Ouch, my back

The Fourth of July is one of the few holidays that I have the freedom to enjoy – there’s no pressure, and you get to relieve lots of stress and tension in the form of aiming bottle rockets at your fellow man.

After a weeklong gauntlet of firing off bottlerockets, real rockets, fountains, tanks, and roosters, I finally spent the night inside. Around July 7th, I started noticing a pain in my lower back. This pain was not too severe. What felt weird, was that this pain was accompanied by phantom pain in my legs. I would feel this pinprick-electric shock sensation in a specific spot on one of my legs – for example, behind my left knee, or half way down my right calf – and the pain would just disappear.

I went on an MS-150 Prep bike ride – I rode my first half-century (52 miles), and did so at a reasonable speed. Impressive for me, but in the back of my mind, I could tell something just wasn’t quite right.

I ignored it the best I could. I spent the next 2 weeks using every OTC painkillers I could lay my hands on to stop the pain. On July 18th, I had a hard time walking. When walking, I had to walk with a shuffle. If I placed my left leg in front of my hips, my entire leg would shut down. I went to see the doctor that day.