Painful Back-to-Work Experience

I was a total moron and thought we weren't allowed to lift anything over 10lbs for 14 days. (Apparently, it's six weeks!) I went back to work, where I am a pharmacy technician, and went about my usual business. I was so glad to be back, and my wallet was screaming with excitement.

Around 3am that night, I awoke to horrible back pain. I had to take teeny, shallow breaths because, otherwise, my lungs would expand, pushing against the same muscles. My throat was more sore than surgery day, after the breathing tube was removed. At first thought, I figured I had contracted the flu. I hobbled downstairs ever so slowly and sat in front of the freezer, sucking on ice cubes to relieve my sore throat. Luckily, that mostly worked and I now attribute it to post-nasal drip from my seasonal allergies.

The severe back pain was so bad that I downed 2 tablespoons of the oxycodone I had left after surgery and passed out on a heating pad for the morning/afternoon. Thankfully, the following day (today), the pain was gone.

I'm assuming I somehow pulled the muscles when I was lifting medical totes all afternoon at work. Just be very, very careful when you go back in and DONT do what I did!!!

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haha I feel like I'm stalking your threads. I'm a pharmacy tech too! I feel better now that I don't have a job to go back to right now. I probably would've done exactly the same thing you did.

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Banded 1/6/09
Dr. Gail Wynn - Newark, DE

I had that a bit as well when I got back into exercise. It didn't seem bad as you were doing it . . . but you definitely pay the price later.

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