I am just digging out of a stint of what a physiatrist who specializes in the back told me was a “flare up”. Orthopedists often ask you to rate your pain on a scale of 1 to 10–10 being the equivalent of hell. This recent flare up easily merited a 9 on my pain scale.

Of course when the pain was at its worst, it was the week before Memorial Day weekend. People were leaving town and most everyone’s schedule was fully booked. The secretary of a chiropractor my son-in-law highly recommended took pity on me and managed to squeeze me into a very early morning appointment. After drilling his elbows into my hip flexors (he’s a large man who put all his weight into those maneuvers), I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to walk again. But he managed to eventually get the pain level down to about 6. But then a day later, it crawled back up again to about an 8.

I made appointments with the back physiatrist, an acupuncturist and a physical therapist, but all were for 2-3 weeks out. So the only pain weapons in my anti-pain tool kit was Tylenol (I can’t take anti-inflammatories), a heating pad, ice pack and lidocaine patches. My back was initially very unimpressed.

I’ll spare you details of that very painful interlude except to say that stretching did help and, probably, all the weapons in my anti-pain tool kit did start to kick in –after a while. By the time I saw both the back physiatrist and the acupuncturist, my pain level had dropped down to about a 2.

If there’s a moral to the story it’s this. Back pain is the worst. And, since so many of us have it, know that everyone can relate. My advice is to invest in a good heating pad and buy an ice pack that you can wear for 20 minutes at a time! And know that our backs don’t like it when we sit too much.