Hello, I have some back problems found on MRI and now DR say atheritis is getting worse in back to, I am basicly layed up this weekend again from pain and was wondering if others here have to live with same kind of stuff. I am not looking for pitty just wondering how others deal with this kind of thing without deression taking over. Dr said I should give up snowmobiling which is tough to swallow and wonder how long before I have to give up drag racing to. I guess thats what I get for 15 years of heavy farm work when I was younger. Sorry to whine, just need to talk with others in same boat I guess. I am to young to be like this already, I am only 47 and on disability because body is all shot already. :Comp: Tom W
Tom, Sorry to hear that. I know like you , alot of people suffer with these kind of health concerns. I myself am 38 and I too have arthritis problems in my back. Every night I take a 800mg Ibuprofen and Skelaxin to help me deal with the discomfort. Like all, some days are worst than others, but when they are bad........you know. Had performance based pay in the past that really took it toll on the body. Had up to a $4.00 per hour bonus waved in front of me that motivated me to go beyond the companys "quota", and never missed the bonus in the 7 years doing it. Now I guess Im paying it back so to speak.......
Tom, Sorry to hear your in so much pain. I also suffer from chronic pain. I have had 4 surgeries over the last 2 years to try and repair nerve and blood flow damage to my arms that I got from working as an auto mechanic for 17 years. I still need at least one more major surgery and hopefully then I'll have some long term relief. I haven't worked in 2 years, so that adds to the stress. Depression is a serious problem when you suffer from chronic pain. Fortunatly for me, I have, a very understanding wife and family, great doctors and I try to maintain a positive outlook on this mess that I am dealing with. I would recomend trying to get your doctor to perscribe some strong pain relievers like Percocet or Oxycontin. Pain relief is the 1st thing to control before moving forward with any type of treatment. It also helps with the depression side of it. I also recomend finding a support group or forum. This has helped me tremendously, especially when your dealing with pain that most people cannot relate to. Finding and talkiing with people in the same boat as you really helps, because it makes you aware that your not alone in this battle. Good Luck and I hope you get some relief.
I think I can relate. Two weeks ago I woke up on a Sunday, all my joints were stiff. I mean it took a good 20 minutes to get out of bed. When I did, I couldn't walk becasue of the pain in my ankles and knees. I should mention there has never been a hint of this. So I dealt with it, and called my Primary Phys. I got an appointment first thing Monday AM. They took blood and found the rheumatosis, or rhuematitis in my blood was severely high. They feel I might have arthritis. I mean I'm only 25. Scary! So I got another appt with a specialist on 7/9. The doctor gave me a prescription for Sulindac but that gave me severe headaches. And you can't take aspirin when your on it or you could get nose bleeds or stomach bleeding. The headaches were so bad I would have to pull over in a shady spot during the day while driving at work and close my eyes for 10 minutes. So I stopped taking it. I guess this same thing happened to my grandfather and others in my family so it might be hereditary. Like I said I'm 25 and have been active and in good health, I play sports all year still but worry that this might be the beginning of something chronic. Hang in there Tom!
pain i live with pain everyday. i went through cancer twice and my apendix burst and almost killed me, they cut me open so many times in the front of my groun that i have not enough muscle to keep my back straight anymore. i gained 60 pounds sence all this started 7 years ago. before that i never even saw a doctor for anything. i can't sleep in bed or my legs go so numb i have to phiscally move them to get up. that skelaxin help if i take it at night before i go to bed but have to take vioxx during the day to keep it going. this year i finally called it quites along with the doctors and they are trying to get me S.S. but we'll see what happens. never been a quiter before but just can't lift much anymore. pain-yes alot of pain but i try and keep from in front of the tv by visiting friends and sitting in the park and running out to the variouse yard and look at thing and try and sell them to you guys now ; - ). beats watching springer. i am only 42 this year and have climbed mountains in canada and have driven back and forth across these united states and have seen alot. if you look back emagin the things you have done so that you know you did not waste your life or time. being a farmer as you where is a thankless from us type of job but can you emagine all the people you helped or touched by doing the job we didn't. or the hours out in the air on the fields where some of us would have paid to been out there for hours instead of in a factory sniffing who knows what. you lived a dream, so have i, so have alot of other people. thats why i have in the bottom of my posts---remember where you have been for tomarow gives no promises of here you might be. god never promised us anything but life, as long as i am sucking air i am going to enjoy it just as much as i can. i live in plymouth wisconsin. number is 1-920-893-0629 if you ever want to talk or care to meet up some day
Hi everyone, I never expected to get such a responce to this. I have a DR who has done epidural shot in bulging disks. The other day he put some kind of shot in the sacroiliac [sp] joint. They both help as long as I don't over do it. I am also on 10/325 of vicotin/tylenal and just started on meloxicam which is for ostioartheitis. I also have a cyst in a nerve sheath in my tail bone and degenerative joint disease in the same 2 joints where the bulging disks are. The DR also thinks my neck has problems we have not looked into yet because my arms go weak or sometimes I feel like electric shocks going down my arm if I move just right. The way things are going I will be happy if I can still walk when I am 50. On top of this I also have fibromyalgia and clinical depression, but finally got on a med that helps the depression alot. After many years of trying meds a very old med named parnate is the only one that works with my depression. Tom
Just to let you know, Fibromyalgia is alot of times a blanket diagnosis that doctors give people when they can't figure out what is wrong with you nerve wise. Before I ended up going to Denver to see the nations top rated specialist in Thorasic Outlet Syndrome (what I have), I was told I had fibromyalgia as well. I was also told by an a#%hat therapist that I was faking. Even though my pulse would completely shut off and my arms and hands would go numb if I raised them above my head!! LOL I also had severe pain in the neck, shoulders, arms elbows wrists and hands, plus electrical shock feelings down the arms, numbness, and weakness as well. I still have it pretty badly in the right side. I underwent two wrist surgeries and an elbow surgery to try and free up the nerves with no relief. Thats when the "system" basically gave up on me and called me a malingerer. It was actually a good thing because it empowered me to find the fix or live with the pain forever. I did some hardcore researching and found the doctor that is treating me now. From what I have learned in the past two years of dealing with all of this is how important it is to find the very BEST doctor you can regarding your problem. Most of us are very selective about who we will let work on our cars, but we blindly trust all doctors to do the right thing for us. Sadly, I learned the hard way that a patient's health isn't always a doctors main concern. I live in Illinois and am now paying out of pocket (for now) to be treated by a doctor in Denver because money is money, but we only have one body. So far I have had better results and healing in the past six months with the good doc then I did in the 1st year and a half with all the other hacks. This did require a rather severe surgery, but I am now almost symptom free on the left side a bit over two months post op. I no longer trust important stuff like the surgery I just had, and will have again on the right side in October, to any doctor. Go to the best and get it done right. It could very well be the difference between being completely healed, or being made much worse. If you need anyone to talk to about this feel free to email me prybell@comcast.net . Good luck and I hope you get some relief!!
Hi, I have heard that some DRs call pain problem fibro when they don't know or are lost to help you. I had a abdominal problem that was so out of the ordinary it took 15 years of upper and lower GIs and scopes to finally figure out what was wrong. I was so "F" ing mad at my doc and hospital at the time that told me it was all in my head or "nerves". I got married to a nurse and she got me to see a DR she knew from work and in a matter of a couple months I had major surgery to fix something that was all in my head. I had a Meckel's Diverticulum which is a thing left over from development/birth. It is a appendix type thing hanging on your small intestine and somehow mine got inverted into the small intestine and was blocking it half to 3/4s off. It would cause unreal pain and internal bleeding when it would get acting up. Any way I switched DR and hospital and I was in hospital a week and they found something that didn't look right on a test so they compared it to a test did about 6 months before and the same funny looking spot was there then, so they did a CT scan and the next day I was opened up from the bottom of my ribs all the way down to about belt line [8 1/2" scar] and DR removed the thing and my apendix while in there. Rehab was bad but did wonders on my pain and ability to eat decent. All this after another hospital/DR said nothing wrong just nerves, or hurt because I am depressed. I would have liked to hit those type of DRs in the gut with a ball bat every 15 minutes and see how long before they get depressed. This was winter of 2001 and still get angry just telling about it again here. Second hospital found it with same type of tests the first hospital had done many times. After surgery the older of the 2 surgens comes in my room and says I will probably make the medical books, because he had never seen such a thing before like I had. I am sorry to get so long here but it still strickes a nerve and I still get upset just writing all this again. I was layed up a better part of a year after the surgery. Funny subject for Buick forum, Tom W
Hehe don't sweat it, this is "The Bench" for all topics "Non Buick". :grin: Your story is terrible, but unfortunatly alot more common then we all would think. It infuriates me to think that these docs can pass off such serious problems as it being all in our heads. :af:
I've been to 13 "specialists"(joint, muscle, circulation, nerve, etc) about why I get mind boggling pain in my right leg whenever I drive a car. I just woke up with this about 4 years ago, it's never got any worse or better. It's tolerable until I get in a car. That exact position causes enough pain to make driving any of my hotrods or cars very unpleasant. And the daily commute is really bad- sometimes I have to pull over and walk around. I was told in one case that it was fibromyalgia, and in two others that it was my mind or something I was making up. So I can relate to wanting to bring a ball bat to the doctor's office. Why would any of us waste all of our time and money? I paid for one of those specialist out of my own pocket. That was one of those who said it was in my mind. I am just living with it for now because I am so fed up with all of these quacks.
I'm self-employed in the construction industry. Started dealing with back pain issues about three years ago. Got out of the truck, carrying only some drawings, felt a sharp pain in my hip, hit the pavement & ended up crawling into the house. Laid up for three weeks. A year ago while on an out of town job, wife had to come & get me from the hospital, too much morphine can make you very happy, but not a good driver! Didn't then & certainly don't have time now for any of this Problem was found to be a protruding disc, been there for a long time. Nerve next to it has developed a large mass of scar tissue from the constant irritation. Surgeon will give me about 30% odds he can make me better. I'll wait until I have to crawl all day for a while before I see him again. Best bet for me was a chiropractor. Vertebrae are physically stretched, gently, allowing the disc to recede back into place. This happens once a week while I'm feeling good, up to three times when not so great. No feeling or reflexes on the right side of the right foot. Not bad considering I could be laid up for good. Primary cause unknown, but 25 years in this trade haven't helped. Used to be able to carry pipe in my teeth & bend it over my knees!So I thought when I was younger. Might take a while to find the most comfortable solution. Something that helps the pain & lets you restore your life a bit. My family physician sent me to see the same chiropractor she uses. Tells me a bit about the reliability. It will get a bit better, maybe later than sooner.These issues can be very,very difficult to diagnose correctly. Keep trying. Ever need a sounding board again don't think twice! I'm 41, married & three children.
pain I'm not so glad to here that there a people out here with PAIN. I have cts that is not going to go away. I work as a auto mech. and line mech. for 20 years. The last 17 with the same company that had away of vocal imtemidation. Plus I always wanted to turn in more ERT than anyone else. Bad mistake. Work thur the pain. After my new DR gave me work restrictions, did the feeling in my hands try and return. 2 Ops on both hands and elbows. gave me no relief. Nerve damage for ever and the ostero arthuitis has caught up to me at 44. When low pressures line up and come thur Kentucky I can eat all the vioxx , lor-tabs and pain killers I want nothing works. I hope some of the younger GS'SER learn to wear protective vibration gloves and to pace themselves and do not work thur the pain,get help. Sorry for this, but my name is Dorea, and I don't eat fish.
im nearly 21 now and when i was about 15-16 a friend and i were into jumping off of roofs onto couch cushions. everything was ok until i landed wrong and screwed my back up. i couldnt really move too well for maybe 3 months after that and now, just about every morning i wake up with a javelin in my spine. i know it will get worse as i get older. just another thing to get used to i guess.
Leo, Your story is exactly like what I am going through. If you had your Carpal tunnel released in your wrists, and ulner nerve transpositions on the elbows and have had no relief it's most likely that the nerve compression is farther up. I had the same surgeries as you did and had absolutly no relief from the pain and symptoms. I finally found out by going to a vascular surgeon that knows his stuff about this sort of thing, that my compressions are in the Thoracic Outlet. Its basically a triangle in your chest made up of your collerbone, 1st rib and muscle. Your Medial and Ulner nerves, along with the subclaivian artery and veins pass through this space. If you develope scar tissue like I did, from wrenching/ repetative motion, it closes up this triangle and gives you all of the same symptoms of having Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Cubital Tunnel Syndrome. It also can lead to the developement of Carpal tunnel and Cubital tunnel syndrome in whats called a double crush syndrome. The surgery I had involved the removal of my left side 1st rib, along with a whole bunch of scar tissue that was wrapped around my nerves and subclaivian artery. It is a serious surgery, but the great results I have had on my left side has made it a no brainer to choose to get the right side done as well. If you'd like to talk about this more drop me an email. I have kind of become an expert on this subject due to all the research I ended up doing in my search to find out what the heck was wrong with me. I also have some great articles that my doctor published earlier this year to help doctors diagnose TOS since it is so often misdiagnosed as Carpal or Cubital tunnel syndrome.
I Sure can Tom, I can relate very well I was hit by a Semi truck back in june of 99. I broke just about every bone in my body except for my neck and back....I have a new hip and a plate holding my pelvis together, I also have a calcium build up on all joints and also every place I broke a bone...I have real bad pain in my knees and back because of the new hip and the way it makes me limp, I was thrown 289 feet down the highway. I was on life support for a month and a half and My wife was told to bring my kids to the Hospital to say good bye to their Father! I punctured both my lungs from all the ribs I broke and also punctured my stomach I broke all my teeth out from smacking the highway so many times......So I live on pain killers(which I have built a tolerance to) for the rest of my life. The pain clinics that I have gone to and there has been many say the same thing"SORRY BUT THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO FOR YOU"........I was told that I would never work again and walking was in serious question. I still have a broken collar bone that juts out from my shoulder and neck area. I have many broken fingers that are swollen with arthristis.......But being the stubborn IRISH MAN that I am I was back at work after 7 months of rehab and I am now trying to rebuild a 1965 Buick Wildcat.......I know it really stinks but I always say one step at a time and one day at a time. I hope that you someday will be pain free God Bless, Don R :TU:
Hi everyone, I am getting all choked up reading these stories, I don't remember who said it but I will say it to. You will end up paying for the things you do when you are young if you don't take care of yourself. I realize that when you are 18 or 20 or whatever you think you are invincible, I know I did even though body was trying to tell me other wise. I never dreamed this tread would get so much responce, But I think it is a good subject for the younger people who read this stuff. I dont know what else to say but thanks everyone who responded to this tread. It makes me feel a little better to know others are not willing to just give up on life and do the best we can. I have been thinking about putting a pad on roll bar in the car to lay my head against to take some of the strain off my neck off the line, I notice if I do alot of racing my neck hurts the next day. Probably alot of strain to hold head up with heavy helmet on against the G forces, My car isn't that fast, I wonder if guys in 8 or 9 second cars have something to rest head against for the first 60ft or so? I have been trying to find ways to make racing easier on me, I go up to track day before and camp over, race saturday, camp over, and come home sunday morning so I don't have to be in a rush all the time and don't have to drive home late saturday night in the dark and tired. Tom W
Tom, have you thought about trying one of those neck support donuts that goes between your helmet and shoulders? I would think that would solve alot of your G force pain issues. I'd like to add that I am really glad you started this thread. I think every one of us at some point or another thinks that we are alone when it comes to what we suffer with regarding chronic pain. Most people that don't live with it day in and day out have a hard time relating to what we go through. They see a smile on our face once in awhile and they automatically assume that the pain can't be all that bad. It's always nice to be reminded that we are not alone in this battle.
Re: pain hey... that was last saturday.... I saw that too while being on Ohikchee <sp? Lake. awesome site. nate
I can relate...... I have had MS for about 3 years now. I have been doing pretty good for a while, taking my injections everyday and other med's for the MS. However, on April 12th, I fell in the lobby of my bank on a slick floor and have been on full disablilty since. I fractured my left elbow and injured my knee, which had just recovered from surgery back in January! But the worst was that within a few hours, I was experiencing numbness attacks throughout my body. It has not gotten better, Some days I can do things around the house, and other days I can only use my legs and right arm very little. My full pay decreases to half pay in a few weeks, and I will have to apply for Social Security. The bad part about the accident is that the bank knew it was a hazard not having a mat covering the tile floor since they have had several falls on the floor and been successfully sued for it. I also found out that there exists copies of letters from their cleaning company urging them to put out mats! And they were instructed to place out mats after the last incident, but only did so at the employees entrance. But I have an apppointment with my attorney and the bank's insurance adjuster tomorrow morning, so maybe thing will still work out for me. I am 43 and may never be able to go back to my job. It will be an interesting meeting I am sure! Brian
Man , Go for it . My prayers are for all on this thread. We must all get together sometime at Buick meet.
