Silly back injury! UHGGGG

rach_nc_03 · Jun 20, 2005

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.)

lol....a nurse I used to work with has the same back issues (and the same extra vertebral parts) I do...you could tell it was bad weather because she and I were both walking around with ice packs down the backs of our pants! I have to wonder how many people wondered why my a** got a lot bigger now and then....

incidentally, I wore an ab binder for a while after complications from a recent abdominal surgery...I was delighted to find that my back felt better when I wore it! Now I keep one in the car, just in case.

driftwood52 · Aug 7, 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![/QUOT
I'm not sure why you called your back injury "silly", it is real! Recently I was caring for a very large patient coming out from anesthesia and he was kicking, flailing his arms around, trying to get up out of bed. There were only two of us RN's in the recovery room at the time (we are both small statue). We called for an OR tech to help us, gave morphine, nothing would stop his combativeness........he would not keep his oxygen on etc. I leaned over to replace his 02 mask and he swung at me hitting me on the left side of my face and head. No visible injury. I did write an incident report (just in case). Well three days later, my lower back started hurting, I took Celebrex, motrin, tylenol for three days, the back pain only became worse......a dull ache and tightness over the large muscle running along the spine. I could not get comfortable even in bed. I went to the doctor a week after the incident. Unlike you, I never heard a pop or other sensation at the time of caring for this patient, but my back told me I had to get some help! The doctor palpated the muscles in my back and told me I had pulled the large muscle that attached to the sacro-iliac area. Prescribed Flexeril and Skelaxin and three days off work. Today is the fourth day and I'm going to go back to work. I just hope this does not become a chronic problem, because, I agree I fear for loss of my job and workman's comp is a nightmare that I have only heard about. This long rambling didn't solve your problem, but just wanted you to know you are not alone! :icon_roll

leopold · Aug 7, 2005

I was working in a restaurant, went running into the kitchen and landed ass down and legs up on the greasy floor. It was a hard fall. Didn't have any problems for about six months, then developed pain in my lumbar region. Drs. gave me pain pills and said I hurt my back. Soon after I developed foot drop which I din't do anything about cause my drs had said my back injury was no big deal. Ended up with a completely paralyzed leg at which point I became hysterical, went to a different doc who told me I had a herniated disc and sent me to a neurosurgeon. Neuros recommended aggressive physical therapy. It worked! I am now the world's biggest believer in PT.

Since then, in my CNA job I got disability insurance because I knew if I hurt my back again (which I did 10 years later) I absolutely did not want to go through workman's comp. I had a co-worker who injured himself on the job, went through workman's comp and the next thing you know a rumor had started that this totally respectable and good nurse had been found in a pt. bed. :angryfire Managed to finesse my insurance company into tinking it was not work related (which actully I think is true since I abuse my body much worse in everyday life than I do at work -- I am usually very careful about my back at work). Went to PT, got the problem fixed.

Jolie, BSN · Aug 7, 2005

20 years ago while in nursing school, I hurt my back reaching for a single piece of paper. I was sitting upright in bed with my legs stretched out in front of me, and bent forward to reach a paper that was at the foot of my bed. I felt an agonizing pain shoot down my leg, and my foot went numb. Ended up with bulging discs, and a newfound interest in the NICU. No heavy lifting there!

TracyB,RN, RN · Aug 8, 2005

No back injury is silly.

I was rear-ended in May 2004. Never had a day of back pain, until that day.

Flexeril, Motrin seemed to help, but the pain never went away. A few months later, numbness in foot, progressed through entire leg. Burning spasms in back, both legs. Had to hang on to stuff to walk, hurt to sit, stand, & lay down. I was miserable. FINALLY was diagnosed with a large herniation, with cord compression at L4-5. More meds, PT, steroid injections. After surgery, I immediately had a return of feeling in my foot & leg. More PT, & finally am going back to work, more than a year after the accident. I am a bit worried about how things will go.

Good luck.