WARNING: TMI discussing female body/bodily fluids/blood

Before starting this post, I decided to look back through my blog to see when else I posted about back pain. I did in the beginning of January, the beginning of July, and now I am back at it again. Between July and now I have been wearing my back brace and going to the chiropractor, but apparently that didn’t mean much.

Thursday I woke up with a little bit of soreness in my back, and as I was going through my day at work, I could feel the pain becoming more and more bothersome. I told my manager that I may go to ER after work, and my boss above her suggested I go to this certain immediate care in the area where they do MRIs, and she said “why don’t you go now?” So I clocked out for what I assumed would be a longer than normal lunch break and I went on my way.

This immediate care wasn’t busy, which gave me some relief. When I finally spoke to the receptionist she let me know that my Blue Cross PPO insurance plan was not in their network so I would have a higher out of pocket cost for the visit. I was in so much pain I didn’t even care and agreed to be seen.

After waiting about ten minutes in the waiting room, a medical assistant came to bring me back to the doctors room. He asked me all the questions and had me rate my pain level. I said 8.5. but he couldn’t do halves so we rounded it to a 9. Then the nurse practitioner came in and asked the same kind of questions.

I told her that this has happened before, but now I’m noticing it seems to come right before my period (or in January it was around ovulation). I also mentioned how my periods seem to be very clotty and I am unsure how normal that is. The nurse suggested I follow up with my OBGYN and discuss the possibility of endometriosis, which would show normal tests sometimes so it’s hard to diagnose. Ironically enough, a year ago in August is when I had an internal uterine ultrasound as I was worried with the sharp pains I had, but I was told all is fine.

I had also mentioned to her that a week or so before my 21st birthday I was in the ER for pooping blood, and they had recommended I follow up with GI. I did that, but then never went through with the colonoscopy they recommended, embarrassingly because I didn’t want to drink that stuff and be shitting my brains out all night before the procedure. The GI place also couldn’t give me any quote on how much it would cost, and back then I was so concerned about money so I let that factor in, and now I worry that we missed something.

The nurse just recommended I also talk to my PCP and let me know that they do not do MRIs at that facility and I’d need to see my PCP to order one for me. She also prescribed muscle relaxers and a steroid pack and told me I should rest and have minimal movement for the next couple days and gave me a note for work. I am seeing my PCP next week, and the soonest OBGYN appt is in about 2.5 weeks.

I find it odd that these health problems like to pop up in the July/August time frame, and it makes me wonder if there is some unresolved trauma from a time in my life. I have the book “The Body Keeps The Score” and I have been hesitant to start it. I know it’s all about the hypothalamus and how it remembers everything that ever happened to us, even when parts of our brain will hide certain things from us for survival reasons. I am not ready to start it just yet, but I am interested to ask my therapist her thoughts on this.

Regardless of whether this is trauma related or it has to do with my curve in my spine or something else internal, I am ready for answers. I need to know how to prevent this from continuing to occur, because when the pain comes on, it’s unbearable. It hurts to sit and especially to drive. It hurts to stand up or walk. I can barely bend over to put on socks and shoes. I really only get comfortable laying in bed on my heating pad, and even so, it hurts to roll over / switch positions.

Thanks to the immediate care, I have a flat Medrol Dose pack that seems to be taking away the inflammation. I also have the muscle relaxers, but I decided today that I am no longer going to take as they put me to sleep, and also make me extremely sweaty and flushed. I am taking ibuprofen as well and just relaxing on the heating pad. I know this pain will go away, it’s just keeping it away that I am worried about. All I can do is go to my appointments and advocate for myself, so that is what I plan to do.

Sending love and healing to all.