Muscle Spasm

After a rough weekend, things are looking better. For those of you who do not know, I was injured Thursday afternoon lifting weights at home.
During a typical lower back exercise I felt a sharp pain that dropped me to the floor. Thirty minutes after the initial injury, I felt better so I thought it would be safe to finish my training (mistake 1/4). That's when things got ugly. I completed a mere two sets of a bicep exercise before I had to halt my training. The pain was ten times worse than the initial injury less than a hour before. If that wasn't enough I decided to go swimming (mistake 2/4). I assumed the cool water would sooth my sore back. It didn't. That night I took a hand full of ibuprofren and asked my wife to massage my back (mistake 3/4). After taking my shirt off, Erin told me she could see a large knot on the right side of my lower back. I knew then, this wasn't going to be good. In a last ditch effort, I asked her to massage the knot out (mistake 4/4), which took the pain to a new level. Mistake 4 kicked the shit out of mistakes 1 through 3. Thursday night I was in a lot of pain, but able to move around on my own free will.
The next morning I woke up to back pain like I have never experienced before in my life. I wasn't able to do ANYTHING. I couldn't walk, roll-over, move my legs... nothing! I called Erin at work to come home and help me. We spent the better part of the morning, trying to determine my next action. The end result was the emergency room. The trip downstairs and the ER visit are stories within their selves, which I will save for another day. The ER diagnosis was severe muscle spasms. Sounds fairly wimpy, but say what you may... I couldn't walk. I was prescribed oxaprozin and tizanidine twice a day. In case your wondering, neither worked any better than ibuprofren.
Friday afternoon things seemed brighter as I was able to walk with assistance, but only for very short distances. The walking ended Friday evening and not by my choice, it simply hurt too much. Saturday was probably the worst of all four days thus far. I still couldn't walk and had to completely rely on my wife and daughter to help me move and retrieve the things I wanted (drinks, food, books, medicines, etc). I wasn't able to bear weight on my feet until Sunday afternoon. That's more than 48-hours on my back, in bed. Yes, it SUCKED! I still wasn't able to move around freely, but I was happy to take a shower and go downstairs.
Today (Monday), I had a doctors appointment. The doc said everything is progressing as planned, but it will be a slow healing process. He told me to expect ten days or more before being pain-free. I advised the doc of my running and then the bad news came. He stated no running at all for 7-days after the last sign of any pain. I was bummed about the news. I've already been off since Thursday, he assumes this will last another 10 days, then on top of that he wants a 7-day buffer! I just knew I would have to start over, but I talked to Steeve and he assured me this sounds normal and everything will work out. I was appreciative for the insight. So, things are not going the way I had planned but, I'm trying to deal with what I was dealt in a positive way.
Today I tried to consider what actions lead to this event and what I could change in the name of prevention. When I start lifting weights again I plan to drop the amount of weight by 30%-40% and increase the frequency (2-3 times a week). Here is what I think happened: I've been "hit and miss" with my weight training. I skipped last weeks weight training and the week before I only did one day. The week before that I also only did one day of weight training, yet I never changed the actual amount of weight. I pushed forward with my usual training & weight amount and well here I am crying on your shoulder.

Before this gets any longer, I want to stop here and thank my lovely wife Erin. She was been wonderful to me this weekend. She pulled triple duty since my injury and hasn't made a single complaint. Thanks Erin, your the BEST!

Obviously, I have no exercise training to log. I was able to remain under 3000 calories. Below I have listed my 4-day average and the 4-day high and low.

Calories: 2857, L-2728, H-2995
Fat: 72, L-61, H-93
Carbs: 398, L-359, H-423
Protein: 182, L-148, H-218