Back Pain

I’ve arrived, folks. I’ve made it! I am finally “threw-my-back-out-doing-nothing” years old.

One morning last week, I was doing my Qi Gong practice, followed by stretching. I got up off the floor, and I felt my familiar old friend—my right sacroiliac joint—a sprain-like, nerve sensation coupled with soreness, say hello for the first time in years.

In fairness, the stage had been set leading up to this relatively non-expenditure of motion. I’d spent the week before doing an inordinate amount of housework, hosting family staying with us, much more cooking and cleaning, a bit more indulging, not to mention a home’s worth of laundry after my daughter’s Lice sequel, so my body was spent. On the day before I jumped as high as I could on our trampoline and wrestled maniacally with 4-year-olds.

I spent the next morning in pain, obsessively trying to stretch, but to no avail. It was apparently too inflamed, needed first to set in before it could heal, the way it is difficult to resolve a virus in its first 12 hours—that is before it shows itself for what kind of virus it is. By afternoon I could barely walk (unfortunately in parenthood rest is rarely an option). I surely couldn’t lift anything, and wondered if I’d make it to work the next day!

1. SIMPLICITY & REPETITION: I decided to minimize, to consolidate my rehabilitative routine to just a few reliable stretches, which is important in my opinion, then did them constantly. Some physical therapists make the mistake of assigning 8 or 9 daily exercises, most of which might be beneficial, but if one or two are potentially aggravating, they might keep people on the hamster wheel of suffering, not realizing they could be doing less and getting better.

1. HERBS: Once in a while we are forced off of our soap boxes and bow in humility in front of that which we resist. I prescribed myself a non-holistic formula—not individualized to my unique pattern—but one simply for inflammation in the low back and lower body. Well worth it short-term, though in fact I did suffer a side effect as a result. While excitatory/warm-natured eucommia bark probably helped my back, it did impact my quality of sleep that night. I cooked it in conjunction with pearl barley, phellodendron bark, and other blood movers to promote circulation in the lower portion of the body, then drank it while my wife warmed up a heating pad for me.

3. HEAT: As we say in Chinese medicine: “Ice is for dead people”—dead bodies to be exact, but most injuries are not ones of inflammation to the degree of compartment syndrome, which merits ice. Most are minor, protective inflammations surrounded by tight, hypertonic muscles and ligaments that need relaxation, which heat provides.

4. ACUPUNCTURE: While lying atop my heating pad, I obviously could not needle my own lower back, but I could use “distal points” that connect the spine, ligaments, and erector spinae muscles. I used “Small Intestine 3,” located next to the pinky joint, to treat the spine, “Spirit Bone,” located at the junction of the first and second metacarpals, for its endogenous opioid-releasing effects and connection with the low back’s complementary (lung) vessel; finally “Triple Warmer 9,” atop the forearm near the elbow, also to send blood to its paired vessel. I left the needles in for thirty minutes, basically the duration of a TV show we watched (Wednesday—not thus far recommending), and when I got up to go to bed I was about 25% better. When I woke up the next morning I was 75% better, still having not taken one single, solitary NSAID. No judgement for those that need painkillers, but in my opinion, their side effects should be respected enough to reserve them for times of actual need—pain in times when we need to be active, as opposed to discomfort in times where we can relax.

I should continue to get acupuncture from someone else for this as well. Also, I must do my daily stretches, gradually incorporating more every few days, and probably call it a year on my trampoline wrestling career. I share this story not to brag—though it’s nice to brag—but to reiterate the value of constant and appropriate physical movement and attention towards our ailments. I went from being unable to walk to a full commute and pain-free workday overnight!