Back Pain
I called mom last night to say “Hi.” When she answered my, “How are you” with uncertainty, I gently prodded. She confessed to back pain severe enough that she’d borrowed a neighbor’s walker. Mom became very defensive when I asked her what happened to cause so much pain. I defused her defensiveness by sharing some of my back pain stories… Usually caused by my own over inflated expectations of my physical abilities. She relaxed, laughed, and said she had no idea why her back was hurting. She said it’d been this way for most of a week and was getting worse. She’d seen the doctor last week. He prescribed pain meds that weren’t working. She called him again (yesterday), and was planning on going in today.
My mom doesn’t have a history of back problems. I’m worried that she fell, and have asked her doctor to check for bruising. Mom, if she remembered it happening, might try to hide a bad fall from any and all of us. The fact she didn’t tell me about her back hurting could be an unfortunate bit of circumstantial evidence to this effect.
The neighbor who loaned her the walker has been in touch and, in fact, is taking mom to her appointment this afternoon. The neighbor let me know that mom had an X-Ray last week, which showed nothing. We’re both of the opinion that mom may be having muscle spasms.
I’ll know more later this afternoon.
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