3 Lessons From an Acute Back Trauma: Joint popping, muscle dominance, and the mind game

Recently I became the primary caretaker for my wife in the aftermath of a motor vehicle accident. Like all health professionals who face their own medical crises, I immediately discovered that taking care of a spouse is nothing like taking care of a patient! Easier in some ways, much harder in others, it is a tornado of continuing education: hundreds of concepts that were a matter of abstract professional knowledge are suddenly embodied in the pain of a loved one and pushed into my brain with an emotional battering ram.

All good health professionals are emotionally sensitive to their patients’ suffering … but not like this!

Here are three lessons about injury (especially low back pain) and recovery that I’ve drawn from my experience so far. None are particularly surprising to me — not so much learned as reinforced — and I’m sure this list will grow:

1 — Joints pop more after trauma! I’ve said this to patients for years without really being sure of it, but now I’ve witnessed it dramatically. Kim’s back barely popped before, but now pops so much that it’s been a struggle for her to accept that it’s normal. It seems extreme.

2 — Muscle pain is king. My wife crushed one vertebra, snapped a tip off another, and had steel braces screwed into the bone above and below … but that’s not what hurt. She has had some back pain, sure. But muscle pain in the area — especially the hip, many inches from the fractures — has consistently been by far the most significant source source of symptoms. Muscle is clinically underestimated!

3 — And neurology is queen. The evidence is overwhelming that what you think about your pain is a critical factor in your experience and recovery (see Pain Is an Opinion and The Mind Game In Low Back Pain). Countless times I have observed Kim react to similar stimuli in different ways, depending on the mental context. Nervousness makes things hurt more! And confidence makes them hurt less.