How's your back?

I am able to walk up and down the stairs without pain. In fact I am replying from the spare computer in my office in the basement. 19 months ago I was crawling or using a walker to get around. tried a wheelchair but it was useless around the farm. most of my pain is in chest muscles from being shocked and operations so I try to limit heavy lifting. Wife is always on my butt so I don't have many chances to overdo it. I get the neighbor kids to help split wood and I just run the splitter so nobody loses a hand. I am limited as to any medications I can take without checking with my cardiologist first. I can't even get my teeth fixed up without his ok. I even get help to swap out my winter tires on my plow truck or I hurt for days. Getting old and wore out is for the birds!!

I've been lucky and the only damage I've done to my back has been muscle related. The worst was taking a fall from a 50 foot electric pole as a lineman. I usually don't bruise any but that time I was black and blue according to the doctor on 75% of my body tore a muscle from a couple of vertebre and one big one from my left shoulder blade. Got them re-attached and I usually do good if I spend about 30 minutes stretching in the morning. I have broken all my fingers at one point or another usually from fighting or turniing wrenches. My knees are getting back to normal (in relation to the damage done) now that I'm in college doctors haven't had to drain fluid for maybe a year now. I'm back to excercising and lifting some weights (and eating better) nothing major like high school but the weight I put on since not working everyday is disappearing and I feel a whole lot better for it. I'll never be 100% again but I should be able to pull off 90-95%.

I've been battling a pain in my left shoulder since Aug. '08, it's there all the time but at varying levels. In December it got so bad I couldn't sleep so I went to the Doc and was diagnosed with Lyme disease. I went on 30 days of meds and the followup test shows the Lyme as gone, but the pain in my shoulder is still there. I've been on meds for tendinitis for the past 30 days and doing physical therapy but it's not getting better. My therapists did some tests the other night and thinks it might be a torn rotator cuff, I have a followup with the Doc this week so we'll see what's next.

I've always been good at ignoring pain, but after dealing with it for 8 months I'm pretty damned wore out.

Steve: If it is a torn cuff I want to wish you good luck. I fell on the ice the first of Jan. and tore mine. I go in for an operation on the 15th. recovery is said to be anyware from 6 to16 weeks without using the arm at all. Looks like a good time for that cruse. It is said you will sleep in a recliner durning recovery. Beeb spending about 1/2 the night in one now and tosing and turning in the bed the rest of the night. Some nights I cant sleep laying down at all.
I am 62 and consider myself in good shape for my age. Lost hearing back in 68 from firing M-16's for fun. along side a 105/155 howitzer base, then going out and laying at the end of a runway with a camera and taking pictures of f-4' doing vertical take offs.strait overhead. 2 years ago they were oble to repair one of my ears and I got back 90% of the hearing in it. I am suppose to have the other one repaired this year. Should do it during the cuff recovery.
Good luck to all out there and take care of your self. it will be worth it in the long run.

Bad Back

Next week i go in 4 one of those 4in needles in my tail bone. I fell in 99 had a operation in 01 so i could walk. I just had a MRI and the dock said one of theses 15 letter words was wrong. So if this doesn't work its back to surgery.I fell the first time that's what ruined me. But i still long to get on a dozier even though it would kill me. Jim

Saw my VA rheumatologist last Friday and she ordered up some new meds for my depression and mood swings, then ordered an X-ray and MRI for my lower back pain. My weight remains high, arthritic pain continues in hands and feet and most other places it isn’t welcome. My caregiver (son) and I have swapped positions since he wrecked his knee in the shower 4 weeks ago. Now I drive him to medical appointments and help him with his brace, crutches and support sock. His mother feeds him and attends to other little things he can’t do very well for himself.

I’m not so sure my recent bout with Leukemia is going so well, spleen still feels as big as a football. I’m tired all the time, very listless in spite of trying to get things done. Just not much interest anymore.

But thanks for asking.....


The golden years – they ain’t so golden. If I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself. Getting old is not for the weak and faint hearted.

Five tricks i have learned .
For a twisted pelvis , lay on your back on the floor , put both your hands , palms down under your buttocks . Raise both legs towards your chest , lower one leg at a time . You will feel and hear your hips and pelvis re-align .

For lower back , when you feel you cannot stand straight . Stand with a kitchen counter top behind you , put your hands behind your buttocks and lean back a little and lift yourself so your feet can swing side to side . You will feel the clunk as the vertabrae are seperated and alow realignment .

For pain and tightness between the shoulder blades , put the back of your left hand behind the sore spot and lean back over a countertop with the palm of the hand on the counter top . You may need to rock back and forth but it will clunk back in .

For neck pain , sometimes with nausea and blurred vision and sometimes with Tinnitus , lay on your back on the floor with a firm sponge cushion under the back of your neck . Compress the cushion with your hands so it feels like it is pushing your head away from your shoulders . Put pressure on your fore head with your thumb and index fingers to keep your head down . Now give your head a quick turn one way or the other , you will hear it click back in and a feeling of well being will come over you imediately .

Also , i have found if i get out of my excavtor incorrectly when the track frame is not straight . I will twist one of my my knees which causes pain for weeks . Sometimes i can get them back in by standing by a railing and twisting one way or another while bending the knee slightly . Most time i can get it back in .

I used to go too a Chiropractor every 4-6 weeks , i could never get past 6 weeks as i'd be a mess . Since learning how to do this , i hav'nt been back for 6 years .

Squizzy246B said:

I was wondering how many here have a dodgy back and how you look after it.

Click to expand...

I married a physiotherapist.

Silly as it may seem, I have found that yoga has relieved a lot of back pain for me. I have three compressed vertebrae and after sitting for a full shift in a truck the basic stretches help a lot.

Played hard and worked hard. I participated in experimental surgery and now I am a miracle of modern medicine. Now if they could only find a fix for the two broken vertebrae between my shoulder blades.

Well I have to have surgery on a duff wrist, and when the back plays up I visit the butcher in the next town and he sorts it out there and then,still don't like the clicking sound it makes though while he fixes it.

My back is messed up. Nothing like sitting on your wallet and tearing your back up for 20 some years on top of the the idiot stuff you've done a a kid without noticing the damage, until that day when it gives you such a shock you can barely breathe. Now every so often it tweaks out to remind me of my mistreating it. I guess my father spending 1.5 months in traction when I was young wasn't a clear enough sign to be careful.

surfer-joe said:

Saw my VA rheumatologist last Friday and she ordered up some new meds for my depression and mood swings, then ordered an X-ray and MRI for my lower back pain. My weight remains high, arthritic pain continues in hands and feet and most other places it isn’t welcome. My caregiver (son) and I have swapped positions since he wrecked his knee in the shower 4 weeks ago. Now I drive him to medical appointments and help him with his brace, crutches and support sock. His mother feeds him and attends to other little things he can’t do very well for himself.

I’m not so sure my recent bout with Leukemia is going so well, spleen still feels as big as a football. I’m tired all the time, very listless in spite of trying to get things done. Just not much interest anymore.

But thanks for asking.....


The golden years – they ain’t so golden. If I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself. Getting old is not for the weak and faint hearted.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry for all your troubles. God bless.

I'm still young so I havn't had much complaints from my back yet, and I emphasise the word "yet" because I'm a plant mechanic working in the mining industry working on heavy equipment with heavy components and tight spaces, Im sure it takes its toll on my back, not to mention being a passenger in 2 high speed car accidents, 1 high speed motorcycle accident and my ex-girlfriend pushing me off a small cliff and landing on my back, not to mention all the other silly things I did when I was young, like catching a ride on coal trains then jumping off before I got caught! :badidea :nono

Check out a sacrowedgy. have not been to a chiropractor for 4 yrs since I got mine. sacrowedgy.com

Herniated discs (3), broken ribs, injured rotator cuffs(both), broken hip, bad knee, numerous pulled muscles. Am good most of the time, but some mornings are really rough!
I use ice packs when the shoulders bother me, but heating pads for the back. Try to avoid the RX meds unless really bad. Most of my injuries are the results of being young, or trying to do more than should be done without a helper. I use my crane for ALOT these days, I had a helper that laughed when I used it to fly a set of 4D batteries onto an artic. truck, but I told him just wait a few years he will do the same if he doesn't take care of himself now.

I'll spare you the history but I will say i've spent two days on the floor not being able to move. Gosh darn doctor couldn't send me any pills- I'd have to see him for an exame.

The left side of my butt goes numb sometimes along with lower backpain.

Now, here's the deal, after 20 years i've figured out a way to stretch my back and it's 90% better- I Sheet you not. For $20 I'll email you my technique

Squizzy246B said:

I see a chiropractor every 6 weeks or so

Click to expand...

Worst thing i even did

I have a bad back from High School wrestling. I saw a chiropractor for a couple of years every other week. I haven't done anything about it for a year or 2 now, just keep on working.

You seriously need to Check out the Sacrowedgy.com. And I don't need your 20 bucks. Just check it out