There comes a time in everyone’s life when you begin to realize that you are getting older. I know, I know, as depressing as that may sound, it is true. I seem to have been in denial for the past 3 or 4 years around this very thing. I have an issue with my L5, that I thought I was over. There is only one thing that has helped me through the pain…..Koshindo.

Allow me to explain….

I used to love to play basketball. Couldn’t get enough of it. Every weekend you could find me at Komozawa Park hoopin it up with “The Rockers.” A group of kids who paid to have a back board and rim build and mounted at the park. Simple 1/2 court 5-on-5. It was about 4 or 5 years ago when I first felt the pain in my lower back. Think it was a rebound or something that kicked it off. I sat out, went home and eventually the pain went away.

That following year, in the early fall, I began to get this shooting pain down my right ass cheek right below my belt-line. I did some research and realized that it was sciatica. A condition where the nerve that comes out of your back is pinched or swollen and basically makes your life a living hell. It was an unbelievable pain and something that didn’t come and go. It was constant. Everything I read said the same thing…. rest and it will go away when the nerve swelling goes down. It did.

It happened again on/off over the years until Christmas 2003 on a flight back to Tokyo on a rather popular airline. This airline is renowned for it’s unique approach to serving the customers. All of the entertainment you can eat. Movies galore, games whatever all at your fingertip. The problem is, seemed to be that the more frills you give the more people you need to pack in to turn a profit. I am only saying this because the damn seats were sooooo small. I am not a tiny guy by any means, but at the same time, I could not imagine someone with a weight problem taking this airline.

Anyhow, it is usually an 11~13hr flight back to Tokyo from London and I must have watched about 4 or 5 movies on that flight. Hell it was free and on demand. Need to go the bathroom? No problem. Put it on pause! So anyhow, the lack of rest combined with the small assed seat (literally), pretty much did me in the next day. BACK PAIN AGAIN!

This time was different though. Really different. It was scary. The reason being is that I somehow began to lose the feeling in my right leg. It actually went to the point where I could not flex my foot at all. It was just limp. I had sensation in the foot, but my calf muscle just refused to flex no matter what! What the hell goes through your mind at this point? Everything that you could horribly imagine. I couldn’t sit for long periods of time, I couldn’t walk for long periods of time…. I was in hell.

I tried everything… Warm baths, cold compresses, stretching exercises, crunches, everything to try and fix my self. On fine day all of that changed when I bent over in the bedroom to grab my jeans from the floor and was hit with the most excruciating pain that I could remember. I couldn’t move. Trying to stand made it worse, trying to get to the ground also left me in complete agony. You know that kind of pain? The kind where you can’t breathe? I figured that it might be better to let gravity work its magic and try to slowly lower myself to the floor. About 4 minutes later I made it. Face down on the floor in complete pain. I could not move one bit. The Mrs. was standing over me freaking out! “I called my Mom and she said to call the ambulance!” “HELL NO” I replied. I wasn’t going out like that on a weekend morning. Everyone watching them wheel my ass out. I needed to save my pride and somehow get my jeans on first! I simply followed like a beaten man by saying with a whimper… “Just give me a few minutes here. It will be fine, then we can go to the Hospital down the road.”

It took me 30 minutes to get back on my feet. Now, how to get to the hospital. She says “I’ll get the truck.” I was freaked by the idea of climbing in and out of the truck, so I simply decided that walking there was the best option for me in this condition.

At the hospital, of course I was too scared to sit down and as usual we had to wait for all of the sniffle cases to be seen, so I was walking around as if I was running from another attack of the back-beast. Then I saw something that put me at ease.. NOT! They wheeled a dead body right through the waiting area! Family in tow and everything. This day wasn’t going to get much better. I finally got into the doctor and after a few x-rays he says that the space between my L4 & L5 was smaller in the back where my spine arches out near my ass. As a result it is forcing the disc to slip forward and pinch the sciatic nerve in my back causing the pain I was experiencing. The prescription…. rest, pain killers, inflammation meds and cold pads for my back. Gee, that’s it? Yup.. Suck it up Marine, it’s only a flesh wound.

This was the case for almost all of January when I finally decided to try eastern medicine. I made an appointment for an acupuncturist. I went a couple of times and each time it felt much better but I still had issues with moving my foot. February came and I was getting desperate. I couldn’t go on line this forever. That is when the Mrs. suggested that I go to Koshindo.

Koshindo is a little shop in Kawasaki that is run by one dude and his many apprentices. He is apparently very famous in the world of those who believe in eastern medicine. I think the best way to explain what he is, is a chiropractor with a twist. He pulls out all of the stops depending on what ails you. He doesn’t run a big organization, it is a rather small space with 4 tables. When you first walk in you get to see three of the tables and the apprentices hopping over patients who are usually face down on the tables getting a serious work over.

Those heated bubble glasses sucked all over one back. On another a heat lamp with dozens of needles stuck in and electrodes connected to them. Finally the “sensei” is standing on the table over one individual with his thumbs dug deep into her spine. She moans but takes it like a trooper. Have I stumbled into the little shop of horrors? Seemed to be a whole lotta pain goin on here. At that point I didn’t give a shit. I needed it to stop and needed to regain the mobility back in my right leg.

I will skip my experience that time in lieu of my experience yesterday which I will tell you about in a separate blog since it is still fresh in my mind, and this one is getting a bit long. But needless to say, after 3 visits to Koshindo my foot was completely back in action, the pain was gone and was completely good to go. I spent almost 3 months in complete pain for this guy to sort me out in 3 sessions in 3 weeks! Plus he also told me that I needed to stop carrying things on my left shoulder which was mis-aligning my spine and contributing to the problem. HOW THE HELL DID HE KNOW THAT I CARRIED MY BACK PACK & COMPUTER BAG ON MY LEFT SIDE!?!?!??! He who is going to question it. His shit worked!

So since what I have is not really going to go away until I do one of two things… Start exercising more on the abs to strengthen my core or wait until it gets so bad that they have to do something crazy like fuze my vertebrae…. Gee, you wonder what I am going to do? Let’s just say I have to go now for some butter fly kicks.