Actually this is not a recent development - but we just found out about it.
After my aortic valve replacement and kidney removal last year, I was set to lose weight and get back in shape. I did over three months of prescribed cardio rehab and other than some back spasms that went great. So after that was finished my husband and I went to one of the better local gyms and signed up for memberships.
My husband is doing great - three or four times a week, really pushing himself to get fit - until one latest echocardiogram showed an enlarged aorta just above his heart. So now he's just trying to keep his fitness level up but not pushing for cardio fitness. He gets CT scans in July to better image his aorta and see what is going on.
Meanwhile I was doing my cardio, working on the weight machines and happily increasing duration, reps, and weight for each activity. Until two weeks ago. I checked out one of their balance/brain classes - I have not been certain of my balance after shoulder and knee surgeries and thought those classes would help. The next day my lower back and right hip were agonizing. I went to my doctor's and the PA sent me for X-rays. Those showed deterioration in the lower spine and iliac crest. So I was referred to back and hip guys at the orthopedic clinic I've been going to for twenty five years.
I saw the ARNP for the back guy Monday. I have an instability in L5 - the last lumbar vertebrae, just above the sacrum. He thinks when I fell off a horse thirty five years ago and messed up my lower back and pelvis, that vertebrae was broken and has finally migrated enough to impinge on a nerve. I get MRI scans whenever they can schedule me and those should give details about the location of the nerve and the disc. He still wants me to see the hip guy - it usually takes over three months to get an appointment at his office, but I have one for next week.
I'm pissed - with the pain in my lower back and hip I can't exercise right now. The gym will extend my membership so I'm not out any bucks, but I will AGAIN lose all the fitness I have built up since January and have to start over from scratch.
And just to piss me off even more it turns out that the recliner I bought for the living room last fall is exactly the wrong thing to sit in with this back problem. We watched Thor: Ragnarok last night and my back is even worse than it was. Even with a pillow to reduce pressure on the lower lumbar area, it hurt like hell.
So my husband's aorta probably needs fixing, my back probably will need to be screwed together and the world in general sucks right now. Plus, there is no way we can get out to protest about anything in person.