Having a rough week. That big flare I was having, the TOS part calmed down, but the lower back pain sent me to the emergency room Sunday morning. I woke up and couldn't even get out of bed. When I finally managed the pain was horrific! Standing and holding onto the wall was all I could do. It had me bawling like a baby. Worst pain of my life.

I had to take an ambulance to the hospital because I could barely walk and sitting was out of the question. I've never gone to the emergency room for TOS or lower back pain before.

In the emergency room, they pumped me full all kinds of painkillers and drugs, but nothing helped much. By the end of the day, I still could barely stand so they kept me overnight and did an MRI first thing Monday morning. They said I have a lot of scar tissue in my lower back from the two surgeries I had years ago and it was inflaming the nerve roots. Then they sent me home, which I wasn't happy about because my pain was still through the roof.

Tuesday morning, I woke up and the pain was just as bad as ever. Tuesday afternoon, I managed to get into my friend's truck and back to the emergency room. At least no ambulance this time.

I got lucky this time and there was a spine Dr. on call. He gave me steroids throughout the night in my IV and I was able to move around much better in the morning. I was pretty surprised. He followed that up with an epidural and that helped as well.

I came home yesterday afternoon and am feeling quite a bit better. Still pain, but a least it's manageable. That's the worst lower back flare up I've ever had in my life. Hopefully that will never happen again.

I'm going to make a follow up visit with this spine Dr. He said if this doesn't calm me down he's got some other options we can discuss. I figure it's a good idea in case this is the start of more problems.