[FASTLARRY]

Oh my aching back.

I took my back out putting up the greenhouse several weeks ago. The last MRI I did on it 1.5 years ago showed a badly bulging disc in the lower back. This new strain, or injury is not healing very fast and I have been spending a lot of time in bed on a cold gel pack.

The friggen right shoulder rotator cuff injury, is not healing either, and its way overdue to be well, I have pampered it all summer and fall. The pain in it, is increasing.

So I bit the bullet and went into my Orthopedic doctor, and had a double session in an MRI today to take pics on both problems. Then I will know, what's going on, and what to do. He thinks, there is something wrong with my neck as well, as both arms went numb and went cold, I lost all feel and touch with my fingers in the MRI, my forearms and hands and fingers were tingling, like when you go to sleep on them and cut off the circulation, and my rotator went crazy with pulsing pain being held tight in one place. I went through agony, being in there for two long sessions. I barely got through it. Something is not right, or has worsened I fear.

I just want to get well, and be told, what I have to do, to make that happen. So I started the ball rolling on that today.

[FASTLARRY]

Somebody shoot me. Do me a favor.

That's been tried twice, and I moved fast and was only wounded. The key is if anyone points a gun at you, never turn and run straight away from them, you are easy to hit and they usually shoot you in the ass or back. Run sideways to them, it jolts the mind, this causes a delay, and few are trained on how to lead your moving target. Trained cops will miss you 80% of the time. Run sideways sliding also back and away for 10', then turn and reverse it, then turn and just as fast as you can. Putting distance between you and the shooter is the key.

Now it will be easy, I can't move, I am a sittin duck. Come get me.


All this constant pain and discomfort is wearing me down. I dunno. The doc put me on a real strong pain pill and a heavy duty muscle relaxer and sleeping pills. And in 3 or 4 days, I am walking around in a daze confused. I got off all of them, as soon as I started getting all these nasty side effects. I have never done drugs, illegal or legal, I don't like drugs, what they do scares me.

I have seen so many people who got in a lot of pain with bad backs, and the doctors wanted to help, feed them pain pills, and soon they become legal drug addicts and their heads get real weird. Then they try to weed them back, and they run to multiple doctors to get the pills.
When my back was first broken in 85, they started me on Morphine, then demeral, then I was taking about 12 perks a day. You get some nice trips and sweet dreams no question about that. But after 6 months of that shit, I was more fooked up than Hogan's goat. I dumped all of it, and made Scotch my pain medicine, at least, drunk, I knew where my head was. After a while, I had to put strict limits on how much I drank so I would not become an alcoholic. It has been 4 a night, and for my size and weight, that aint shit. With the extra pain I am now in, I kicked that up to 5.

So for all these years, I have just toughed it out during the day on aleve and aspirin until 5pm, when the Iskabaha pain medicine would take over and I could lay on my cold packs and freeze my back, so I could not feel the pain any more. It was a choice, of the least of several bad worlds. I could function during the day, with a clear head, teach, perform, show or play in serious competition.

[FASTLARRY]

Man, I have been almost crippled for a couple of weeks. I blew my back out moving heavy things on my new 2nd greenhouse. I have only been able to work a couple of hours a day, and have been in great pain. Usually after a few days on ice packs, I can snap my back, back in place, but this time, for the first time, she froze and locked up. Heavy pain and muscle relaxers did not work. Little by little, it would adjust a little here and there, but no relief. It began finally feeling like it was healing a couple of days ago, and today, it finally snapped back in.

I got the results back from the Xrays and Mri from the orthepedic specialists I went to.

I do have a medium severity tear in my upper shoulder towards the top, the rotor cuff. It has been complicated by bursitis and arthritis settling in. He feels he can cure it without surgery with therapy. The damn thing has had me in pain all late spring till now.

My back is about the same as my last Mri l.5 years ago, it just keeps getting worse with age. I broke it in an airplane crash 25 years ago, lost the padding, so its bone riding on bone, then I developed bone spurs on the top and bottom, and they rub, then scoliosis is beginning, and at the bottom, the bones are beginning to desegregate. One lower disc has been bulging out for 1.5 years, and the one a couple of joints up from it is going downhill also.

There is not a surgical good option for this, he feels, where ever they did, or would try to do, would probably fail and put me in a wheel chair. They can load me up with pain pills and then I feel good, but I refuse to go there, because I know where that leads. So I have chosen to stay with my aspirin and aleve, and my scotch pain treatment after 5pm.

Then I can continue to teach, entertain, do shows and exhibitions, but being able to practice long hours is over, and that means any pro level pool competition is over for me now. I will also cut back on my travel, as sitting in a car or plane seat for long hours is painful and uncomfortable to me now.

I have agreed to go into therapy 3 times a week for the next 6 weeks to work on my shoulder and my back. The shoulder will heal and return to normal, the back does not heal, but they think by strengthening the muscles around my lower back, it will help hold it all together and buy me some more time. All I want to do, is make it to 12-21-2012.

I have been sitting around for years not doing any exercise and that has to be one of the reasons for my back totally going out like it did, plus heavy construction work I can no longer handle.

[Destrukkt]

FASTLARRY, on Nov 19 2009, 01:54 PM, said:

Man, I have been almost crippled for a couple of weeks. I blew my back out moving heavy things on my new 2nd greenhouse. I have only been able to work a couple of hours a day, and have been in great pain. Usually after a few days on ice packs, I can snap my back, back in place, but this time, for the first time, she froze and locked up. Heavy pain and muscle relaxers did not work. Little by little, it would adjust a little here and there, but no relief. It began finally feeling like it was healing a couple of days ago, and today, it finally snapped back in.

I got the results back from the Xrays and Mri from the orthepedic specialists I went to.

I do have a medium severity tear in my upper shoulder towards the top, the rotor cuff. It has been complicated by bursitis and arthritis settling in. He feels he can cure it without surgery with therapy. The damn thing has had me in pain all late spring till now.

My back is about the same as my last Mri l.5 years ago, it just keeps getting worse with age. I broke it in an airplane crash 25 years ago, lost the padding, so its bone riding on bone, then I developed bone spurs on the top and bottom, and they rub, then scoliosis is beginning, and at the bottom, the bones are beginning to desegregate. One lower disc has been bulging out for 1.5 years, and the one a couple of joints up from it is going downhill also.

There is not a surgical good option for this, he feels, where ever they did, or would try to do, would probably fail and put me in a wheel chair. They can load me up with pain pills and then I feel good, but I refuse to go there, because I know where that leads. So I have chosen to stay with my aspirin and aleve, and my scotch pain treatment after 5pm.

Then I can continue to teach, entertain, do shows and exhibitions, but being able to practice long hours is over, and that means any pro level pool competition is over for me now. I will also cut back on my travel, as sitting in a car or plane seat for long hours is painful and uncomfortable to me now.

I have agreed to go into therapy 3 times a week for the next 6 weeks to work on my shoulder and my back. The shoulder will heal and return to normal, the back does not heal, but they think by strengthening the muscles around my lower back, it will help hold it all together and buy me some more time. All I want to do, is make it to 12-21-2012.

I have been sitting around for years not doing any exercise and that has to be one of the reasons for my back totally going out like it did, plus heavy construction work I can no longer handle.

Yeah stick with the scotch, pills aren't any good in the long-run.

Hope your feeling better man.

[FASTLARRY]

Destrukkt, on Nov 21 2009, 06:58 PM, said:

Yeah stick with the scotch, pills aren't any good in the long-run.

Hope your feeling better man.

Right, they are the trip to hell. When I broke my back in the plane crash, I was in bed for 6 months, they started me with Morphine, now that is some neat shit, man you take a trip and don't give a shit, then Demoral, The choice of nurses, got to be careful, they will steal half your dose and shoot it up in the back room, and then 12 perks a day. After 6 months of this shit, they had me more fucked up than hogans goat. I did not know, if I wuz comin or goin, and did not care.

I just shut all the pill bs down, and called the liquor store and said, deliver to me 6 cases of Johnny Walker black. I may wake up in pain for a couple of hours, but at least, the rest of my day was clear headed. Pills are the same as street drugs, they work for a while, but you have to keep increasing the dose, and that is where the trap is.

[FASTLARRY]

Actually, my back is making a bit of a recovery, I was able to load, unload and stack a ton of tile yesterday. I had to lay down and rest for 15 minutes half way there, but it's progress. No bad, for a gimp cripple. Some strength is coming back, and my shoulder is coming around.

[RoyZ]

That's great news. You already do strength training for your biceps, it would be easy to integrate some back training in as well. I'm sure your PT will have some suggestions, although they seem to want to keep things going as long as possible so they can keep charging you.

[FASTLARRY]

My rotator cuff is about 95% healed, the pain and discomfort is gone, if I put it in the wrong place, I have a problem, they told me it may never be healed 100% and I can live with 95%.

The back, has healed and I can work. I am still permanatly medically disabled with a license plate to prove it. My back never gets better. I know, any serious work or strain will put me right back there. I spent a couple of weeks almost totally cripped in bed, it was not a good time.

I am grateful to be back. Most of the pain is gone.