After Years of Backpain I Finally Broke Down and went to a Chiropractor

Over the last five years, I have been having some serious back issues. It all started when Bea and I went to Bavaria on a little vacation after I graduated Airman Leadership School. I drove the six hours there with no issues, we checked in, went to the room, and even went down to dinner. And that is when things went wrong. During dinner, I got up to get us more drinks, but once I got ready to go back to the table something in my back snapped and I couldn’t move anymore. After about an hour of slowly walking to the elevator and our second-floor room, I did the only thing I could think of and I laid down. It didn’t help.

We drove all the way to the beautiful country of Bavaria, we had tickets to see Neuschwanstein Castle, the castle that inspired Disney. We were also planning on visiting Austria and one of the many concentration camps around the area. But none of that happened. We spent the next day inside the hotel room, as I was trying to walk or hobble around and loosen up what I thought was just muscle aches. Bea had to help me do pretty much everything over those few days we were on vacation. The third day we were there I was able to move a lot better, so after a few hours of walking around the hotel room making sure I was good, we decided to head over to the base across from the hotel and get some food. We walked at a snail’s pace because it was snowing and the roads and sidewalks were covered in snow and ice. And after what felt like forever we finally made it across the street and over to the little food court. Subway was our choice of food that day, but while standing in line my back started to hurt so I went outside to sit down and take a break. The sitting turned into laying down, and that was all she wrote for that.

I was able to eat my sub somehow, but I couldn’t move at all. I was stuck, and that is when we had to call 112 (the European 911) and have them come and pick me up. The paramedics took me to the local ER and I laid down on the hospital bed until they were ready to take some X-rays of my back. The diagnosis was they weren’t really sure what was wrong. The doctor gave me some painkillers and I was sent “home”. The last two days while we were there, we never left the hotel grounds, but I was able to sorta walk around and I at least got out to see the awesome mountain views of the area. While we didn’t get to see and do everything we wanted to do, I think we still had a good trip and it was memorable for sure.

Once back at Ramstein, I immediately called my primary care manager (PCM) and was seen a few days later. They did no X-rays or imaging at all, the only thing they did was look at the one X-ray from the ER and nothing more. I was luckily already seeing physical therapy for issues with my legs, so they just added in some stretches for my back as well. The doctor put me on bed rest for like three weeks, and it took me about six months just to put my pants on standing up. It took like a year just to be able to function as a normal person. The back issue did almost stop my pcs from Ramstein to Spangdahlem, but I was somehow able to complete a walk PT test and was able to head to my next base with my new wife, Bea.

Once we got to Spangdahlem I didn’t really have too many issues with my back. It was still a nagging pain, but I was able to workout without much pain. That all changed about a year and a half into being there, my back once again was starting to act up. I still had mobility, but it felt like my bones were rubbing together or something in my lower back was snapping. But once again, the doctors at the base did no imaging and did not treat me whatsoever. All they offered me was some ibuprofen and some heat patches. But there was a light at the end of the tunnel, as we were told that the base could not support a medial condition Bea has and they were going to send us to another base.

Well, the base ended up being Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada. Once we got settled in, I called the appointment line and made an appointment to be seen by my new PCM. This base was the first, I felt, to take me seriously. My PCM sent me right to the physical therapy clinic to be evaluated and worked with to help. While they didn’t do any imaging right away, at least they were attempting to do something about the issue. After about two months of seeing the physical therapist, they referred me to pain management. This is when things really started to change. This was the first clinic to send me for an MRI and sat down with me and went over the results and gave me a way forward. I was getting therapy two times a week, I eventually started doing pool therapy, and when I was feeling more confident I was given a few workouts I could do. So, for the first year or so it was going ok. But over time getting out of bed at the end of the day was starting to get harder and harder. And now I sometimes literally have to crawl to the bathroom and use the wall to push myself up.

I have gotten facet injections twice, and one injection into my L5, S1. The first facet injections into my L3, L4, L5, L5 S1 worked for a few weeks. But the two injections I got after that, did not help at all. I once again called my PCM to ask her what I should do next. Her answer was to get another profile and there was a chance of being medically separated from the Air Force, but so far that has not happened. But she will not really see me or talk to me unless I talk with the pain clinic first. And with Covid going on right now it’s almost impossible to even get a PCM to call you back. When I finally got a call back a month later it was my PCMs assistant, and she told me there was not much they could do, and that I should seek help from outside the military system. That was not the answer I was hoping for, since that meant the military wasn’t going to pay for that care.

After lots of back and forth and talking with my First Shirt and some friends, I decided with Bea to see a chiropractor. I did some research online and found a place that looked good and had great reviews. My first appointment was a diagnostic visit. So I got 10 X-rays and they did a few pictures of my posture so they could run it through their analyzer and see how bad of a shift I have. The second appointment I had was the one that talks about the results of the X-rays and what they wanted to do to help correct it.

The results weren’t all that shocking to me, but how bad it really is, I was not expecting. The Air Force only focuses on the lower back where the pain is. The chiropractor on the other hand focuses on the entire back and what the root cause of the pain is, then figuring out how they can correct it. In my lower back, where the pain is the worst, you can see in the X-rays that my very bottom disc is almost completely gone. The chiropractor said when I bent over for a different X-ray, you can see some disc left, so it’s not a lost cause yet. But that part of my back was not the only concern. He told me that looking at my X-rays, I am basically a hunch back and I was going to have quite the road to recovery to correct it. My neck was also completely out of alignment and I am part of the 82% of the world that has a short left leg.

After going over the X-rays and talking about the care plan that is when they hit us with what it was going to cost to get the initial treatment. And that price was $6400, and Tricare does not cover any part of that, so that means if I was going to go forward with the care it was all going to come out of my own pocket, and there is no way I can afford that price. After talking with my dad he did some research and found out that Tricare did indeed pay for chiropractic care. But it had to be performed at an approved military facility, and it turns out Nellis hospital is one of those approved facilities. But I was told that it was not offered there, so now the fight begins on trying to get the care I need just to be able to live a normal life. And if you know anything about military healthcare you know that this will be an uphill battle, but I plan on winning this fight.