ohhhhh ow

[dragonlady7]

OK so. Got back from Pennsic, felt logy. Have slept a lot. Started feeling a bit soreish in my lower abdomen region. Nothing too bad; perhaps a UTI brewing? Kinda uncomfortable when peeing, some very mild cloudiness, just doesn't seem quite right. I have had several in my life of this sort, all so minor I've been able to flush them out by drinking craploads of water, none that lasted long enough for me to even set up an appointment with a medical type. So I commence, or rather continue, given recent events, the Drinking Water Like It's My Job Only More Sincerely event. Things are going well, any discomfort is dissipating. Nothing unusual.
But I am naggingly sore in my lower back. And as I do my normal daily activities (like, oh, hauling immense loads of laundry up and down stairs), it becomes more apparent that it's not muscle soreness. Not in the usual way. See, I do a lot of rollerskating (understatement of the year!) and you use those muscles right down above the pelvis in back to hold and propel yourself, so those muscles are pretty well-developed on me-- I can feel them through my insulating womanly fat layer. And they're behaving normally. And at this point I'm used to sore muscles-- there's a kind of pleasure to that pain, when you work them. If you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about, and if you don't, well, it's a thing. And it's not a bad thing. Muscle pain sucks, but there's a satisfaction to it.
This ain't it.
There's just an unpleasant, slightly painful, feeling of tautness and displeasure in that region, however. Not happy. It's worst when I bend at the waist or hips. Straightening or arching my back feels fine. Sitting is less comfortable. Bending over varies between unhappy and downright unfeasible.
But a full and busy day at work passes all right, with some bending and twisting and stooping. I drink water more assiduously, more or less constantly, and now things seem to be functioning 100% normally-- the water's basically coming out indistinguishable from how it went in, except in temperature.
And then I go to practice.
I feel like a million bucks on my skates-- I am a few minutes late but leap into the first drill, an agility drill, with no warmup, and totally rock it. i'm feeling good. Except my back hurts. And it's not the muscles. They're fine. It's something internal. And it doesn't feel quiiiite right.
I do the intense thigh exercises, I work my core, I do all the Supernova Is Insane exercises. I'm still kicking ass. Minute-long squats? Please, I don't need a stopwatch, I can tell time by my own awesome.
Then we're doing this thing where we're jumping from side to side while skating. And she wants us to twist our hips and something or other. And that's OK, except that it places enormous strain on the lower back, and suddenly I can't keep my balance and I fall. And it HURTS.
I get up and keep going and it HURTS. So I double over, but that hurts more, so I stand up, and that hurts less, and I keep rolling, and after it doesn't hurt for a half a lap or so, I keep doing the drill. And I can't do it, and I fall again, and OH MY SWEET LORD it hurts.
So I get up, and I roll, straight-backed, which doesn't hurt, and I do that for a while. And I try again when we reverse direction, and I have no core strength, which seems unusual. So I go lean on the wall, which doesn't hurt, and ponder my options. It doesn't hurt. Unless I move. So, um. Moving is sort of the point, here, so not hurting can't really be the goal, so I've got to work out some sort of compromise here...
But we're done with the drill, yay. So on to the endurance skate. And Nova says sternly, "B, you're not going to stop skating until your team stops skating! I know you've had two weeks off, but you're going to get right back into this!"
And I protest that I'm not tired, I just think I hurt something, but she's not listening to excuses, so I go and I line up and I take off and I lead the pack for the entire endurance drill. Until lap 16 or so, when I stumble slightly and OH LORD WHAT THE FUCK IS OW OW OW IT IS LIKE A KNIFE MOTHERFUCKER A KNIFE. "Keep going, B!" Nova says cheerfully.
So I do. And I keep my spot at the head of the pack for nine more laps. And I finish, tired but not seriously winded, and it's this dull tight ache all across my back. I would bend over, like everyone else, and put my hands on my knees and coast a little, but I can't. I also can't cross over. I've been scooter-pushing for three laps. But I can scooter-push like a motherfucker, you know; I got real good at it before I mastered crossovers, and I reverted to it when I fucked my knee, and I go back to it in times of severe stress and at this point, I can scooter-push while towing an entire pack and still maintain speed (I have done this, for a drill-- I may be the best all-8-down skater in the league). I don't have to pick up my feet to KICK YOUR ASS, thanks very much. But it worries me, because I really ought to be able to pick up my outside foot. That's not the one that's ever given me problems before; my left foot is the clumsy asshole, not my right. But the right side of my lower back feels like there's an enormous balloon inflated in it, so moving that leg is out of the question. And it hurts. Motherfucker, it hurts.

So we sit and stretch, which is a joke-- I can't bend at the middle, pretty much at all. I gingerly clasp my knee, when usually I can put my hand around the sole of my foot. Nothing doing tonight, baby.
I have trouble getting my skates off. I have to kick my kneepads off, and catch them in midair so I don't have to bend.
Picking up my bag to carry it to the car is hilariously awful. I have a messenger bag for a purse, too. I kind of wrap it around my neck. I hobble to the car. Everyone else is going to the bar. No thanks. I am going home. Driving is hard; I can't move my right leg very well, or it hurts. That's the gas pedal foot. Faaaaaa-bulous!
I get home and getting out of the car is hard. I scare the cat with the noises I make. I stumble to the door and ask Z to please, pretty please, get my skate bag from the car for me, because I can't. It is worth noting that in now four years of derby, I have never asked him to do this before. Not when I cracked my tailbone, the first or second or even third time. Not when I hosed my knees, the first or ninth or twelfth time. Not ever. I always have at least been able to get my skate bag to the house. Cursing and swearing, but there.

So i've taken two ibuprofin, and taken a shower, which didn't help, and had a lot of water, which is, well, tasteless yet wet, and had some freezerburned ice cream because one must, you know (I missed dinner and there's nothing in the house), and have peed, which was fine and normal. And I've got an ice pack against my lower back. And it hurts to move, so I'm not.

Anyone got a guess as to what I possibly did? Could it be a muscle pull after all? As far as I can tell nothing's swollen or discolored anywhere-- it's not bruised. (I did have lower back bruises at one point last week, but those were only tender for about 24 hours-- overzealous massage, which I didn't at all mind at the time.) It just feels like there's a big giant balloon of awful sitting in my body.
Blech.

I think maybe I am going to just go to sleep. It seems somewhat better after the ice-- at least, the pain of moving is more like muscle pain in that it's not entirely nauseating and icky icky-- so maybe I'll get the freezer pack back in the freezer and plan on reverting to that if the awful doesn't abate.
I need an ice pack that's like my electric heating pad. Can they do that? Make something that stays cold as long as it's plugged in? That would rock my boxers so hard. I don't even wear boxers but I would, if that were required. Sox0rs, maybe. I frequently wear those.

Comments

[tudorpot.livejournal.com]

You might have developed an infection in your kidney, or a kidney stone. Drinking water will not clear the infection if it is in your kidney. You need a urine test.