Down for the count

[1 Bravo 6]

Adam,

Very sorry to hear of your back injury mate. As you will have noticed, quite a few of us have had a back injury due to one thing or another.

Mine was caused by carrying 60-70 pounds on my back and doing stupid things like jumping off the back of a truck whilst doing 15-20 miles per hour.(Ambush drill). Needless to say, practically every man in my old platoon has a back problem. You tend to heal fairly quickly when young but injuries tend to catch up to as you grow older.

As has already been said, take it easy mate. There's a lot of people here pulling for you.

Rick.

[five&dime]

I also would stay away from a chiropractor. They are just glorified salesmen. I went once for my back. My back didn't feel any better or worse but he really messed up my neck. Never again!!!

The best thing that helped me was stretching and running on a treadmill. If you can work out your abs that will help to remove tension from your back. I am going to get an inversion table soon. They rock!!! And even with a ruptured disc, its easy to do upside down situps on those things

Hope you feel better!!!

[mikewags]

I will also be buying an inversion table really soon. They are good for circulation (getting the blood flowing the other way) as well as stretching out your spine.

FiveDime - Check out Kmart (they have one for $129.99)

Ice on the back helps too, i'm suffering with lower back pain right now and I've been icing my back and stretching the lower back muscles. Hopefully I will recover in a few more days.

[five&dime]

Sears has a nice one for $200. I am going to get the teeter hang up for like $350. probably a bit more as I want the boots for doing the upside down situps. I am a "You get what you pay for kind of guy"

[=Enigma=]

Thanks for all the words of encouragement guys. MRI results are back and the news is actually not that bad. There are no herniated discs, however two are buldging. One minor L5/S1 and one major L1/L2. Fortunately the major bulge at L1/L2 is on the opposite side of the vertebrae than the spinal colum so there is minimal nerve involvement. Looking at the condition of L2 it's obvious this has been an issue for 10-15 years. This explains why this area has bothered me for the last 10 years or so, however it's never been much more than a mild to moderate annoyance from time to time.

The L5/C1 injury is something new. I have never had low back pain. I believe when I injured this area recently, it set up a situation (muscle spasms an general tightness) that involved L1/L2 and caused this joint to "slip" and further injure the disc at this location. That was the sharp pain I felt the other day at the sink that sent me to the floor. Anyway, the outlook is pretty good but it's going to take time, so no more major wrenching for a while, and none for 6-8 weeks or however long it takes to get back to some place close to where I was before.

Take some votarin or stronger for a week only as the swelling will be gone after a week and after that they are just pain killers, so move to paracetomol.

Pity you don't live here. We have a great health care system. All treatment was free apart from the first doc appoinment which was about US$10. So that is all drugs, CT scan, four specialist appointments, physio therapy and home help once a week to do ironing, cleaning etc. Plus the occupational health service went to Amanda's work place to see what the hospital (she's a nurse in angioplasty) could do to help her get back to work. They have purchased light weight lead and lower tables for her. Oh and she was off work for 2 months on sick leave on full pay. Not bad for 4 million people.

I've never even heard of these drugs, but I'm not much for drugs so that's no surprise. Anyone here in the US heard of these?

Your healthcare system is seriously amazing. I have pretty good coverage through work but but it costs me a few hundred a month, and I still have to pay a $25 copay for each appt and pay for lab/xray/diagnostic until I meet my deductible, and then they cover 90%. Sadly, there is nobody coming over to do my laundry and wash my arse for me.

Funny you mention this, i could barely get out of bed this morning. I'm 6' 3 so i'm plagued with lower back pain. I'm suffering at work now with it.

Do tall people generally suffer from back pain more than short people? Aside from the cumulative trauma injuries I sustained after years of working as a bellman/valet, I really haven't had much of a problem. Lucky until now I guess.

I hope to see you next year at the show...2 brown cars at one time...woo hoo.

Cheers' date=' Mike[/quote']

We'll have our own little turd fest. I'm thinking of nicknaming my car "The Turd" Seriously though, I love the color, especially with the gold wheels and pimpstriping.

Hang in there and follow the doctors advice on this. I see this almost every day and people often try to do too much too soon and end up unable to do anything.

Yeah, I'll be taking it easy for a while and I'm taking a week off to do some healing. Sitting in front of my computer all day working is not what I need right now. Work is forcing us to take 5 days of PTO off before the end of June so I'm taking it now.

I think we have all bean there i am 17 and i rolled my 4wheeler on me and herniated my l5 s1 and had to have it shaved i still have nerve damage in my leg.

Dood that's just rough. Sounds like you're luck to still be around.

After picking up Transmissions all day long, 2 years ago, I felt fine. But later on, while picking up tools, I reached for a Torque wrench and only made it half way back up when my back wrenched in pain. I froze until I dropped to my knees for about 10 minutes. Never had the pain again, so I'm guessing I just pinched a nerve but nothing since.

.

Dave, you should really get that kind of stuff checked out if it doesn't go away in a couple days. That's what happened to L1/L2 for me. Ignored an injury and ended up with a deteriorated vertebrae that paid me back with this fun.....

I needed an osteopath to fix that up. While I wouldn't necessarily suggest the chiropractor (some scary stuff there when they start cracking your spine) but I would absolutely recommend you see an osteopath.

I don't know what an osteopath does specifically, but I'll look it up. There are definitely a lot of quack chiropractors out there, but there are some good ones as well, albeit hard to find. I'm luck to have a good one. Even with the bulging discs, he has me back on my feet and relatively painfree after 3 visits without any major "adjustments". Jusy some simple cold, heat, massage, minor spinal manipulation, electro muscle stim, and traction. He was the one who suggested the xrays after the first visit based on the degree of pain, and when those didn't show anything dramatic, and came back a secomd time after the episode at the sink, he ordered the MRI. Not your typical "I can fix anything with scented oils, soothing music and homeopathic remedies" sort of chiro.

Mine was caused by carrying 60-70 pounds on my back and doing stupid things like jumping off the back of a truck whilst doing 15-20 miles per hour.

Thanks for the kind words Rick. You Aussies are definitely an interesting sort.

I also would stay away from a chiropractor. They are just glorified salesmen. I went once for my back. My back didn't feel any better or worse but he really messed up my neck. Never again!!!

I've met these sorts as well. Sorry to hear of your experience. My Chiro has helped me greatly over the years with minor to moderate aches and pains.