Case Summary  |  Lower Back Problems From a Young Age

It all started in about 4th grade. I had twisted the wrong way while taking a bath and ended up being nearly paralyzed on the couch for two days straight because I had pinched a nerve or muscle so badly.

When I was in about 7th grade, I took the bus to and from school. One day, when I was wearing my brand new boots I just had to show off to my friends, I was returning home on the bus. I went to make the steps down and ended up slipping and falling on my tailbone right on the edge of the step. I made it home with a small limp since the walk was not far, and I chose to sit down. When my parents got home, I tried getting up and the pain that shot through my back was unbearable. I ended up missing school for three days and once had to have my family come home because I was unable to get off the toilet. It was embarrassing, but I eventually recovered enough to go back to school.

In 9th grade, I went tubing at a local skiing hill with my class. I had just finished going down the hill and picked my tube up, but the people coming down behind me had not waited long enough and came right under me, sweeping me off my feet and right onto to my tailbone. I blacked out for a good five minutes and was taken to the medical area on the hill via snowmobile. They feared that I had a concussion and wouldn't let me participate in anymore activities, so I just ended up leaving. I didn't have a concussion, but it didn't help my back problems.

The last thing that happened to my back that significantly hurt it was when I was in 11th grade, at my house, playing with my cats. I slipped on our front door rug and landed on our door jam, the point of it hitting right on the base of my tailbone. My vision went black, but I was still conscious. My mother said my pupils had enlarged bigger than she had ever seen before and it was terrifying walking around with no way to know if I was getting my vision back. It did eventually go away, but it was scary and only made my back problems worse.

In 2009, I ended up going to a doctor, who suggested I go in for massage therapy on my lower back. I went to two therapy sessions where she cracked various places in my back, re-aligned my spine, massaged my entire back, then sent me into a small room where I lied on a bed that massaged my back while two pads on my back sent small electric jolts into my back muscles. It felt fine the first time, the jolts, but the second time it actually began to hurt and I had to remove the pads myself. I ended up not going back after that.