I Have a Contusion I Mean Compression Fracture of the Spine

UPDATE August 15, 2019. I’m a dork. There, I said it. I went in for my follow-up appointment on my contusion fracture and it seems that the only thing I got right in my diagnosis was the C. I have a compression fracture, not a contusion fracture. Apparently, there is a difference, lol.

After all of my years working in a doctor’s office, I had never heard of a contusion fracture of the spine. Now granted we didn’t deal with bone injuries or such, we referred our patients to bone specialists for those kinds of complaints.

I’m going to back up to the beginning.

I was sitting on the floor putting together a TV stand I bought for my grandson’s bedroom. When he comes to visit, he loves to play his games on the TV. Because of my back issues, I generally buy all of my large items online so they can be delivered to my door, which means either I’m stuck putting them together or a family member helps me if it’s something complicated. This wasn’t and I knew the kids would enjoy not having to play their games on the floor anymore.

My neighbors little boy was banging on the door about the same time that I’d just sat down from the last time he was banging on my door, and before I actually got all the way down, I got back up. And that’s when it happened. I heard a snap, crackle, pop type of sound and it was loud enough that I thought I’d broken the rod or pulled loose the fusions that are in my back or that I’d even cracked a bone. Before I could even be terrified about it, the pain swept over me and it brought me down to my knees. I just about fainted because it was so severe that I sucked in my breath and we all know when that happens, oxygen isn’t getting to the brain and fainting can occur. I’m already living with chronic pain that stays between 7 and 8 every single minute of my life. So any added pain is just too much for me to bear. I’m already taking different classes of pain medications used in hospitals.

I went straight to bed even though little Noah continued to bang on my door, bless him. He loved coming to see me, all day long, every single day and I miss him since they moved. But anyhow, I contacted my pain clinic physician and he had me come in. That’s when he discovered what happened. He gave me a steroid shot and a Toradol shot (one is short term and one is long term) and I’ve been laying around, using a heating pad, taking my Motrin religiously, without fail along with some Ultram (tramadol). I don’t like to take medicines unless absolutely necessary so this is an indication of just how painful this is. He told me it would take about 6 weeks to 3 months to heal. I’ve been reading, watching movies, doing anything I can to help take my mind off of the pain.

UPDATE August 1, 2019

I had a follow-up visit with my physician and I’m healing although I’m not there yet. He did prescribe Ativan to help me relax more and I’m still taking it easy although I have driven a few times and I even went to see my old neighbor some and brought Noah and his little sister Nessa back with me a couple of times to come over to play. Which prompted all of the neighborhood kids to come to see them. There’s never a dull moment in apartment8a.