Let's Hear About Your Back Surgery...

I've had two herniated discs and three episodes of severe back trouble over the past 25 years, plus spinal stenosis. Lately any time I lift just about anything my back hurts and my feet go numb for a couple weeks. I haven't even run a saw this year. I even refrained from running any of those awesome chainsaws at the GTG at Dex's because it's been so screwed up lately.

Well last weekend I sold a big old cast iron radiator (heavy!!!) and I had four big young adult friends arranged to help put it in the buyer's Explorer. They got it picked up and started into the back of the Explorer but the buyer put a pallet in to lay it on and it was getting caught on the slats. They were having trouble keeping it there so I grabbed a piece of 18" wide six foot long 3/4" plywood and slid it under the radiator on top of the pallet so it could slide in the rest of the way. I had to help hold it up while they repositioned.

Big mistake. My left hip and lower back hurts so bad now with sitting and standing that its unbearable.

I'm been flat on my back for most of the last 48 hours. I'm at a CME conference in Cleveland but I've only been able to sit long enough for a couple presentations. I'm dreading the four hour drive home. Thank heavens for maximum dose Ibuprofen and Vicodin.

Unfortunately I'll have to see a back surgeon next week, as I simply can't function this way. I live in Johnstown PA but my PCP recommended I go to Pittsburgh to see the neurosurgeon who works on the Steelers. Not at all what I wanted to be doing this fall. Not at all.

 

Not good Brian. Hope you can find some relief. Hang in there.

 

26+ years of farrier work. For the most part...............no problems at all.

I work hard at keeping the girlish figure though!!! Just so that I can keep doing what I do.

Still the same size as I was when I graduated high school. 5'11" 180lbs. 32x34 pants..............XL underwear.

 

Just to throw it out there, for the long term, I'm a big fan of inversion therapy... Had the bar and boots but those are for the younger guys.. Got one of those Teeter Hangups inversion tables on Craigslist for $275.. Can hang upside down and check out the forums for 15 mins... Occasionally, I'll feel an adjustment happen in my back which is a good thing..

 

I've had those Rooster Juice injections in my knees. Doc said 6-12 month of relief. Got four years outta the first time… been about two years now on the second injections and I think I'm ready again. The big difference is I was looking at the world thru a windshield when I got four years of relief. But now I'm not sitting on my patootie 15 hours per day.

 

I don't know anything about hip replacement yet but I would think it could withstand a slight inversion.. Say 15-20 degrees. The system is set up so one can limit the amount of inversion to one's comfort.... Of course it's something that is best to try before you buy..

 

Wonder if your line of work has anything to do with likin' being upside down...

 

But I haven't flown anything in the last 16 years that is designed to be upside down....... Okay, point taken!!

 

We're gonna need a pic of you upside down, stretchin your back... wearing your flight helmet, and driving a chainsaw...

 

I was going to buy one of the teeter hang-ups but I was afraid my wife would lock it in place and leave me hanging! She always did say she liked taller men...

 

Back problems seem to take about 6 months to a year to get better. Ice and ibuprofen. Ice 20 minutes every two hours. 800mg ibuprofen every 8 hours is prescription strength.

If after that its still an issue must be a bad situation. But dont be looking for it to be better after 1 month.

Most people I have talked to say back surgeries were a mistake.

Omega 3 fish oil with small dose aspirin as little as 20mg generates Resolvins , read up on it.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3186038/

Very low dose aspirin used in conjunction with a high quality omega 3 fish oil supplement produces "super" anti inflammatory hormones called epi-lipoxins and resolvins. As little as 20mg taken with 1g of fish oil twice per day may be all that is required. This combo, in addition to an anti inflammatory diet, may provide considerable relief of silent inflammation and conditions such as arthritis.

BRIEF: New Class of Painkillers Found in Resolvins
Boston, MA – Ru-Rong Ji, PhD, Charles Serhan, PhD, and colleagues at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), have discovered that resolvins may serve as a new class of painkillers for treating inflammatory pain. The findings were published online on April 12 in Nature Medicine.

As naturally-occurring lipids derived from omega-3 fatty acids, resolvins may prove effective as analgesics by reducing inflammation and acting in the spinal cord to prevent and reverse chronic pain. Inflammatory pain, such as arthritic and post-operative pain, is triggered by tissue injury, leading to the release of compounds that increase inflammation and act within the spinal cord to cause persistent pain.

The researchers found that two resolvins, RvE1 and RvD1, which are naturally produced from certain omega-3 fatty acids, reduce inflammatory pain symptoms when administered to mice. The team showed that RvE1 was 10,000 times more potent at alleviating pain than its parent compound; moreover, an artificial compound, Chemerin, which binds to the same receptor as RvE1 and RvD1 also significantly reduced pain symptoms. Aside from their established anti-inflammatory effects, they also found that RvE1 acts in the spinal cord to prevent persistent neuronal activation which normally causes chronic pain. These analgesic effects were seen without any alterations in normal sensitivity to pain.

The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

 

Back in 92 had a blow out L5 S1 leg was numb and went from being the size of a leg to the size of my arm in 2 weeks Had the surgery no issues very careful with how I lift anything today

 

My left leg has went numb on a few occasions one time I slept in a recliner for 6 weeks, made me a snorer,
But all times it took time but the feeling in my legs came back after a while, I guess I was lucky.
I have never had surgery.

My sister worked at a factory that had a well known physical therapist come in and speak to the workers about slipped discs.
They were told most surgeries are not need for slipped discs that once the swelling goes down they will go back into place
and showed them techniques to help them go back into palce. Most likely some of the same idea of a chiropractor.
I wondered if the company was just trying to save money on insurance cost.
But thats what the therapist said now whether its true I dont know.

 

So I spent two hours at the Neuro Spine Clinic today. The nurse practitioner did a very through interview with me… she showed me the MRI images from three weeks ago. L1 thru L5 are shot… inflamed, deteriorated with lots of arthritis.

But she didn't like that the MRI didn't show any of the spine above L1. So I have to do another soon.

Now it's off to the therapist first… then pain management. Seems to be the way the insurance companies work these days. After we go thru that we'll see how things go.

Off the the therapist Tuesday.

 

Sorry to read this Dennis. Wish there was something that could be done. Hope tomorrow is better for you...