In Focus

I hurt my back while switching out a five-gallon water jug over the weekend. I’ve done this many times before, but this time I felt something pull in my back. By the evening, I was in horrible pain.

That night, I wasn’t home and wasn’t paying attention when I took a steroid, which kept me awake, resulting in a horrible night’s sleep. I took another one in the morning. Between that and the Tylenol, I was able to make it home for muscle relaxers, hoping Monday would be better. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

I ended up leaving work early to head to a walk-in clinic for some help. I mainly wanted to ensure I hadn’t herniated a disc and I needed to get something to ease the pain during the day, as I cannot take muscle relaxers—they just knock me out.

I didn’t have to wait long at the clinic, and the doctor assured me that I had only irritated my muscles. I was prescribed Toradol, which wouldn’t make me drowsy, which was great!

When I got home, I took one and started my evening routine. I hadn’t heard of Toradol before, so I looked it up. I’m glad I did. Toradol is an NSAID that is generally not recommended for people with Crohn’s disease because it can significantly irritate the gastrointestinal tract, potentially triggering severe disease flares, stomach bleeding or life-threatening bowel perforations.

This made me wonder if the doctors even bothered to look at my chart. Why would they prescribe me something that could cause a flare or worse, something that would result in pain lasting much longer than my back pain? It was no more taking that stuff for me.

Since I currently don’t have a primary doctor, I messaged someone I recently saw for other issues and explained my situation. They recommended a lidocaine patch, but that didn’t help me at all. I was already using a topical treatment. The doctor also mentioned I had received a shot of this medication before. Really? Does nobody care about my disease or the possibility of making it worse?

There was no way I was going to go back to the hospital and pay for another appointment. Realizing I wasn’t going to get any actual help, I ended up just taking the muscle relaxers. However, after a few days, they caused my eyes to bug out and not focus on what I was doing, which, combined with my fatigue, led me to nap over lunch.

After a few days of this, a chiropractic treatment and a massage later, I stopped taking the muscle relaxers as I was finally well enough to manage with just Tylenol.

I’ve been in remission from Crohn’s for years, and there’s no way I’m going to take something that could cause a flare! Always question your medications!