Alex Mosqueda, 21, is a Bakersfield College student who has been struggling with back pain ever since his sophomore year at Frontier High School.

When Mosqueda was in his second year of high school, he and some of his friends decided to have a deadlifting competition.

When Mosqueda was done deadlifting over 200 pounds, days after his back was sore, which he said was normal.

What was not normal is that months after, his back was still sore.

At the end of sophomore year, Mosqueda decided that it was time to go see a chiropractor and he said that Mosqueda had two herniated discs in his spine.

When Mosqueda was talking to his science teacher, he told Mosqueda that he should start running to help him with his back problems, so at the start of junior year, he joined cross country at Frontier.

He said, “I was the slowest guy on the team; I’ll tell you that, but I had heart. I didn’t give up.”

Unfortunately, later on Mosqueda figured out that, “It wasn’t working I would get pains from the long-distance running.”

Mosqueda then got a second opinion from a doctor telling him that he “probably hurt his back and should take it easy.”

In the summer before his senior year of high school, Mosqueda was at the gym because he figured that if he just did some minor workouts and got back into shape, it could possibly make his back better.

He said, “I just started doing some light lifting. Did my first set. Came up to do my second set.” And on his tenth set, he said he, “Came up, lower part of my spine all popped. Both my legs went numb. I dropped the weight and I was in instant pain.”

He also said, “I’m at the gym. I’m not going to cry. I’m going to tough this out. I wanted to cry a lot because it was so much pain.”

Mosqueda said that it was gym policy to not leave weights out so he had to lift them back up on the racks which were higher than his shoulders.

Mosqueda went to talk to one of the trainers at the gym and the trainer told him that he should use a Styrofoam roller to see if he might be able to pop his back.

Mosqueda could not do it.

“I was in so much pain I couldn’t even lift my body three inches off the ground,” he said.

When Mosqueda wanted to go home, he needed a ride because his house is three miles away from the gym.

Unfortunately, his sister was on the other side of town, so he decided to walk home.

He was able to walk halfway to his house before his sister was able to pick him up. He then got home and immediately laid on his bed.

Days after, he went to see a doctor who told Mosqueda that he lost partial reflex in his Achilles tendon area and had MRI scheduled.

Mosqueda wanted to do wrestling his senior year, so he went to go get a physical done.

Mosqueda said, “The doctor said, ‘yeah you’re physically good to go,’ but when he saw that I had an MRI done, he looked over the results and told me that I wasn’t ever going to be able to play contact sports ever again.

He guaranteed me that if I was to wrestle, I would lose both of my legs.”

Mosqueda did not participate in wrestling and when he graduated high school, he registered for classes at BC to get a certificate in AutoCAD.

He landed a job at a bowling alley and his back got worse after he had to take out the trash for his job.

He speculates the reason why by saying, “I think it was from the time I was taking out the trash; it had to be at least over 100 pounds.

Picked it up, threw it in the dumpster and then it just wasn’t the same after that.”

He got another MRI scheduled and he said, “… and they confirmed that I had three herniated discs and a thing called spinal stenosis.”

The doctor told Mosqueda that spinal stenosis could lead to bone deterioration and he would never be able to use his legs again.

He was advised to get surgery, but because he had already registered for classes for spring 2017, he did not want to get it done because he would not recover from it in time for spring semester.

He was forced to stop working and live off of disability funds, and in that time he was able to get his certification in AutoCAD.

Mosqueda now has a job trucking and his right leg started to get tingly and numb again.

He said, “I’ve been thinking about it, and I think it’s time for my surgery.”

In the coming weeks, Mosqueda is going be seeing a specialist to see what he needs to do in order to prepare for the surgery and have a safe recovery.