Videos hosted by Michael Erlewine

Nothing like a middle-of-the-night trip to the emergency room at the local hospital to offer perspective. Somehow I should have zigged when instead I zagged and, in a moment, my back went out.
This is the third time it has happened in my life, and this time it was different because I could still walk.

The old saying is that there are those who have experienced serious back pain and those who have not experienced it… yet. It was the muscles in my lower back (right side), but they soon co-opted all the muscles in my abdominal region and that whole area felt like one of those medicine balls we used to throw around in the gym – hard and tight. And it sure did hurt.

One thing I couldn't do was find any position that was comfortable enough for me to fall asleep, try as I might. So finally about 4 A.M. it was off the ER room and that whole scenario of wait, wait, wait, fill out forms, wait, wait, get urine samples, etc. and wait some more. And it was like a refrigerator in there. There is nothing like sitting in a cold hospital with one of those gowns without a back on and waiting. And of course there was nothing to read except a pamphlet on how I must sign away my rights by coming here.

Anyway, the ER doctor finally appeared and after some examination he decided that it was not kidney stones, but rather just my muscles in that region were seizing up and not letting go. He prescribed a muscle relaxant and a bunch of Ibuprofen three times a day. They even had a prescription machine there, where I punch in my prescription number, add a credit card, and out comes my prescription all labeled and everything.

I am still recovering, and it is getting better, right? I believe it is, but I had one other interesting experience which happened this morning. This was a couple of days after my back went out, and here is the back story (pun intended).

I recently had a computer crash and lost all of my contacts (names, addresses, passwords, etc.) for the last 20 years. I even hired a computer expert to try and recover it. But there was this horrible little program "Trusteer" that my local bank had insisted I install on my computer in order to use their online banking, and it refused to allow all that data to be recovered. And here is how that story connects with my back problem.

I had to get on the phone with these folks this morning and complain about Trusteer and figure how I can get my password back to their banking services. And arguing with them got me very tense and my back problem, which was going away, immediately began to come back full strength. You get the idea.

It appears that tension can cause serious physical results. In this case, my back started to go out all over again just based on the tension I derived from that phone call. It is not hard to believe that the tensions that build up in us can make us sick.

The result of all of this is that I need to keep learning to relax through meditation and various mind-training exercises. I also was reminded what a wonderful thing a healthy body is and how quickly it can go south on me.

I haven't been able to write much through all of this, so decided just to share what is going on with me.

[Here is a photo I took of an Iris, I believe a Japanese variety.]