Oooohhh....my back.....

[SkyHog]

Sigh.

I played softball again today. When running the bases, I felt something pop in my back, and then I felt an excruciating pain, like a very sore muscle, but centralized in one place. I finished the game, in horrible agony (we didn't have any subs, and I didn't want to let the team down).

When I get up and move around, I want to cry, it's so painful, but when I stay in one place, I'm OK.

I had a problem when I was wrestling, where I did something to my sciatica (sp?), but I don't think this is the same thing.

I hope it's not a slipped disc...anyone have any suggestions? Oh yeah, I am supposed to fly tomorrow, but I'm gonna have to see how I feel before I climb into the cockpit.

God I'm old.

 

[Maverick]

Sigh.

I played softball again today. When running the bases, I felt something pop in my back, and then I felt an excruciating pain, like a very sore muscle, but centralized in one place. I finished the game, in horrible agony (we didn't have any subs, and I didn't want to let the team down).

When I get up and move around, I want to cry, it's so painful, but when I stay in one place, I'm OK.

I had a problem when I was wrestling, where I did something to my sciatica (sp?), but I don't think this is the same thing.

I hope it's not a slipped disc...anyone have any suggestions? Oh yeah, I am supposed to fly tomorrow, but I'm gonna have to see how I feel before I climb into the cockpit.

God I'm old.

I am no stranger to back and neck pain. In 1987 I had a ruptured disk in my neck that felt much like you are describing up until the point where a fragment from the disk lodged in the opening where the 7th nerve leaves the spinal canal. I had to be admitted to the hospital on an emergency basis on a Sunday evening and I had surgery the following day.

In 1990 I was hit and nearly killed by a drunk driver. My injuries included a broken neck and compression injuries to two disks in my lower back. My spinal cord was not severed and there is not resultant paralysis but surgery was required to realigned my C spine. If I'm not very careful in what I do I end up with serious pain in my neck or lower back.

The main things to watch out for are numbness or tingling in you arms or legs as well as reduced muscle strength. As an example, when I had that ruptured disk in 1987 I had muscle atrophy in my left arm. Imagine after taking a shower you put the towel behind your back to dry off by lifting the towel with one arm and pulling it back down with the other. In my case the muscle atrophy left me unable to lift the towel with my left arm.

A neurologist or neurosurgeon would do a series of muscle strength tests to evaluate the problem. If you have any of the symptoms I mentioned you should see a doctor. In my experience GPs are usually not very thorough in evaluating these problems so you may want to see a specialist.

I'm not a doctor nor do I play one on TV, and no I didn't spend the night at a Holiday Inn either. I've just had more than my share of injuries involving my spine. Hopefully Bruce will chime in here and give you his prospective as well.

Best wishes,
Jeannie

 

[bbchien]

Sigh.
I hope it's not a slipped disc...anyone have any suggestions? Oh yeah, I am supposed to fly tomorrow, but I'm gonna have to see how I feel before I climb into the cockpit.

God I'm old.

Nick this is what I take care of for my real job. Email me off line. Busy day today, I'll look at it this evening. BC

 

[SkyHog]

I have determined that icy hot needs to have a warning on its label that says not to tend to natures itches until you've washed your hands.

Not a good week so far.

got a lot of smilies in there...sigh.

 

[Jeff Oslick]

I'm convinced playing softball and flying airplanes are incompatible activities. While I was in grad school and playing "beer league" softball and just past getting my PPL, I yanked my back pretty good, similar to Nick's experience.

I think what triggered it was a bad twisting move while climbing onto the strut of a 172 to check fuel. Didn't really feel it at the time, but it gradually got worse over the next day. Swinging a bat for a couple months afterward didn't help at all . The college infirmary wasn't real helpful, and my insurance was somewhere just a bit better than non-existent, so I lived with it for 8-9 months. One day, literally while taking out the trash, I felt a "pop", and was in really bad, almost immobilizing pain for about 5-10 minutes. When the pain finally subsided, my back pain was all gone! Whatever it was snapped back in place.

I've since learned that I need to do regular leg stretching excercises to prevent the symptoms from coming back, but I get pretty good warning when I'm tightening up.

Hope you're feeling better soon Nick!

Jeff

 

[Henning]

Sigh.

I played softball again today. When running the bases, I felt something pop in my back, and then I felt an excruciating pain, like a very sore muscle, but centralized in one place. I finished the game, in horrible agony (we didn't have any subs, and I didn't want to let the team down).

When I get up and move around, I want to cry, it's so painful, but when I stay in one place, I'm OK.

I had a problem when I was wrestling, where I did something to my sciatica (sp?), but I don't think this is the same thing.

I hope it's not a slipped disc...anyone have any suggestions? Oh yeah, I am supposed to fly tomorrow, but I'm gonna have to see how I feel before I climb into the cockpit.

God I'm old.

Doctor Bruce will give you the best advice, I'll just give you my experience with two ruptured disks, take it for whatever it's worth to you. If the pain doesn't substantially go away in a couple of days, don't delay surgury, get it done and overwith. On my L5-S1 I went through 9 months of "Progressive Therapy".... Codswallop. I had surgury done, and I still have some nerve degenration effects many years later (read permanent) as well as some intermittent pain. When I blew out C4-C5, I was on the cutting board inside of 2 weeks. No problems in 4 years. BTW, when I woke up from the operations, all the pain was gone, all I had left was a little suture discomfort.

BTW, My method for finding the best cutter: Walk onto the surgical ward and ask the nurses, "If you had to send your son, brother... to someone for a laminectomy, who would you send them to?" Typically out of 10 nurses, at least 9 of them will give you the same name.

 

[bbchien]

Doctor Bruce will give you the best advice, I'll just give you my experience with two ruptured disks, take it for whatever it's worth to you. If the pain doesn't substantially go away in a couple of days, don't delay surgury, get it done and overwith. On my L5-S1 I went through 9 months of "Progressive Therapy".... Codswallop. I had surgury done, and I still have some nerve degenration effects many years later (read permanent) as well as some intermittent pain. When I blew out C4-C5, I was on the cutting board inside of 2 weeks. No problems in 4 years. BTW, when I woke up from the operations, all the pain was gone, all I had left was a little suture discomfort.

BTW, My method for finding the best cutter: Walk onto the surgical ward and ask the nurses, "If you had to send your son, brother... to someone for a laminectomy, who would you send them to?" Typically out of 10 nurses, at least 9 of them will give you the same name.

That's the result 85% of the time that the surgeon decides to operate. It's the ones he doesnt' want to do and the other 15% that are the problem.... it it were only so easy.

 

[Maverick]

When I blew out C4-C5, I was on the cutting board inside of 2 weeks. No problems in 4 years. BTW, when I woke up from the operations, all the pain was gone, all I had left was a little suture discomfort.

When I had my ruptured disk between C6 and C7 I was in excruciating pain prior to the surgery and they had to keep me on Demerol until surgery. After surgery the pain was gone and I need very little in the way of pain meds.

My second surgery after being hit by the drunk driver was a whole nother matter. Two surgeries in exactly the same spot and what they had to do to realign my spine, well all I can say is that I was in real pain for roughly a week after surgery. It didn't help that that darn PCA pump they put me on didn't work.

Jeannie

 

[Dave Krall CFII]

Sigh.

I played softball again today. When running the bases, I felt something pop in my back, and then I felt an excruciating pain, like a very sore muscle, but centralized in one place. I finished the game, in horrible agony (we didn't have any subs, and I didn't want to let the team down).

When I get up and move around, I want to cry, it's so painful, but when I stay in one place, I'm OK.

I had a problem when I was wrestling, where I did something to my sciatica (sp?), but I don't think this is the same thing.

I hope it's not a slipped disc...anyone have any suggestions? Oh yeah, I am supposed to fly tomorrow, but I'm gonna have to see how I feel before I climb into the cockpit.

God I'm old.

Go to a reputable chiropractic physician for an orthpedic exam and start conservative therapy and get an MRI right away. Then you'll know if surgery is indicated.

 

[Skip Miller]

Go to a reputable chiropractic physician for an orthpedic exam and start conservative therapy and get an MRI right away. Then you'll know if surgery is indicated.

I would recommend an osteopathic physician rather than a chiropractor. Osteopaths have MD degrees in addition to Chiro training. When dealing with an injury like this, I would always vote for the most knowledgeable and thoroughly trained care giver, everything else being equal.

-Skip

 

[Carol]

I would recommend an osteopathic physician rather than a chiropractor. Osteopaths have MD degrees in addition to Chiro training. When dealing with an injury like this, I would always vote for the most knowledgeable and thoroughly trained care giver, everything else being equal.

-Skip

I believe the degree held by an osteopath is a D.O.

 

[bubba]

I have determined that icy hot needs to have a warning on its label that says not to tend to natures itches until you've washed your hands.

Not a good week so far.

got a lot of smilies in there...sigh.

I got the lineament-in-the-jock trick in high school football one time (think Ben-Gay). Damn That burn just don't wash off!
Eric
________
HERBALAIRE V2.1

 

[Skip Miller]

I believe the degree held by an osteopath is a D.O.

Carol, you are right.

-Skip

 

[Dave Krall CFII]

Carol, you are right.

-Skip

Nor do they have chiro training included in the DO degree...

 

[SkyHog]

OK - no worries (assuming anyone besides me had any )

My back is 100% again. I wanted to wait for a complete week without pain, and its now happened.

whew....thank the sweet lord it wasn't something serious (and no doctor either).

 

[RogerT]

Sigh.

I played softball again today.

I resisted that temptation. We formed some softball teams for
some of our stores and our corporate office has one too. I told them
no way I'd risk messing up my back ... but would be happy to come
cheer them on.

I mess up my back periodically .. usually when I'm not paying attention
to how I turn or lift. I think it goes back to too many dirt bike crashes
and years of speedway gokart racing.

The last episode was particulary painful. I went to my AME and he took
a bunch of xrays and determined no damage and I did the physical
therapy thing for a couple months. That helped .. they gave me exercises to
do that got things back to normal.

 

[bbchien]

OK - no worries (assuming anyone besides me had any ) My back is 100% again. I wanted to wait for a complete week without pain, and its now happened.

Nick, don't take this as a personal dissing, but it NEVER ceases to amaze me that people think its perfectly acceptable to go back to overstress situations after their amber light has come on once. "Oh, the amber light is out, it's OK". It's NO-K! The system has alerted you to a limitation that you have been developing since your long past MVA.

What you need to do is to rewrite your personal human op specs so that next time you dont' get the RED light. When people have constant pain of the sort you described, that's the aviation equivalent of "eject!". Problem is, you are unable to do that. No red handle down by your butt.

Glad to hear it's quiet again.

Talk to Agatha Schilling about that situation....

 

[Henning]

OK - no worries (assuming anyone besides me had any )

My back is 100% again. I wanted to wait for a complete week without pain, and its now happened.

whew....thank the sweet lord it wasn't something serious (and no doctor either).

Glad to hear you're out of pain for now, but I got some bad news for ya buck-o. You're back ain't 100% and never will be again.

Playing ball may be something you'll want to reconsider.