Back "issues"

I caught part of this story yesterday during the sports wrap-up. Kerry Wood of the Chicago Cubs blamed back problems on a bad bed in Pittsburgh. This reminded me of back issues suffered by another teammate. Earlier in the season, Sammy sneezed so hard (must have had the force of a hurricane) that he injured his back. Sammy actually had to miss games because of this. It sounded absurd at first, but I've sneezed when my back has been aching: Ouch! That hurts.

I can sympathize with Mr. Wood since I've experienced "bad beds". Many of the beds in the call rooms at the hospital were killer. I had to sleep on my side to minimize the damage. God help me if I needed to spring into action for a "Code Blue" in the night (or in the dawn). My back would stiffen up terribly, and it was PAINFUL getting up. I needed a couple of minutes of stretching to loosen up the back muscles. It had to be that bed because my bed at home wasn't creating these problems. It does surprise me that Wood had problems since most hotels have good beds (unless they stayed at a cheap hotel).

All blame can't be assigned to bad beds. Most back problems are a result of poor muscle conditioning. Weak abdominal muscles put extra strain on one's back. Poor posture is another culprit. One many people don't realize: weak gluteal (butt) muscles cause the lower back muscles to work overtime. The body is an amazing thing; it tries to compensate when things aren't working properly. The sly thing recruits reinforcements. It sends you the memo latter explaining what was set in motion. People usually are not aware of the it until the body starts to decompensate. By that time, your body says "I give up. I can't do this any longer. Seek professional help."

*Code blue= dreaded by interns & residents. Means something horrible has happened to a patient: either a cardiac or pulmonary arrest.