u/Personwhoisweird

If you read all of this I will VERY much appreciate it. I feel absolutely hopeless and like i have aged 30 years in just four weeks, It feels as though my entire life is over. The career that i am working towards may not be an optin for me if this is actually my new normal. Debating dropping out of school and figuring out a new life plan. I would greatly appreciate the harsh truth if you have any insight. MRI findings at end, story of injury first.

STORY...

Hello, had a fall over a year ago and never got any help due to not having health insurance and everyone telling me that daily back pain and tingling is normal at my age. I am now 32. I regret listening to that advice lol. And now that I do have health insurance, it didnt cover one dollar of my full spinal MRI that i got this week, anyways. Anyways, here I am starting my recovery journey a year and three months after my first initial traumatic fall from about a foot and a half off the ground, fully suspended in the air, landing on my hips and forearms. Immediate neck and lower back pain, followed by a very rough 3 ish months of pain and high blood pressure. I work on heavy machinery on uneven ground 10 hours a day for the last year, i fell off a machine is how th initial injury happened. I have had daily tingling in my mid/upper back since this fall as well as the sudden inability to arch my back (cow pose, not cat, not sure if that is "arching") fully as i have for 30 years easily. I have stopped lots of my daily stretches because of this injury.

Because the injury seemed to get better with time, I ignored getting further help. I assumed the tingling and inability to fully move my back freely was just a new normal for the rest of my life. I started going to the gym and joined a sport team (logger sports- chopping and saw, lots of bending at the hips, swinging axes, some twisting- although not nearly as much twisting or bending as my job). My back seemed to get suddenly so much better. The tingling became much less, i felt more confident in my back, and only had noticeable back pain from one practice and it lasted just an hour or two after pushing past my comfortable limit. I have not had any issues sitting for long periods of time. Standing for long periods of time has caused some pain, but I also have done 16 mile day hikes after this injury with zero back pain. I went ona backpacking trips carrying a 50 pound backpack 8 miles a day and had no issues. I am a skier, i go to the gym, i am an avid hiker in the summer, i have slept on the ground and in cars since this injury and nothing has made it "flare up" until now.

This brings me to now. About a month ago we had a logger sports competition. I went through a breakup and unfortunately suddenly stopped going to the gym about 3 weeks before this competition. I couldn't really list all of the physical activities i did this week, because it would be very long. The events themselves are not long, my longest event was about 2 minutes, and I only had 6 events total. These events I had been doing twice weekly, some of them multiple times a day, for about 10 months leading up to this. Like i said above, back pain lessened and tingling lessened drastically after joining this team and going to the gym, as well as confidence in my back strength went up. It was a very active and inactive week, ending with two 16 hours car rides. It did not feel like an especially active week for me, just my normal, and there were no "moments" of perceived injury or worry that something had "happened". Instead, I had a feeling i pulled something on the inside of my left leg as it had pain and felt like muscle pain. I assumed it would go away with stretching.

it got gradually worse over the course of 7 days until I could almost not be able to walk for three days. Then that pain went down and the tingling in all arms, hands, legs, and feet started. Then severe hip pain, that I have never experienced before. I barely stubbed my toe at work and that almost brought me to the ground with how much pain i felt in my hipe from tapping my big toe. As well as a painless cracking sound coming from my lumbar area. I am on heavy machinery all day long, so this cracking noise was happening basically constantly for the duration of my shifts. I also need to twist a full 180 degrees to see the feed that comes out of the trailer, and i estimated that i am in a full twist about 50 times a day, on just one side, for about 3 minutes each.

The pain now is less but it is not fully constant, where there are no moments without pain, although it is much less. The pain is now in my neck, lumbar, mid left back between shoulder blade and spine, and sometimes in my left hip depending on position. I have fully lost trust in my back and feel as though it is not functional, it feels like it could just break into two different pieces.

I am starting PT next week. I had 7 appointments with a chiropractor who did 4 adjustments on my lumbar area before i got the MRI, and she also "cracked" my mid spine. I very much regret seeing her now. I have never cracked my back in my life unless accidentally and i have never had pain in my mid back until after one of the appointments with her. I have completely stopped logger sports and going to the gym. I am going to yoga once a week, and continue to work full time on the farm. I am planning on having a new job by the autumn.

is this too late? Am i permanently damaged and ruined at age 32 from a fall that only took 2 seconds to happen?

thanks for anyone who is reading this or has any insight :'(

MRI RESULTS:

L SPINE:

1. There is T1 hypointense line through the left sacral ala with pronounced edema type signal intensity. There is no displacement. Surrounding tissues appear within normal limits. There is associated enhancement. 

2. L3/L4: Mild disc protrusion with annular fissure. No significant canal or neural foraminal narrowing. 

3. L4/L5: Small central disc protrusion with annular fissure. Mild facet arthropathy. Mild neural foraminal and canal narrowing. 

4. L5/S1: Shallow central protrusion with annular fissure. No significant canal or neural foraminal narrowing.

 

T SPINE

DISCS: Disc spaces are relatively well preserved. Shallow disc protrusions. T9-T10, T8-9, T7-8, asymmetric to the right. 

C SPINE

5. C3/C4: Mild right sided facet arthropathy with mild right neural foraminal narrowing. No canal stenosis. 

6. C5/C6: Minimal disc bulging. No neural foraminal or canal stenosis. 

7. C6/C7: Minimal disc bulging. No neural foraminal or canal stenosis.

 

Got results back from 3 different spinal MRI'S. Included in the list was anything that was not listed as normal. I know there's a benign tumor listed there. I have zero neck pain, so seeing the C3-7 listed was a surprise, although I guess not really because I have tingling in my hands and upper back. I sustained an injury from a fall a year and a half ago and in about 1.5 seconds my life was changed forever. I have had dull "pain", not reallllly painful? just super tight and stiff, in the L3-S1 since the moment of that fall. I knew that area was going to show something. Tingling in my upper back almost daily for the last year and a half.

About a month ago i was in a competition and must have...injured?...something because over the course of 5 days after the competition radiating pain moved all around my body. From my butt, to hamstrings, to between shoulders/mid back, and hips. I could hear popping noises in my lower spine for about a week after this while operating heavy machinery at work, although no pain from that. The hip pain, upper left between shoulder and spine pain, and now lower back pain is some of the worst pain I have experienced. There was no "moment" of pain during this competition. I started to feel sore in my inner leg one night and believed I had pulled a muscle or needed to stretch, it got worse over those 5 days, could barely walk for 3 days, and slowly turned into tingling and less pain. I am able to do most activities, but in pain and very carefully. I had high blood pressure for about two weeks, I believe due to pain. If i sit or stand for longer than a couple hours, the pain is pretty bad.

I am very confused. I understand i got injured from the fall over a year ago, but I am wondering what happened this last month. I feel like my body has aged 30 years in just weeks. my back no longer feels "trustworthy" of that makes sense. It almost feels like it could just slide into multiple pieces at any moment. Full recovery seems like a total joke at this point. I am only 32. I have been told by many this is "normal", but I know it is not.

Does anyone have any insight into all of this? If full recovery is even possible for someone with all of this listed below?

1. There is T1 hypointense line through the left sacral ala with pronounced edema type signal intensity. There is no displacement. Surrounding tissues appear within normal limits. There is associated enhancement. 

2. L3/L4: Mild disc protrusion with annular fissure. No significant canal or neural foraminal narrowing. 

3. L4/L5: Small central disc protrusion with annular fissure. Mild facet arthropathy. Mild neural foraminal and canal narrowing. 

4. L5/S1: Shallow central protrusion with annular fissure. No significant canal or neural foraminal narrowing.

 

There is a hemangioma in the T9 vertebral body towards the right. No significant proliferative change. 

DISCS: Disc spaces are relatively well preserved. Shallow disc protrusions. T9-T10, T8-9, T7-8, asymmetric to the right. 

5. C3/C4: Mild right sided facet arthropathy with mild right neural foraminal narrowing. No canal stenosis. 

6. C5/C6: Minimal disc bulging. No neural foraminal or canal stenosis. 

7. C6/C7: Minimal disc bulging. No neural foraminal or canal stenosis.