Back injury out of the blue

My husband Peter and I planned a pleasant little Sunday, starting with a gym session followed by a good lunch in town. But that was not to be. Peter was doing a cardio session on the stationary bike and suddenly he felt his back go. He was in pain, so he went to lie down on the mat and that was it, he couldn’t move anymore. I got him some painkillers from the pharmacy and we waited for them to work, me on the mat next to him. An hour passed and nothing, still the same pain, no way he could get home like that.
There was nothing else to do than calling an ambulance so they give him some proper pain killers. The two medics arrived quite fast. They asked what happened and we told them the whole story. They injected Peter with some painkillers and again, we waited hoping they’d work in order for him to get up and walk down to the taxi stand so we could get home. When he was still not moving, they said they’d take him to the hospital, but before that they gave him a shot of morphine for the bumpy journey.
I’ll tell you it’s one of the worst things to experience when you see someone you love suffer. You just want to take all that suffering and feel it yourself, as long as your dear one is ok. At least that’s how I feel when I see someone I love suffer. I managed to hold my tears back somehow even though I saw what a hard time he was having while he was being carried downstairs on a plastic board. He cried out every time there was a bump on the road or a turning the ambulance had to take, that was when it hurt for him the most.
We arrived at the hospital at 3:45pm. They didn’t tell us much, only that we should wait, so we did. Then after about an hour they did some examinations to find out what had happened. After some time the doctor came and told him he had a slipped disc and he was given some more painkillers through an IV. He was starting to feel a bit better, not in so much pain anymore but he still wasn’t able to sit or stand. At about 9pm the doctor came again and said that he should now try to walk. I was shocked…how was she expecting him to walk? But he managed to stand up, holding onto the rail and take one step, his face taking up a painful expression.

The doctor said he should stay in the hospital for the night, but Peter didn’t want to unless it was absolutely necessary. Getting to our flat was still a big question mark because we lived on the first floor with no elevator. The doctor said they’d give us an ambulance to get home so we said ok, let’s go then. It was about 11pm when the ambulance driver came and said ‘let’s go’. ‘Yes, let’s go but he can’t walk’ I said. The driver answered: ‘He can, the doctor said he can walk, let’s go’. Then the nurse came and I explained to him that we had to take him to the ambulance in a wheelchair. I saw him call the ambulance driver to tell him that and leave. After about an hour, when we still haven’t heard anything (we were already there for no less than 8 hours), I asked the nurse: ‘What are we waiting for?’ ‘For Peter to walk to the ambulance’ the nurse answered. ‘The driver will only take him if he is able to walk there, otherwise what happens when he can’t walk up to the first floor?’ (which was where our flat is). I looked at him, surprised and asked ‘Why didn’t you tell me that? We didn’t know that’. So Peter had to stand up, which he did very slowly and he walked the 15 meters taking slow, careful tiny little steps, grimacing the whole time. Fortunately he managed it, he even got up the two flights of stairs somehow.
He'll be home the next few days, recovering and taking all the pills the doctors gave him. Let’s hope he’ll recover very fast as we have a flight to take in just a few days…
What lesson did we learn from this incident? I realised I had to become much more conscious about what my body is telling me, about how important it is not overdo things at the gym or otherwise. You only have one body, so be gentle with it! Of course there is a fine line between being gentle with your body an laziness and I’ll have to listen extra carefully to know if it’s just the laziness telling me not to workout or if I really need a rest that day.
Peter decided to also be a lot more careful and gentle with his back and transform his workouts so there is less pressure on his back once he is able to go back to the gym, which won’t be very soon.