Dude, why are you walking funny?

[drwex]

Enough folk have asked that I figured I'd write it up. Sadly, it's not particularly fun or interesting.


I've always had a bad back. I have scoliosis. My spine is somewhat curved, and my hips are off in all three axes. The most visible manifestation of this is that I don't appear to be standing straight even when I am (my spine pushes my torso forward) and one leg appears slightly longer than the other though usually only massage therapists and chiropractors notice this when they're trying to get me to 'lie straight'.

It wasn't diagnosed until I was 17 years old, by which time it was far too late to do anything. A few years ago I saw a specialist who said that my curvature was "an 18" on her 0-100 scale, and that for anything under 20 in an adult there's really nothing that can be done.

So my back and hips are always in the 'wrong' position and under pressure. Compound this with the fact that I'm slightly overweight and seriously out of shape and my core muscles sometimes don't have the strength to deal. They react by (to use a technical term) freaking out and going into major spasm. Usually this doesn't happen more than once or twice a year and it has been several years since I had a serious attack. Sometimes the attack happens when I've overstrained things, or sat in a bad chair for too long or whatever. Somtimes it just happens.

About a week ago I did... I dunno, something? I think it might have been while I was playing with the kids. Anyway, I woke up in some pain, and did the usual hot shower + stretching to try and loosen things up. It went from bad to worse to REALLY F'ING OW THIS COULD STOP NOW over the course of 48 hours. I started ramping up the Advil but switched to Naprosyn because my stomach tolerates that better. Still no help.

Saturday morning I went for a Flexoril, which made me a little loopy and I passed out for a 3.5 hour nap. Woke up feeling MUCH better. Then I did a couple stupid things, like staying out too late at a party Saturday night because I was having fun and then had a little recreational exercise. *ahem* If I say it was worth it, will you believe me?

Since then it's been slowly healing. I'm still taking 2xNap, twice a day. I managed to tolerate being in the car for half an hour Monday, though I didn't much like it.

The right long-term answer is to stop being a fat lazy sedentary sod. I'll get right on that.