At the end of Grade 9 I was 4’11” and at the end of Grade 10 I was 5’6.5” tall. I grew 7.5” in 1 year, and during that growth spurt my back torqued a bit giving me mild scoliosis. That year, and for a bit longer, my heals hurt. They couldn’t handle the extra weight I put on. A couple years after that, I started having issues with my back.

But I was young and full of energy. I dealt with back pain by just putting up with it… until it crashed on me, then I was basically in survival mode, incapacitated. I’d sleep on the floor with my feet up on a pillow or coffee table, and I’d take a combination of pain killers and alcohol to get me through 2-4 days of agony before I could get myself back to ‘normal’… with that normal being consistent but manageable back pain.

When I met my wife, at 28 years old, I was at a point where I’d been coping with a high level of daily pain for almost 9 months. It was debilitating. My wife, who was just my girlfriend at the time kept recommending her physio, and I didn’t really want to try someone else, I was getting massages and seeing a chiropractor, and thought I was doing enough.

Then one day I was feeling the pain more than usual. I used to ride my bicycle to work, but my back was bad enough that I took the bus. It was an unusual day where I had to sit in an all day meeting and my back couldn’t handle sitting all day.

I was in agony by the time I got on the bus headed home, and after I got on the crowded bus an elderly lady got up from her seat and said something like, ‘I think you need this more than me’. I declined, thanking her and saying that the last thing I needed to do was sit. This exchange hit me hard… an old lady got up to offer me a seat. How bad must I look for this to have happened. That day I asked my wife for the number to her physio.

That decision changed my life considerably. The physio had me doing these tiny movements to push my hips over to the left and after 2 sessions with him, I woke up one morning and couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. I took a shower and I couldn’t shake this bizarre feeling. After the shower, I was shaving and it suddenly hit me… I wasn’t in pain.

In the 3 decades, since that experience, I’ve never had my back be as bad as that, but I’ve had some tough episodes. One involved a herniated disc in my neck that sent nerve pain down my left arm. Scroll back a few years on this blog and you will definitely hear me talking about it because it was really all I could think of for a few months.

And now again, for the past few months, I’ve been dealing with sciatic pain down my right leg. My new diagnosis: piriformis syndrome. Basically my butt muscle is squeezing my L5 sciatic nerve. I’m now waiting for an appointment with an anesthesiologist, who will likely give me a shot to ‘cool down’ the issue so that my physio work can actually teach me to keep that area more relaxed. But in the meantime, the pain is triggered, not by sitting, but rather by standing. Even a three minute shower is long enough to initiate the pain.

I’ve joked for years that my mind feels 20 years younger than my actual age, and my back feels 20 years older. A funny remark when I’m in my 30’s, which feels a bit scarier at 58. But if my back has taught me one thing over the past few decades it’s that if I don’t care for it well it will humble and age me.

And so, here I am in recovery mode again, in a slow but steady and dedicated way. I’m trying to stay positive, knowing that discipline and care will help me overcome my back challenges. No appointment scheduled yet with the anesthesiologist, I’m still waiting for the call… in a seated position as often as possible.

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Update: It is NOT piriformis syndrome. My massage therapist and physio both agree that this is not the issue. I’ve had zero referral pain when my massage therapist digs into this muscle. It is DEFINITELY my L5 sciatic nerve, it’s probably coming from my spine/disc (which shows arthritis in the x-ray)… but the diagnosis above is not correct.