BROKEBACK TOM TOM

So I know it's been a while since I've had a chance to sit down and actually put some thought into a post. I blame part of this on school and the other part on the curve balls life threw at me. On February 3rd, I got a call from Robbie who was at UNF playing basketball with some friends. In a voice filled with pain, he said "They are taking me to the hospital. I hurt my back and I can't move." With my athletic training background, I had assumed the worst. As I headed toward the hospital, I was later informed that Robbie and his friends had decided to call 911 because the bumps on the road sent so much pain through his back that he could not handle to ride in the car. When I arrived at UNF, the paramedics were there and were explaining to us that he was experiencing back spasms. (Well thank you, captain obvious.. there's no doubt that his muscles are tense and "locked up", but there could be an underlying reason for the spams.) They could take him to the ER, but a life threatening injury would be ruled out and he would sit there just like everyone else.

Ice is known to help with muscle spasm so I made my way into the Athletic Training Room at UNF and grabbed all that I could to help calm things down. At this point, Robbie was lying on his back in his car and the process from flipping from his back to his stomach took about twenty minutes. The ice and ibuprofin had seemed to help enough so that he could now bare the ride.

We headed for the acute care center at Memorial Hospital where the paramedics told us were open late and where we would be able to get some muscle relaxers to help with the spasm. The doctors at the acute care center refused to help since Robbie was unable to get out of the car. We proceeded to the ER where they put him on a backboard and took him straight to a room. The Doctor suspected back spasms and gave him some medicine. He did not feel that an Xray or MRI was necessary. No amount of medicine seemed to help. Hours later, Robbie decided he would bare the pain becuase he was just ready to be home. Upon arriving at home, I found a step stool that he could lean on to help him walk. I spent every minute I could at his house since he was unable to walk or get out of bed.

A week of this bedridden inactivity began to take a toll on his body and he got sick for about another full week. Frustration really began to set in.. on both his part and mine. He was obviously unable to work and later had to drop out of the second half of his fire school. I wanted to do so much to help him out, but there was only so much I could do. When he regained some of his energy, he proceeded to see another Doctor about his situation. "This is typical of back spasms. You should be better and able to return to work in three days," said the Doctor. Still not satisfied with the results, I suggusted he see a chiropractor because he would at least order Xrays or an MRI. After having done so, it was concluded that he had herniated some discs in his back. Appointments were made in hopes of some kind of cure for his back. Although a very slow process, he progressively saw improvements after about a month and we now had some hope for a positive outcome. Thank you, Dr. Fiore!