Ouch!!

[Conrail]

Looks like working on my new layout is on hold...maybe for good while to. I screwed my back up at work last week and it's just getting worse. I can't hardly move now. It's bad... caused me to wreck my car when I was driving home from the doctors office. Had a bad shooting pain that just paralyzed me for a second...lost control of the car and smacked one of those nice big manly curbs at 35mph. Bent everything on the front end. I'm just glad I didn't run into anyone. I tried to put together one of my Branchline boxcars tonight since I cant climb up on the bench to lay track, but I can't sit in a chair that long. :cry: Whats even worse was I just spent alot of money buying EVERYTHING I needed for the new layout. Today when some of the packages showed up at the door I couldnt even bend down to get em... thats just torture. They had to sit there until my wife came home. I really hope none of you guys/ ladies hurt your back the way I did.... this is awful!

 

[MasonJar]

Take it easy on that back... you've only got one! Sports & spinal therapy clinic helped me work out most of my issues, and gave me exercises and tricks to get the problem disk back in alignment if it ever slips out again...

I know a couple of modellers who have work benches suitable for standing at - heights of up to about 4'6". They have the anti-fatigue mats to stand on, and do all their work like that. Works for them, and they report it is easier than sitting in a chair. I have actually lowered my chair as far as it will go - now my elbows rest on my desk like a little kid sitting at the dinner table. Makes a big difference in how curved my back gets...

Hope that helps.

Andrew

 

[hooknlad]

I feel your pain Conrail.

I feel your pain Conrail, on 09.10.01, my back locked up while attempting to get out of my truck. I just couldnt do it. I blew the horn for my wife to come out of the house. We then headed to the Emergency Room , where I poured myself out of the truck. Alledgedly just a sprain. 2 weeks of bedrest and no relief. I consequently went to an Orthopedic surgeon and had L3,L4,L5 removed - OUCH.
I also have tons of railroad equipment that I have acquired via EBAY, while laid up. Back pain just wont allow my body drive to work on the layout, unless fully medicated, without fear of locking up, with no one around.
Research all possibilities before going for surgery, if you require any ideas/ suggestions, please feel free to contact me. Get Better and do not over do it. Remember Pain killers only mask the pain while the actual "damage" is still being done.:cry:

 

[N Gauger]

We're all coming out of the woodwork, now. Keep at it - Listen to yur Doctor and just take it slow. Don't be ashamed to say "I can't do that"!

If you take it easy & let it start healing - it will up to a point - then it's your decision on what you want to have done to make it all better. Mine isn't my actual back - it's a muscle strain.

If I stand too long or lift a "bit" too much - I pull the muscle again & my lower back & left leg start aching

It's never any fun at all

Let us know how you're doing! Best of Luck!

 

[ezdays]

I guess I can relate as well. Been faced with back pain and chiropractic adjustments for over 40 years. To be sure, I just returned from an adjustment not 30 minutes ago.

What to do? Don't overdo, that's what. I have a tendency to ignore that advice and I seem to pay the price when I don't. Recently I've been more inclined to back off doing things I shouldn't and I can go longer between adjustments. I can work on my layout (standing) or at my bench (sitting), but if it gets too much, I stop before I feel any worse. Before now, I'd continue, regardless. I guess what I'm saying is take it easy, there's always someone around to help you lift or move something. I hope you get a handle on it, there is no cure, just a way to manage things so you don't hurt as much and you can at least act more normal. Good luck...

 

[shortliner]

I feel for you - I did the same thing, turning round in the drivers seat of an Austin mini, to lift a bag of shopping off the rear seat, many years ago. The muscles in my back went into spasm and my wife had to literally drag me from the car - I crawled into the house, on hands and knees! There was virtually NO position that was comfortable as the muscles pulled against each other. The only way to get out of bed was to roll out onto my knees and straighten up very slowly with my wifes help. Doctor gave me some muscle relax tablets and eventually all returned to normal - BUT - he warned me it could happen again at any time! It has recurred twice in 30 years, though nowhere near as badly. Learn to sit, stand and lift properly(get professional advice on this!), buy a bed with a hard, orthopaedic mattress, (soft beds are back-killers) and hopefully you will remain relatively free as I have - DO NOT do things like lifting etc when you are tired - absolutely guaranteed to set it off again.
Get well soon
Shortliner(Jack)away up here in the Highlands

 

[Peter T Davis]

Sorry to hear about that. I hope you will be well soon.

 

[Chessie6459]

Just take it easy for awhile. That just sucks that, that had to happen. Hope you feel better.

 

[tillsbury]

I know how you feel. I yawned and stretched on Sunday morning and something went ping in my neck -- it took 30 minutes to sit down and I was stuck there all day. Still agony when I try to turn my head... nothing doing on the train front for a while. :curse:

I'm fortunate I married a physiotherapist, but they can't fix everything in a day...

 

[Conrail]

I had my X-Rays done today after nagging the doctor who was pretty much calling me a liar..???... so anyhow... he found out the L3, and L4 discs have slipped and are possibly herniated... and scheduled me for an MRI. I told him I couldn't walk without limping because pressure on my left leg hurts all the way from my knee to my shoulder blades...he blew it off and told me to go to work in the morning !! I can hardly walk and my car is a standard so without my left leg in good use how and what am I supposed to do? It was bad enough he called me a liar and I had to nagg him for x-rays to prove something was wrong but he didn't even change my work restrictions from when he previously thought I had only a strain! I had to get a lawyer. I didn't want to but If my back is going to be jacked up and my employers care provider isnt going to do much about it...I'm pretty much left with no choice. I have a wife and son who depend on me..I gave a 110% everyday at work and if they won't at least give me the propper treatment I need for hurting myself trying to do a good job for them then I suppose I'll just have to feed em to the leeches. How disapointing.

 

[N Gauger]

Get another Doctor - is this a "Company Doc"??? they are all working for the company - Not the employees

get a second opinion Fast! and have yourself put on light duty ASAP - before you hurt yourself more.. any idiot doctor that you would have to beg for x-rays is not out for your best interests

They all sleep soundly at night - while the paitents can't breath right because of all the pain they are in I've seen it happen more than once

 

[hooknlad]

Second, Third and Fourth Professional Opinion

When I had my first back "episode" , I went to the Emergency Room, thinkng that these doctors were gods. Boy was I ever wrong. The doctor ordered XRays. He said that I had a bad sprain. Two weeks later still immobile, I went to an Orthapedic Surgeon. He said that I had a condition of the spine that came to haunt me 35 years later from childbirth. My back literally was never fused in one place, leaving my back in 2 seperate entities. One full year later and 8 opinions shooting for surgery. I had 3 discs removed and my back fused.
Just a word from experience, Get a professional opinon, from either a neurologist or an orthapedic surgeon, before you continue or go for physical therapy. You may be inducing further damage. My back locked up on a querk, which opened a huge can of worms. Good luck and Get Well Soon.:thumb:

 

[capt_turk]

I can sure sympathise when it comes to back injuries and getting no help. Three years ago I got tossed about 20 feet to a steel deck. Someone 52 years old is definitely too old for that kind of acrobatics. Crushed two disks, dislocated two vertebra. Got bad pain from the sole of my foot to under the shoulder blade. Company took 17 days to get me to a doctor, and then went bankrupt. No insurance, can't sue. Can't pickup anything much heavier than a coffee cup. Gotta do the roll outa bed in the morning to the hands and knees thing. Just have to be real careful and live with the pain Thankfully there are those beautiful little pills called Vicodin.

 

[Glen Haasdyk]

It was two years ago thursday that I had my back surgery. At 32 I was probably one of the youngest to have that magnatide of back problems. My dics on the L5-S1 herniated and clamped down on my siatic nerve going down my left leg. That gave me the sensation that my leg was on fire. I ended up spended the next four weeks in the hospital waiting for surgery. I had to get a Lumbar Discectomy where they cut the herniation off the disc and leave you with a smaller disc (it doesn't grow back) They generaly don't fuse the vertabre together anymore since they found it causes more problems down the road.
I've been reletivly good since though. I just have to keep my exersices up to keep my lower back strength up and be careful how much I lift around work and how I do it.

 

[Conrail]

I am waiting on the results of the MRI I had done Friday evening. The doctor is part of my Employers company care provider system. The doctors office called back on Thursday and said there didn't appear to be any slippage of the discs after all. "So which is it?" I said! Do I or do I not have a slipped disc? Kinda covers all the bases saying yes and no! I should also be getting my copies of the X-rays Monday in the mail. My wife is a surgical Nurse so she is going to have some of the doctors that she is friends with look over them for some second opinions. All I know is I am in pain. I definately think there is some pressure of some kind on the sciatic nerve even if there isnt a slipped disc.

 

[Pitchwife]

All I know is I am in pain. QUOTE]
I can empathize with you there. Being a para for the last 35 years I live with constant pain and daily medications that don't always do enough. Sometimes I wish there were a way that the doctors could (or better yet, would HAVE TO) experiance just what we are feeling. You would see a huge change in medical treatment if they did. Since there is no clinical way to measure it they don't take it seriously enough. Keep hounding them, get second and even third or fourth opinions. Don't forget, patients have rights but you have to fight for them most of the time. Hang in there no matter how hard it gets. :thumb: