I recently injured the right flank area of my back at work, at first I was convinced it had to be an internal organ, like a Kidney Stone or something to do with my Liver. I had my Gallbladder removed in 2006 and thought possibly it was something related to that. The ER Doctor took a CT and Xray and said it was a Severe Back Sprain. I ending up going to Urgent care 4 days later and the Doctor there said Mike your Organs are OK, it IS a back sprain, it then ended up as a Workman Comp claim. Man, I could not believe something like that could be so painful and being in the right flank area, it is my understanding that it is very hard to diagnose medical issues relating to that area of the body. But I do believe now that it is a muscle sprain and I'm going through Therapy for it.

Why am I yakking about this, you ask? I have never, (knock on wood) had a back injury before, the normal aches and pains, but never an outright injury and it has given me a deep understanding of what chronic back suffers deal with. There are several people where I work, with bad backs, mine will heal soon, but to those people that deal with it on a day to day --- year to year bases, my heart goes out to you. It is always the same with pain or grief, we want to understand your pain or grief, but until you have first hand knowledge, there is no way to really understand the extent of the pain involved.

I guess statistically speaking, mine is one of the most common work related injuries, as far as the back goes. I also have never been on Workman Comp before, so that will be a new experience. How can we prevent these injuries from happening, the Therapist says that it helps to do certain exercises to help prevent them. It is a shame that our President felt that the first thing he needed to do after taking office, was to kill the Ergonomics Law, of course, hay, we are all the same size, us workers out there are all, 6' 180 lbs, so why in the world would we need some stinking Ergo Law and these injuries are one of the top, here is a site that has a lot of statistics, NIOSH they actually have statistics on all worker related injuries.

Well enough rambling on, my whole point is to say that I definitely have a better understanding for people who are and have been suffering from a back injury. I have experienced it and I want to say, to those of you who have not, hopefully you will never have to deal with the pain, just try and be more understanding to those who walk around with thier backs always straight and never bend, they do that because, if they bend just a little IT HURTS!