Day One - Success or Failure

Monday was day one of therapy. I just can't tell you right now if it was a success or a failure.

My therapist, Kara, was very nice. We had a long talk about how I was injured, how my life is affected (the fact that I cannot play Wii at the moment was prominently mentioned and is now in my care plan as a goal!) and what my goals are for therapy.

All of this in mind, we were going to start the evaluation. I was started on a recumbent bike to get me loosened up a bit before the testing. The recumbent bike is just a bike with a seat with a back on it instead of just a little triangle to sit on to peddle the bike and you are in a bit of a reclined position instead of sitting up straight. Ok, it made me cry. But, not because of the motion but because of the pressure on my back. I am still sore to the touch. But, as I told Kara, I am committed to making this better and not suffering with back pain for 10 years like I did before. I will NOT go through that again.

I think she knew I was in distress on the bike so she stopped me after only a couple of minutes. From the bike, we went to the table to test range of motion. Laying on my back, she moved my legs to test range of motion. I was to tell her to stop when I was feeling pain. To be honest, I was surprised myself at what I thought was a good range of motion. My legs were feeling the pain of the stretch way before my back was feeling any distress.

From the range of motion, we talked about treatment. I was going to spend the rest of the appointment on what Kara called "something similar to a TENS unit". Well, I've been on a TENS unit previously (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) and this felt exactly like a TENS. And, the TENS never worked for me before but hey, this was a new problem so perhaps this would work now.

The purpose of a TENS unit is to send electrical impulses to parts of your body to block pain signals. It is not painful nor is it uncomfortable. You feel the electrical impulses and after a few minutes, the therapist adjusts the intensity because you stop feeling the impulses. She thought I'd go home and have a few pain free hours. Yeah, that didn't exactly happen that way, but I digress.

So, I was on the table with the TENS like unit attached to my back with an ice pack on top of that. (Ice is one of the few things that does help the pain.) I'm guessing I was hooked up 15 or 20 minutes. Once all of that was off of me, Kara went over some exercises I was to do at home before my next appointment on Thursday afternoon.

As soon as I got off of the table, I told Ron I felt very stiff. Maybe just the way I was laying on the table.

Later in the evening, I did all four exercises that were suggested. I was to do the exercises in a pain free range. However, none were too difficult. While laying on the bed, legs bent, feet flat on the bed, I was to take my knees side to side; no problem. Then, with legs straight, one leg at a time, I grabbed behind my knee and pulled my knee to my chest; again no problem. The next exercise was similar to the last, pulling the knee up towards my chest, but then raising my leg straight up while holding the back of my knee; yep no problem. Lastly, laying flat on the bed, arms across my chest, I was to tighten my stomach muscles and then push my lower back against the bed. I took it slow, never was in back pain while I'm doing them and thought I was successful.

Then this morning came and I can barely move. I immediately went downstairs and laid on the ice packs. I hurt more today than I've hurt in a week. Is it the exercises? The TENS unit?

One thing I feel is that this is not muscular. I still think my range of motion was good and the exercises went fine with no back pain. For some reason though, my back hurts worse; it hurts where it originally did and the pain has also moved upwards from there.

Does this mean I'm really f-ed up? Or is this just the dark before the dawn and it has to get worse before it gets better?