Easter and Scary Back Problems

Easter Sunday is a highly anticipated Holiday in our household.

I always enjoy that we get dressed up a little more than usual for church that day, because wrestling the little guy into dress clothes ever is next to impossible. Dress clothing is apparently too constricting for someone of his energy level.

The kids always enjoy finding their Easter baskets (such as they were). Jeff really makes them work for it by hiding them somewhere in the house.

Then little man had to watch out for the puppy who kept snagging the colorful items in his basket and running off with them.

Here was Jericho's Easter gift to us

It was hilarious when the puppy went and got her head stuck in a box in the few minutes she was allowed inside for pictures.

Then, we went to church. My favorite part of the day.

Our church choir always puts on a Cantata that tells the Resurrection Story beautifully.

I will never tire of hearing about my Savior's love for me.

Then, there is the big family gathering at my sister-in-laws home afterward.

The kids love the Easter egg hunt and the telling of the Easter story.

It's always great catching up with everyone

and getting to hold the newest baby in the family (though I had to wait in line behind this little babies auntie K...who didn't want to give her up).

In fact, I think she's saying, "I got her first" in this picture.

That's how our Easter Sunday celebrations usually unfold.

And for everyone else...that is exactly what happened that day.

Unfortunately for me, in the wee hours of the morning, I'd returned to my bed after a trip to the restroom and found that my pillow corner of the bed seemed to be tipping oddly towards the floor.

I got down on my hands and knees and saw that the caster had fallen off the metal frame underneath.

Wedged down there between my nightstand and my bed, in my half-awake state, I somehow thought it would be a good idea to heft the bed up (with Jeff on his side, no less) and put the caster back on, lest our floors get gouged.

And I did it...but unknowingly wrenched my back pretty good in the process.

Satisfied all was well, I stood up and felt an odd twinge of pain, but figured it was nothing a heating pad wouldn't take care of, and promptly fell back to sleep.

When the alarm went off to get up and get going a couple of hours later...I found that I couldn't move without tremendous pain. Like "10" on a scale of 1-to-10, 10 being worst kind of pain.

I felt almost paralyzed.

It was a very frightening sensation, a combination of the utter helplessness and the absolute most excruciating pain I'd ever been in in my life...and that includes the back labor I had during my first child's birth and post-emergency c-section pain and recovery with the second one.

The muscles in my core seemed not to be working properly, and my body did not seem to be responding to the signals my brain was sending it to move.

In addition, I was just getting over a cold at that time, and I found that each cough caused pains to shoot up my spine, the muscles spazzing and tightening in a way I'd never experienced before, ever.

One place in my spine felt like it was breaking apart from another with each cough, and the very thought of getting a chiropractic adjustment sounded too painful and scary, as my spine was in almost too much pain to even touch it.

The worst part, however, was that it took a full half hour to get out of bed. Rolling, psyching myself up for the pain that would zing along my spine, moving to sitting position, then standing up while keeping my back rigid, using only my leg muscles to rise...it was awful.

Getting a shower and getting dressed on Easter morning took twice the usual amount of time, too, as I couldn't lift my left foot up more than a couple of inches without agonizing pain, and my back was so stiff that bending was out of the question so pulling on my clothes was tricky.

It felt so surreal. The day before I'd been 100% mobile and able to do anything I needed, and on that morning I woke up feeling almost completely helpless my back weaker than I ever remember it feeling.

But I was determined not to miss Easter, and soldiered on, even though I could not sit straight up. I ended up standing in the nursery the entire morning and viewing the service through the two way glass window in there.

Thankfully, with the assistance of pillows and a reclining seat in the truck, I was able to rest on the long drive to my sister-in-laws afterward.

Incredibly, they had just purchased one of those devices in which you strap in your ankles and then it flips you upside down to relieve back pain.

I tried it, and it was wonderful...for as long as my feet were above my head, but the slightest tilt back up to standing position was utter torture. Whatever I'd done to my back, it was bad.

You may have noticed the grimace on my face in the above picture.

At the doctor late the following afternoon, I was diagnosed with a bulging disc and sciatica and given a couple of prescriptions and sent home to suffer rest.

Walking around was super-painful those first couple of days afterward, so I spent a lot of time lying flat on my back on a heating pad, trying to relax those muscles. Although Judah was a great little helper during the day and Jeff and Jericho were in the afternoons, and though I had plenty of books and movies to keep me occupied, I felt so...trapped. Low. Stuck. Depressed. Not a feeling I wish to revisit. Ever.

After many prayers, very slowly over the next few days my back began to improve. I knew I had to take it easy and not do anything that could aggravate the injury.

I made myself get up and walk. When Jeff could drive me, we went to the mall, to Costco, Lowes...wherever I could walk on level ground.

It helped. My back slowly began to loosen up.

Within a couple of weeks I was feeling much better. Still in pain, but able to walk and get out of a reclining or sitting position much easier.

My prayers were answered!

Which was great, because my college roomies and I had been planning a get-together weekend for months, and I sure didn't want to miss that!

Lessons learned from this experience? Take good care of my back...it's got to last me the rest of my life, after all!

Oh, and never trust my foggy, middle of the night reasoning with regard to casters on my bed.

Sleeping on the sofa for the rest of the night would have been soooo much easier!