Serious back pain in Australia

[islandpiper]

Look, DWallace is home suffering from a serious back problem. this is an old issue, but has re-occurred with a vengence.

So, whatever you do DON'T SEND HIM ANY FUNNY EMAILS, you know jokes, cartoons, funny poems. Nothing like that which could make him laugh.

OK? you know what to do.

piper

 

[islandpiper]

Has everyone been following directions? piper

 

[bearridge]

I hired a nurse gymnast to give him a puncture in hiz accu. [evil grin]

 

[Kayak Jack]

I sent the bloke a limerick, and he called me. Helluva nice guy to talk with.

 

[islandpiper]

jack, i talked with David on the phone one day, too. Your are right, he's good to talk with but the 11-hour delay in voice transmittal makes the conversation seem to run a little slow.

piper

 

[Kayak Jack]

jack, i talked with David on the phone one day, too. Your are right, he's good to talk with but the 11-hour delay in voice transmittal makes the conversation seem to run a little slow.

piper

I just set my clock ahead and it worked fine! Make sure you get the "AM" - "PM" thingey do right.

 

[dawallace45]

Piper / Jack / guy's

It's not so much the laughing that is the problem but sneezing and coughing is a real bastard and going to the crapper is real low on my good things to do list , one of the few times I'm glad the painkillers tend to constipate , but I'm getting better , the back is settling down a bit , it only takes me a minute or so to get off the bed now and I'm down to two minutes getting into my wife's ford , of course it takes me a full minute to get into it when my back isn't bad , they just don't make them for proper size people ,

Still haven't heard when I'm going to get to see the specialist up in Rockhampton , hope it won't be too long ,

Done some checking and it seems my doctor forgot to tell me that the dose of the pain killers I'm on should only be sustained for no more than 5 days straight then you have to go off them for a while , he probably didn't know , I was on them for 6 weeks and then went off them because they no longer worked , not a good idea , found out after they should be gradually dosed now slowly or the withdrawal symptoms are severe ,

I got a fright last night , I got out of the shower and looked in the mirror and my father was looking back , the problem is that dad is almost 80 and I'm 51 ,

Guy's it was good talking to you , will do it again some time soon , now that I'm a little more mobile and can stand and walk around for more than a few minutes at a time I'm going to be getting back into the Lakers and my Johnboat modifications [ I'm good on my feet for about half a hour at a time now ] , for some reason they pretty much come to a screaming halt lately , getting bored silly doing nothing , need to get back to my projects


David

 

[bearridge]

Friend David,

Once upon a time a bunch of us wuz in a van, headed fer the Pizza Inn in Bryson City. We had been paddlin' whitewater fer a few days 'n some of the near bout geezers wuz beginnin' ta hurt bad. Steven (the doctor my brother called when Karen had her stroke) sez "ya'll know that if ya'll take the maximum dose of Extra Heavy Duty Tylenol, jest like it sez on the label (even wakin' up at nite fer a dose), it will knock down pain near bout good az morphine". My back used ta bother me some 'n when it did, I done like Steven sez. Always wanted ta try some of that morphine, but not when I wuz hurtin'. [grin] Hope yer pain drifts away.

regards
bearridge

Blue Duck: I know you from the old days, McRae.
Gus McCrae: I know you too, Blue Duck.
Blue Duck: Where's your friend? Where's Call? If I kill you, I'll have to wait here and kill him too.
Gus McCrae: I expect he'll be along after a while. If you can kill me, you can have a seat over in the shade and wait on him.
Blue Duck: No, I ain't got time to waste on killin' some old Ranger with holes in his underwear. There's plenty more need killin'.

 

[dawallace45]

Bear

I've had chronic back pain for over 15 years , that means I pretty much have back pain every day , it's only the intensity that varies , I think I've only had about 8 totally pain free days in all that time , but you get used to a certain level of pain and you learn to live with it , you can function pretty normally with it to a certain extent , the main problem is that my back slips out easily and presses on a nerve , I have been using a hang up machine for years and it normally works great , mostly I was able to put it back in almost as fast as I can put it out ,

Have tried steady doses of all the over the counter pain relievers including Extra Heavy Duty Tylenol and while they work to some extent with the everyday pain they just don't work for me with the severe pain ,

I've tried acupuncture , traditional Chinese medicine , Homeopaths , Chiropractors , Physio therapists [ went to one just recently but after they checked me out they decided not to treat me as my back was too unstable and there was too much chance of making it worse ] , I've even tried Tia Chi for pain relief ,

I use a tens machine a fair bit and hot packs pretty much all the time but the hang up machine has always been my best relief , but it's just not working as well for me these days , where the back used to click back into place easily it doesn't any more ,

When I decided to build the house my doctor tried to talk me out of it , he reckoned my back wasn't up to it , I didn't listen , didn't see that I had much choice , I could afford to build a house my self or get some one else to build a shed for me , I wanted a house , for every day I worked on the house I spent another day at least laid up with the back ,

I had intended to have 6 months off after building the house to rest and get back into condition but a few weeks after I got this place pretty much finished I had to start building my brothers place , then I had to do the extensions to my shed and then it was just one project after another , each project slowed down by the fact that I just wasn't recovering as quickly between injuries any more , just more and more down time , and of course being obsessive to the point of stupidity I just saw my self getting further behind my self imposed schedule and just pushed my self more and more ,

Since I did the tiling on the veranda last November and December [ 180 sq metres ] and then put my back out bad helping a mate load wool bales I just haven't recovered at all , back was getting worse and all I could see was the projects lined up that needed to be done , the only time I felt relatively normal was when loaded up with codeine and I hate taking painkillers so they are only a last resort for me or at least they were , now I just have no choice , back was stoping me from sleeping , was working on getting 2 hours sleep a night , was in pain sitting up so I spent very little time on the computer , couldn't lay down for too long with out pain and in most cases walking around was my least painful way to go , at least for a half hour at a time , had trouble working on my projects because the pain made it hard to concentrate , got new doctor and new pain killers , worked well , made me drowsy but took the edge off the pain , was able to start projects again , but they loose effect after 6 weeks

It's finally gotten through my thick skull I have to take it easy , these two Lakers will be my last boat projects , working on things where I have to bend over then to any extent just isn't fun for me any more , it used to be I had all these projects to take my mind off the pain but now the pain is taking my mind off the projects

Doctor reckons after this last round of ultra sound and x-rays I should give up paddling and archery , Shoulder has severe chronic tendonitis , told doctor I was building a new much lighter kayak and a narrower Greenland style paddle and I'd build my self a new lighter poundage bow , I used to shoot a 70 lb longbow and now a 55# longbow , looks like I'll have to go to a 45# longbow , doctor reckons if I do that he'll try a cortisone injection into the shoulder , he reckons it's pointless doing it if I just keep doing things they way I have in the past

It's taken a long time but I'm finally starting to learn my lesson , finally sinking into my thick skull that if I want to still be getting around doing things in a few years I have to start listening to my wife and my doctors

David

 

[bearridge]

Dang David. Listenin' ta yer wife 'n yer doctor iz a hard thing fer a fella ta do. Sounds like ya give near bout everthin' a try. All Steven wuz tryin' ta tell us wuz that the maximum extra strength tylenol dose, taken az often az the bottle sez ya kin take it (dont skip a dose...even if ya gotta wake up ta take it), will work near bout az good az morphine. I never found nobody with any spare morphine, so I dont know how it works, but I tried Steven's advice once 'er twice. He had jest got outta medickle college so we figgered it mite be the new thinkin' bout dope 'n pain.

Sounds like ya made a bad problem worse. Hard az it iz fer me ta tell ya this, ya mite oughta listen ta yer wife....'n yer doctor too.

best regards
bearridge
shade tree medickle clinic

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal. Aristotle

 

[Steve]

Dave. . . ya gotta excuse Bill. . . He keep fergottin' he be a shister lawyer 'n' not a medikle dockter. . . Sometime that extree edicatin' go to da head o' dem college edicated folks. . . :lol: :roll: 8) :lol:

 

[Steve]

Hit some danged ol' wrong buttons and submitted afore I was done. . .

Dave, all jokin' aside, I have to say I feel for you. . . I hate to see you givin' up things ya love, or at least easin' back on 'em, I know ya would do 'em if ya didn't love doin' 'em. . . But whatever you need to do to take care of yourself is what you need to do... Mind the missus 'n' do as she says. . . be like me and do about half of what the doctor sez . . .(actually, that last one was suppose to be funny. . . but it don't read that way, do it. . . .)

You take care of yerself, Dave, that above all is the important thing. . .

 

[dawallace45]

Well I really don't have any choice than to follow the doctors advice now , the pain is now overriding my obsessiveness , been down the shed this morning for about 2 hours , just come in for lunch , think maybe I stayed down about a hour and a half too long ,

My wife was watching me work some time back and come up with a good idea , she reckons most of the processes I do when I'm working on stuff can be broken up into 20 minute to half hour blocks , so that when I finish a stage I should sit down and have a drink or a cup of tea or coffee , good advice , just got to get into the habit of doing it

Bear

Have had Morphine based drugs when in hospital in the past , don't like them because I like to know what is going on all the time and be in control of my self

Doctor's have been trying to get me to take some morphine based drugs for some time , they reckon it's the only wayI'll get some real pain relief but I just refuse them , guy down the road has back problems and is addicted to his morphine based drugs and even before he become addicted he was just too out of it for my liking

The biggest problem I have with pain relief is that most of the ones that work well either effect my asthma , ulcer or make me constipated and there for adversely effect my hernia or are extremely addictive

David

 

[bearridge]

The biggest problem I have with pain relief is that most of the ones that work well either effect my asthma , ulcer or make me constipated and there for adversely effect my hernia or are extremely addictive

I think that wuz Steven's point.

Kin ya raize yer work so ya dont have ta bend over too much? Stoopin' ('n dumb liftin') iz what makes my back hurt. Keep yer wood stacked up high 'n all yer tools too. Git a grabber thing so ya kin pick up stuff off the ground without stoopin'. [All the geezers got a few of 'em stashed round the place.] Git some bar (tall) stools. If all that dont work, we got our secret specialized medicine we make out behind the Shade Tree Medickle Clinic. It iz clear 'n ya caint even taste the copper. [chuckle]

regards 'n git well soon
bearridge

Little Bill Daggett:  I don't deserve this... to die like this.  I was building a house.

Will Munny:  Deserve's got nothin' to do with it.

Little Bill Daggett:  I'll see you in hell, William Munny.

Will Munny:  Yeah.


 

[BEARS BUDDY]

Dave, I feel your pain--literly. Took a nasty fall 13 years back that temporaraly paralyzed my legs and did permanent damage to disks in the bask and neck. Hope you come out ok without having to tell your wife she was right. That would really hurt!


apparently it also messed up my typing

 

[dawallace45]

Got to admit that one of the things that worries me the most is that I some times pinch a nerve and loose all feeling from the waist down , mostly it only lasts a few seconds after I hit the floor but some times It's laster up to half a hour ,

The hardest thing is learning to rest , while the back forced me to give up full time work some years ago then part time work [ working for other people ] I've always been busy , when I found I couldn't work for a boss any more I started my own business , when business got slow during the drought I started learning to wood turn and make kayaks , I gave mates a hand with any work they had to do , I did maintenance work at the pistol club just to keep busy , I can't handle boredom , the only times I've ever just laid back and done nothing have been when I've been ill or broken , I've always been strong as a ox and learning to work smarter is hard , I used to be able to bench press 120 kg , now I can bench press 40 kg and have to have some one spot me because my shoulder lets go ,

But I am working out my limitations , all my benches have been made higher than normal to lessen bending , my lathe is set higher to lessen the strain , as soon as the kayaks are out of the way I'll slowly have a clean up and work out what else I need to do to make it more user friendly ,

Talking to my wife last night I've realised that I just can't keep taking on big projects like I have in the past , I still have some doors to build and some decorative steel furniture for the veranda but I'm working on ways to make sure I don't have any more bending and ways of handling the steel and lessen the strain , I know that if I can't build some thing on a regular basis then I'll go crazy but I intend to get more into wood turning and Longbow making .

I've dropped my ideas of building a house boat and I've dropped my plan to build another blacksmith shop , a few years back I got into forging knifes and was enjoying it until I stuffed the tendon in my elbow and right shoulder , I was just starting into making Damascus style knifes at that stage and really wanted to get back into it , I suppose I could still make knifes by stock removal but it just doesn't have the same sense of satisfaction

Wife is watching me like a hawk these days , reckons I can't be let out on my own with out a keeper

David

 

[oldsparkey]

As we get older we have to slow down but not abandon all of our dreams , it just takes a little longer to accomplish what use to be a short job. The great side of it is we have the time to do it.

Or like I like to say................

Just like the pygmy who killed the elephant and the white hunter came up on him after the kill. He asked the pygmy what he was going to do and the pygmy said eat it as he sat by his little fire.

That set the white hunter back a few notches and after he recovered he looked at the Pygmy and asked ... Now in the hell are you going to do that.

Without smiling he just looked at the white hunter and said .......... One bite at a time.

That is the way I take on life today .... One bite at a time.

Chuck.

 

[grandpa paddler]

Wife is watching me like a hawk these days , reckons I can't be let out on my own with out a keeper

David

I don't have any really serious health issues (yet ) or a serious back problem like yours, but my wife is just like yours. They must have been cast out of the same mold.

Heal quick brother.

Jon

 

[bearridge]

Friend David,

Some folks handle retirement 'er piddlin' better'n others. Most of 'em who do aint worth spit. The "entitlement" folks take ta it like a duck ta water. Howsomever, findin' a way ta handle bein' laid up fer a long time 'er retired, iz mitey danged hard on workin' folks. My Dad never got a handle on it. He figgered the day ya quit work wuz the day ya begun ta die. He never really knew what ta do when he didnt have a 24/7 job.

I see some of my Dad in you. I dont see yer back gittin' much better, so ya gotta cut back on makin' it hurt so bad, rite? I reckon it iz jest that simple, but figgerin' out what ta do all day ta keep frum playin' solitaire, smokin', mebbe watchin' Captain Kangaroo on tv, aint likely ta be eazy.

regards
bearridge

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty. John Adams

 

[dawallace45]

No matter wether your retired or working for a living you need a interest , some thing you get out of bed for , I've always figured if you had some thing to do you did it to the best of your ability , but every one needs to be doing some or they don't have a reason to live , my problem is I have way too many interests and I just can't physically keep it up any more , but I figure that if I can slow down for a few months then I'll get over the worst of it , just need to let the back heal for a while and see what the specialist has to say

David