Casey and the Back

From this morning’s article about Casey Dick’s visit to the back doctor in Little Rock:

Realizing that Dick’s back injury wasn’t getting much better with rest and standard treatment, Arkansas athletic trainer Dean Weber and assistant athletic trainer Eric Linson sent the quarterback to Little Rock to meet with Rob Tillman, a physician.

“After several imaging scans and evaluations, they have confirmed that Casey has muscle tightness facilitated by a stress reaction at L2 (vertebrae),” Weber said in a statement released Tuesday night through the university.

The way I’m reading this, we might see Casey back on the field in a few days, or, more than likely, in a few weeks.  I suspect we will see McFadden on the field before we see Casey.

Why do I say this?  It is pretty clear that Casey’s back issues began with the hit by Olajubutu in the spring (that easily would have drawn a penalty flag if it had occurred in a ‘real’ game).  To have suffered through the remainder of the spring practices and to have healed by fall, only then to begin to experience pain again tells us a lot about his problem.  Something about that hit changed his back.  Possibly forever.

If you search Google for the combination of “stress reaction”, the word ‘back’, and the word ‘pain’ and roam through the reading a bit you’ll encounter the word ‘spondylolysis.’  If you search Google for ‘spondylolysis‘ you’ll get quite a reading list.  I recommend going directly to this article, but there is a lot of good reading under this topic.  You’ll note that there’s lots of discussion about athletics and back pain. 

I’m not a doctor.  But, on L5 my ‘scottie dog has a broken neck.’  I have the condition ‘spondylolysis.’  It came from trauma – getting hit – a long time ago.  So, I know a bit about back pain.  I had a very small fracture at the neck of my scottie dog.  It is forever broken as it is something that really doesn’t grow back together.

My pain comes and goes.  I go for long periods with no pain at all.  I have periods where the pain is a dull ache that is easily controlled by stretching, ice, and Advil.  I have periods where the pain is like a stab in the back that immediately shoots down my leg.  As a matter of fact, I’m going through one of the latter periods this month.  I can swing a golf club today, but I can’t bend over to read a putt or tie my shoe.  Lifting my right foot off the ground is agony.  Getting in and out of a vehicle is torture.  I can be fine one moment and in amazing pain the next.  Dealing with this literally wears you out.  I’m not unique.  I meet lots of people with this problem.

I’ve been told that Casey’s pain is like a ‘stab in the back.’  The word ‘fracture’ has been used quietly.  My understanding from the first recurrence last week was that this was much worse than what was being said publicly.  As you can see from your reading, ‘stress reaction’ in relation to back pain (that appears suddenly) tends to be proceeded by a trauma – a hit – that relocated or re-jiggered some part of the spine.

Having been to almost every open practice and watching him, it is obvious to me that the pain comes and goes.  The other night I watched him run a bit, lean over and make a one handed catch and playfully throw the ball to a teammate.  Seemed fine and moved freely.  Then I saw him hold his back for a couple of minutes and move about very stiffly.   Somewhere towards the end of that activity I’m guessing the ‘stab’ must have hit him.  You begin to move in a ‘stiff’ fashion because you don’t want another ‘stab.’   As time passes you relax, but then you do something to cause the ‘stab’ and the process starts over.  The more you ‘tense’ and ‘tighten up’ to avoid the stabs, the worse it seems to be. 

Depending on the severity of the episode, I find that it takes anywhere between 4 weeks and 6 months before I’m back to a ‘normal’ pain free state.  Stretching, ice, meds, and careful physical activity and rehab are needed.  (No heat – I learned that the hard way.)  In 30 plus years of having this problem, I have had five major episodes that took more than three months to recover from. (The first, and one of the worst, at age 21.)   I’ve had years of annoying minor pain.  Many times I haven’t even known what triggered the major episode.  I work with a sports chiropractor on an as needed basis to help me get ‘loosened up.’  All a real doctor can do is recommend therapy, keep you in pills and advise you to put off surgery as long as possible.  (If anyone knows different, I’m all ears.)

This is not something you rest and rehab for a week or two and it gets all better.  But you can get better.