN (~2 years experience) with a back injury (herniated disc) I acquired from an on the job injury. I'm being treated for it through work and have no complaints about that - I have gotten great care, albeit extremely slow.

But I'm terrified to go back to work as the time approaches. I'm worried about re-injuring myself or injuring myself worse and being completely unable to work or needing surgery or worse. My doctor told me I should really consider thinking about my career path and get out of nursing.

I'm looking for alternate things I can do with my nursing degree (all my experience is in critical care; I also have a generalist MSN that I did as it was the quickest way to become an RN) - things that are alternatives to bedside nursing that are not so hard on the body.

I know that 2 years isn't that much experience in the whole grand scheme of things, but I figure it might help to get my foot in the door somewhere.

Any suggestions/leads/ideas? thanks

[MBrickle]

I herniated my L5 (badly!!!) and am in pedi home health. I really would love to be a CRNA one day, but am also entertaining the idea of being an FNP as I'm not sure there is a way for me to gain NICU experience around here (Northeast) without going through med/surg or other adult specialties...and honestly, that really isn't an option for me. I am one year out from my injury...I go to the gym 5x/week, I lift weights, etc. but I still "know" I have an injury. I was in such a tremendous amount of pain for such a long time and my mobility, quality of life and happiness was crap. It truly saddens me to know that I may never achieve my dream, and may never be happy in nursing without the acute and technical nature of it I am looking for, but at the end of the day, this is my life, and my quality of life is paramount. Especially because I am only 29 and have not yet had children. I DO NOT want a life of one spinal fusion after another.

Look into alternatives, they are limitless in nursing, or head to PA/NP school. For me, the gamble isn't worth it. It's a road I don't want to go down again. No matter what.

[paradiseboundRN]

Unfortunately I have a similar story. I went back to work (med-surg) after having a discectomy for a huge L4-L5 herniation. I had horrible pain in my left leg. I lasted 6 months before it happened again and this time the pain was in the right leg. I swear I did no lifting. The doctor said that the whole area was just unstable and being on my feet for 12 hours and bending, etc did it. So I had another discectomy. This one lasted a year and then it happened again. This time it was pain in the middle of my buttocks. I ended up having a fusion of L4-L5. Stupid me, went back to work. After a couple of months I started to have leg pain again. They did an MRI but no herniation. I was sent to pain management. The pain doctor looked at me and said "You need to find a different kind of nursing". I left Med-Surg and went into home health. That was 11 years ago. I ended up loving home care.