I started to change my life after I got on a scale next to a friend that I have known for more than 20 years and noticed that I had "let myself" go and was now a lot larger than him.
I have experienced a great deal of success with this new life-change, and I have lost around 20 lbs (9kg) and also find that I enjoy this new life of eating right, going to bed early and waking up early, and also the most important thing - rarely drinking any alcohol.
Things were going great, I was getting better at exercise and then while not exercising, an old mistake I made in my life came back to haunt me.
That's basically me in the picture, exactly where that guy is reaching with his hand. I have a constant pressure at that point and it all came from me being a bit too overzealous going down the stairs of my condo when it was raining outside and I was wearing cheap flip flops.
Let me explain the incident: I was heading to the store to get spaghetti sauce and it was raining. My place has an awning over the stairs but they were still wet. I was wearing really cheap flip flops with zero grip/tread on them. When I got to the stairs I decided to use no caution and just head out, I think I was about halfway down when I hit a wet patch and as my British friends like to say I went "ass over tits" and landed squarely on my back with the full force of my more than 200 lbs at the time.
I am what you would call a traditional "stubborn tough guy" and I was more concerned about who might have seen that happen than I was what I just did to myself, but I heard a crack when I hit the ground and at the time, I was just very thankful that I had not landed on my head because there was such force involved that I believe it might have killed me if I had. Here's a bit of advice for anyone visiting Vietnam because almost all condos are like mine as far as the stairs are concerned.
Especially here in Da Nang, since we are close to the famous "Marble Mountain" it is quite popular to have these completely unnecessary ornate stairs at the entrance that either look like they are or ARE made of marble. Sure, it looks great, but once you get a bit of moisture on those bad boys, they basically turn into a floor covered in Vaseline. They also tend to not have hand rails for you to hold as you are going up/down them. Vietnam doesn't have regulations like western countries so there will not be a sign warning you that they are slippery and they will almost always not have any sort of grip tape on the edges to grip your shoes as you are using them. I am sure that a lot of people fall down on these things and I look back at my spill and thing "what an idiot" when I think about how this happened to me.
Anyway, at the time I shook it off and just carried on, even though I ended up with a black and purple bruise on my back and there was a lot of aching involved as far as it was concerned. I don't go to the doctor for things like this and honestly, even if I had I don't know what they possibly could have done for me unless I demanded invasive surgery that would have involved me flying somewhere for a spinal specialist that don't exist in great numbers in this part of the world, but I didn't go see any doctor.
Since I started exercising again recently, I have started to notice that my right leg, my right hip, and my lower back would ache after a run. I just assumed, being a "tough guy" that this was because I was working a lot harder than I normally would have been back when I was doing almost no exercise. But the other day I was trying to do my first ever 10k run and got about 8k into it and decided to stop the tough guy act, and could barely make it back to my apartment. I was hobbling, taking a lot of breaks, and honestly at one point thought I was going to have to call a taxi to get me home.
Once again the "tough guy" came out in me and instead of seeking medical attention I took an ibuprofen and just found a comfortable way to lie down. It was several days later, when practice bowling on Tuesday - which is something we do every week - when I realized that something was terribly wrong. I was struggling to walk up the one step they commonly have at bowling alleys to get to where you roll the ball and was feeling like an old man because I had to use the ball machine to brace myself to get up and down to the ball rolling area.
It was at that point that I realized I needed to get a doctor involved. After a meeting and doing the usual blood pressure check, weight and height check and all the questions about what I am allergic to (nothing,) we got down to the important stuff and I talked to the doc about how whenever I do any sort of activity, a certain part of my back hurts to the point where I struggle to so much as walk. I was quite impressed when after lying me down and moving my legs around a bit she was able to tell exactly where the problem was and scheduled me for an MRI - which is something I have never done before.
After all of that and being inside of that very loud machine for 15 minutes or so, I get the results and get some very bad news. Turns out I have 2 herniated (bulging) disks in my lower back as well as an infection of the spinal root (not the correct word, but where your spine begins in your back inside of your pelvis) and this is most likely caused because of an untreated injury in the past.
I hadn't yet told them about crashing and burning on the stairs years ago, so there is no way that they could be making this information up. While I was impressed that they were able to figure this out, I was disappointed that I hadn't done anything about it in the past because now, there isn't a whole lot they can do for it.
That isn't my back, but it may as well be if you multiply the problem by two. When this happens to people, for the most part it isn't something that is painful all the time, it is just uncomfortable and always feels like there is some sort of pressure on your back. It is aggravated when you do things like exercise such as bounding up and down when you go on a long run like I was attempting to do on my 10k run.
The crappy thing about all of this is that generally there isn't a sort of surgical solution. This option is only used in severe cases because we don't just go running around removing parts of people's spines so they can run better. You need that spine, even if it is damaged. The process is called a microdiscetomy and it involves cutting you open and having down the spinal disks to relieve pressure. it is a very complicated and expensive process and even if I was going to have that done, I wouldn't put it in the hands of a cheap Vietnam hospital.
At the moment, they have prescribed me a bunch of pills, one of which is a steroid. I have only ever taken steroids at one other point in my life and that was for a severe ear infection. That magical drug worked wonders on that particular ailment, so I am hopeful that it can do something similar for this. At the moment though, I find it ironic and kind of saddening that this all came to my attention specifically because of the fact that I started exercising again.
Had i just continued my life of sitting around at home and while out, just being on a bar stool and drinking beer, I probably wouldn't have even known about this: It was specifically because I started to exercise again that this injury is something I became aware of. It's tragic isn't it? I try to do what we all know is good for us and because of it I end up NOT being able to because of what at the time just seemed like a silly falling down on the stairs in my haste to go and get more spaghetti sauce.
I suppose if I was to have learned anything from this experience it would be that the medical care in Da Nang, Vietnam is actually really good and quite cheap. Especially if you are living in the United States you will probably be a bit envious that I was able to speak to a general practitioner who initially diagnosed me quite correctly, then I was able to get 2 sets of X-rays, 2 MRIs, speak with a spinal specialist to review my results of these tests, and leave with a bunch of prescription drugs that will hopefully alleviate the problems for under $400 - with no insurance.
Everyone, including the people at the reception tables and all the nurses, spoke excellent English as well - which is something I really appreciate when you are in pain and in a hospital. So if you are in Da Nang and need a doctor or hospital, I highly recommend Vinmec International Hospital.