It can always be better

[user removed]

Doctors appt for yearly physical.

BP 130 over 80, almost perfect. 10 points lower on both sides than it has been in almost 30 years.
Weight 199.5 lowest in almost 25 years.
Everything else fine for turning 64 in november.

In the waiting room I read am article about back pain treatment that I had not heard about before. I asked my doctor (who used to be MY customer) about the article which was headed as a paid advertisement. He told me he knew the doctor and he was excellent and he made an appointment to consult with that doctor in October.

Maybe after 25 years of chronic back pain the procedures that have been developed, which use needles but no cutting or scar tissue issues can actually give me some real relief. I could get strong prescription pain meds but a I hate the side effects which make me feel like a zombie.

All in all one of my best days ever, just need to not get my hopes up too high.

regards
Mech

[mcrews]

Mech,
Cant imagine living in pain.....thoughts and prayers!

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Doctors appt for yearly physical.

BP 130 over 80, almost perfect. 10 points lower on both sides than it has been in almost 30 years.
Weight 199.5 lowest in almost 25 years.
Everything else fine for turning 64 in november.

In the waiting room I read am article about back pain treatment that I had not heard about before. I asked my doctor (who used to be MY customer) about the article which was headed as a paid advertisement. He told me he knew the doctor and he was excellent and he made an appointment to consult with that doctor in October.

Maybe after 25 years of chronic back pain the procedures that have been developed, which use needles but no cutting or scar tissue issues can actually give me some real relief. I could get strong prescription pain meds but a I hate the side effects which make me feel like a zombie.

All in all one of my best days ever, just need to not get my hopes up too high.

regards
Mech

My mom has been living with 3 herniated disks for 3 years, I cannot imagine dealing with back pain for 3 years, let alone 25! You must be one strong mofo, I hope it goes well for you. Also props to you for refusing meds. I personally take norco when my neck or back flares up but I suffer no Ill effects from it other then no pain.

[Cobb]

Glad to hear you are in good health. You blood pressure maybe effect by your pain levels. I know mines are effecting my bp and this year and the last few weeks have been murder on my pains. I test negative for arthritis, but I have all the other symptoms and inflammation.

[user removed]

Thirty years of mostly heavy manual labor (commission) and my own business where you pack as much into an hour as possible then using my forehead to knock the windshield out of a 71 Datsun 510 when the city decided to strip the pavement off a street and leave 3.5 inches of the manhole casement sticking straight out of the road (no apron just vertical steel wall) which hit my left front wheel and I did a Joey Chitwood across the two oncoming two lanes, hit the curb, flipped and landed on the roof of a Dodge Dart, then the car caught on fire. A kind stranger (Mom sent him a thank you note) pulled me (at 180 pounds) out of the passengers window almost 6 feet off the ground and they gave me two units of plasma on the way to the hospital. Next day I was black and blue down my whole right side from my ear to my ankle. They stapeled the 6 inch gash (to the bone) in my head using only novicane (doctor said I had been scalped). I did not request any pain meds until the next afternoon. Poor Mom had to sit down in the elevator when she left the hospital to keep from fainting. Looked like the Jolly Green Giant had used my right side for a flyswatter, but not one broken bone and I was back at work in a week. The hang glider crash didn't help, cracked the helmet I was wearing. Falling out of a tree didn't help either, higher than the lowest wires on the telephone pole. Landed in a horseshoe pit with the stake between my chest and right elbo. Ran into the kitchen gasping for air and Mom blew me up like a balloon.

Doc told me a couple of years later that I would have chronic pain until they put me in the ground but I could still live to be a hundred (good genes).

I got a new Doctor who had been my customer when he was going to med school. Maybe I can get that mistake fixed but I guess stupid has it's price.

The city did the same (stripped pavement, samespot same road) thing 15 years earlier and it ripped the differential out of a Chevy Vega. Hit the ring and pinion housing, bent the rear wheels in 45 degrees per side and yanked the driveshaft right out of the transmission.

I guess I'm a pretty tough nut, but I have not hit another member of the human race in anger since 1963 when I laid a back hand chop into a freind who had hit me from behind and watched him gasp for breath. Thought he was faking it until he started turning gray and I have avoided getting physical ever since. I could total loss a car with my bare hands.

regards
Mech

[user removed]

You would think some diety greater than myself wanted me to stick around

regards
Mech

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

You would think some diety greater than myself wanted me to stick around

regards
Mech

You must have God personally as your Guardian haha. I have had some bad things happen to me but not even comparable with you. I'm glad your still with us after all that, and I'm sure I'm not the only one here who thinks like that.

[ME_Andy]

Sounds like you've had an interesting life. I'd recommend weightlifting for the back pain. My dentist told me he only started to feel back pain when he stopped lifting... And this coming from a man who sits hunched over all day.

I'm sure that better health, in general, will help too.

[Arragonis]

My dad - a cop - got injured at work and had a bad back from then on. He worked on and didn't get any treatment in case they retired him. The first day of full pension he went off sick and eventually retired.

Good for him to get the pension, but bad for him because now his back is beyond being treated so he walks with a stick.

[RustyLugNut]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Thirty years of mostly heavy manual labor (commission) and my own business where you pack as much into an hour as possible then using my forehead to knock the windshield out of a 71 Datsun 510 when the city decided to strip the pavement off a street and leave 3.5 inches of the manhole casement sticking straight out of the road (no apron just vertical steel wall) which hit my left front wheel and I did a Joey Chitwood across the two oncoming two lanes, hit the curb, flipped and landed on the roof of a Dodge Dart, then the car caught on fire. A kind stranger (Mom sent him a thank you note) pulled me (at 180 pounds) out of the passengers window almost 6 feet off the ground and they gave me two units of plasma on the way to the hospital. Next day I was black and blue down my whole right side from my ear to my ankle. They stapeled the 6 inch gash (to the bone) in my head using only novicane (doctor said I had been scalped). I did not request any pain meds until the next afternoon. Poor Mom had to sit down in the elevator when she left the hospital to keep from fainting. Looked like the Jolly Green Giant had used my right side for a flyswatter, but not one broken bone and I was back at work in a week. The hang glider crash didn't help, cracked the helmet I was wearing. Falling out of a tree didn't help either, higher than the lowest wires on the telephone pole. Landed in a horseshoe pit with the stake between my chest and right elbo. Ran into the kitchen gasping for air and Mom blew me up like a balloon.

Doc told me a couple of years later that I would have chronic pain until they put me in the ground but I could still live to be a hundred (good genes).

I got a new Doctor who had been my customer when he was going to med school. Maybe I can get that mistake fixed but I guess stupid has it's price.

The city did the same (stripped pavement, samespot same road) thing 15 years earlier and it ripped the differential out of a Chevy Vega. Hit the ring and pinion housing, bent the rear wheels in 45 degrees per side and yanked the driveshaft right out of the transmission.

I guess I'm a pretty tough nut, but I have not hit another member of the human race in anger since 1963 when I laid a back hand chop into a freind who had hit me from behind and watched him gasp for breath. Thought he was faking it until he started turning gray and I have avoided getting physical ever since. I could total loss a car with my bare hands.

regards
Mech

The first rule of life is to live it. People forget that. You obviously didn't.

More power to you for avoiding narcotics.