The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread

It started while I was on a Hawaiian vacation in May. I thought I’d just tweaked my back lifting a poolside lounge chair. Back home, my back pain became severe, and I started noticing nerve pain in my legs. For eight days I could barely crawl around the house. My wife and two daughters nicknamed me "the worm." At 45, I’m in pretty good shape–avid cyclist, runner, weightlifter, yoga enthusiast with a resting pulse in the 50s.

So it was weird when my primary care doctor put me on a cocktail of pain killers, nerve blockers, and cortisone shots. I even tried acupuncture. But as my back began to improve in late June, I started to feel off. Sick to my stomach. Weak. Couldn’t sleep. I lost more than 10 pounds. But I chalked this up to a month of too much Vicodin after a lifetime of thinking two Advil was excessive. My doctor said I was fit and healthy and that there was no need to run any blood tests. He wondered aloud if this was all in my head.

Matt Berncke

Full Story: https://www.wired.com/story/the-day-i-found-out-my-life-was-hanging-by-a-thread/