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My Back Pain Ached

This poem portrays everyday life in the face of aging through the long-standing experience of chronic back pain. From its onset in youth, through the struggles during a teaching career, to the present, the poem traces a personal history of living alongside pain. It reveals a life of coexistence with physical limitation, where acceptance of decline is balanced with the will to keep moving, and where quiet moments of peace emerge within that reality.

 

“My Back Pain Ached”

 

A harmful consequence of walking on two legs—

even the smallest movement weighs heavily on the lower back.

 

It first began when I was in my second year of high school.

I took a jump shot in basketball.

The moment I landed, my back gave way.

A sharp pain shot through my right side.

That was the beginning of my acute back strain.

Since then, it returned about once a year.

 

After becoming a teacher,

a herniated disc followed me.

I was forced to take two months off work.

I went to chiropractic treatment.

Avoiding hospitalization, I recovered at home.

After returning, I brought a simple bed into the classroom.

In the afternoons, I taught while lying down.

Those months, I was supported by my students.

Even after recovering, I could not stay still.

I was never the type to sit in the staff room.

There were classes, and coaching youth sports as well.

Perhaps because I threw myself into everything, the hernia returned.

In winter, I became absorbed in curling.

When I won the regional championship, I left the hernia behind.

In the end, I accepted it as a chronic condition.

 

Then came sciatica, uninvited.

Numbness ran from my right hip down my leg.

Still, I could move without much trouble.

And then came the truly troublesome one—

lumbar spinal stenosis.

A narrowing of the spinal canal, where nerves and the spinal cord pass.

There is no natural cure.

The cause: age-related degeneration of the discs.

Rehabilitation at an orthopedic clinic had no effect.

I was prescribed painkillers and muscle relaxants.

At an osteopathic clinic, I underwent electrical therapy and stretching.

I went once a week for two years,

then quit, as no further improvement could be expected.

Three years have passed since then.

I still had back pain several times a year, but now it is mild.

My natural flexibility helped.

Stretching exercises continued since youth also helped.

Swinging a wooden sword strengthened my core.

Outdoor work brings stiffness, but the pain soon subsides.

Climbing hills on a city bike, which I started last summer, also helped.

The heel pain I had for two years disappeared.

The muscles of my hips and legs tightened despite my age.

Perhaps as a combined effect, I endured long bus journeys across the region.

 

Fifteen years of a desk-bound life have passed.

The back pain I once thought incurable is now calm.

At my age, avoiding strain is best—

and yet, I still test my limits with a wry smile.

I live peacefully, enjoying drinks and my wife’s cooking.

This condition of mine will not say goodbye—

so for now, I will ask severe pain to stay away a little longer.

 

Written on April 20, 2026.

Back pain had long been a chronic condition that forced me to lie down whenever it flared up. It feels almost mysterious that it has now settled.

 

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