What a draaaag it is getting olllllld
 

Good grief! All I was doing was winding up an air hose that was on the floor when POP! Something in my back pops and I'm in instant pain and can barely walk! 2021, the year I turned 50 has been a sh.t storm of a year. Tore my meniscus running to my car to avoid the rain and NOW THIS! Maybe 51 will be better? I guess getting old beats the alternative but DAMN it was an air hose! 800mg of Ibuprofen didn't touch it. 25mg of thc gummies? Nope... it just said "you ain't got nothin!". The plus side is the gummies let me get some sleep.

Oh well.

Ice has been my friend in those situations for a long time. The big part of the problem is that we don't heal as quickly or as completely as we get older. Treat the injury not just the symptoms. Feel better bro.

I took a nice long shower and it loosened up a bit. I have it nailed down to where the problem is and thankfully it's not L5/S1 (my normal source of grief). Seems like it's mid back so hopefully one good twist or push from the chiropractor will pop things back into place. I've got heads to remove! No time for this nonsense.

I think the lesson to take away from this is, no more cleaning up my shop!

We could all stand to make it a habit to take the time to stretch our bodies more every day to keep this kind of event at bay.

I try to do a few stretches each morning and I have a bar on the ceiling of the garage that I like to hang onto, monkey-style, to relieve the pressure of gravity for a few moments a few times a day. It feels good!

Feel better, Nick.

^^^ cold and heat therapy work well. Stand in a very hot shower with the water directed at the spot where you have pain to relax your back muscles. You can follow thisbuo with ice packs. I have used a product called Biofreeze and it works well also. Hope this all helps ya. Getting old sucks sometimes but you will be fine. I'm 56. Lol.

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I applied Biofreeze liberally! Once I get done at the chiropractor, I plan to rotate ice and heat. I was really hoping that the gummies would help relax the muscles and that things would just slide back into place but NOPE still hurt this morning. I know I've got something tweaked pretty good because it hurts no matter what I do. There's no comfortable position to be in.

Yoga Cobra pose, I have a bulging disk (L1-L2) any time I aggravate it I get into a Cobra Pose push up as much as I can bear then hold for as long as I can bear, drop flat, rest, repeat.

I will ice it too, as well as spend some time doing that pose. Typically 24 hours later I am back going about my life.

That sucks, Nick. Rest will be your friend combined with all the other advice.

I have a series of yoga stretches and other leg stretches I do at least 5 days a week....Cobra included.

It works. I turn 66 in November and, while my right hip needs replacing, my back feels great!

Way ahead of ya on yoga. Went in the house yesterday right after this happened, laid on my bedroom floor for a while to let things ease up, that started hitting the Cobra and a few other things I remember from PT when I had a herniated disc in my lower back.

The good news is, there's no nerve tingling in my left leg (left side is the problem)... just a lot of tightness in my hip. I'm thinking massage therapist and then chiropractic adjustment back to back might be a good idea.

If none of that works, I have beer. I just need to have my son bring the 5 gallon keg into the family room or the couch out to the garage next to the kegorator. :D

I have used those salonpas heat stick pads with good results.
Also takes time.


I think they are around $2 each and last 8 hrs...they are at Walmart.

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It is amazing how the body suddenly remembers all the abuse you did to it and it fights back starting at age 50.

Soon, pulling an all nighter has nothing to do with staying up all night, but actually sleeping all night and NOT having to get up to pee.

Life does change after 50, and changes faster at 60. Youth is wasted on the young.

If you are lucky, you will get to experience old age. Going out to eat dinner at 4:45 seems completely logical and the right thing to do. Staying up past 10:30 PM is pushing the envelope.

Chief Sandwicher had her second hip replaced three weeks ago, she’s almost back to full activities, hip-wise. Except for now, in a couple weeks, she’s going for some kind of injection in her knee that’s bone-on-bone arthritis. She can hardly walk with that knee so bad but with my encouragement she can make it from the fridge to the counter and back at least two times per day.

I’ve begun calling her ortho doctor her mechanic.

Here Nick I'll make you feel a bit better.

A few years back around my fiftieth. I was doing my business in the bathroom. The TP was sitting on the vanity with a little tail of TP hanging. The cat started playing with the TP and knocked the roll off the vanity where it rolled behind the toilet. I reached back but couldn't reach it. It was just outta range. So I reached again and gave it a little extra effort.

I reached a little further got my head between the toilet and vanity, just a little further, my finger tip could touch the edge of the roll, just a little more. BOINK a shooting pain across my lower back. WTF was that? I couldn't move. I'm stuck arm reaching down behind the toilet my head jammbed between the toilet and vanity.

No one is home and I am stuck. Breathing sent a shooting pain across my lower back.

It took I'd say a half hour to get myself straightened out to face front. The tinest little movement was excrutianting. I couldn't stand up which didn't matter anyway because I didn't get the roll of TP. It was difficult to adjust because of the pain. So there I sat for I guess another hour with the dog sleeping on the floor in front of me and me doing my best imitation of Rodin's thinker. Now my a$$ and legs are going numb. Slowly I inched my way forward and eventually fell to the floor landing on the dog. He gave a growl and left. I lay there until my wife came home to help me to bed.

The fifteen or so feet from the bathroom to the bed was easily the most exruciating pain I have evr felt. I have shot myself with a nail gun more than once. Had to be pried off a 2x4 in one incident, no comparison. Ran a circular saw through my knee that required 33 stitches, not even close. Fallen out of trees, broken bones you name it.

Reaching for the TP while on the throne beats them all. I still feel the effects from time to time. You can bet one thing for sure, the TP is always secured before the process begins. I ain't doing that again.

^^That could be the litmus test for a marriage.

"Will you pick me off the bathroom floor when I've hurt myself after a duke , clean me up and get me in bed?"

Welcome to fitty ... the next years are chitty :D

I keed...

I've never "tweaked" my back doing heavy lifting, etc. .... it's usually picking up a feather "wrong" ;). I've never been to a chiro, no REAL back issues, but once in a blue moon... and not age related.

An inversion table isn't for everyone, but on those few occasions when I have .... it works for me.

Good luck Nick... you ol' fart you :D

Speaking of gummies.

In July I carried 2 cases of water into the house from the truck (Hurricane supplies) and it tweaked my back.

Worst pain I have ever experienced with this back injury since I initially hurt it 25 years ago.

I tried the pose, it was helping but not enough.

SIL sent over some of her medical in a little holder that looked like a cigarette holder with a little joint on the end. Told me to take two hits and the pain should go away.

I melted into the carpet on my living room floor after that, I was gone. the pain was completely gone. Until it wasn't....

Seriously thought about getting my card after that.

I have been doing the same routine my whole life, including the monkey bar hang. If I don't stretch in the morning it feels like I've missed something important for the rest of the day. I have two back stretches that have pretty much eliminated any surprise lower back spasms/zingers.

Thanks! I needed that. :D

The body can do weird stuff sometimes. When I was 30 I was out splitting some wood with a maul and wedge. It was all good until I casually bent over to pick up a the wedge and I pulled a muscle in my stomach. No idea why or how but I was in severe agony. Had to soak in a hot tub for hours and didn't get over it for a day or two.

Agree on all the above...
But I refuse to made my health issues fodder for social visits.
Yesterday good friends visited and shared some health issues and I listened.
Then they asked me how I was doing.
I kept it short, just fine except for the stupid C-pap every night.
Beyond that I'd rather BS about fun stuff.

I'da looked at em' and said "I have a terrible case of limpdick" just to see the expression on their faces. :D

Which would certainly be more fun than doing a bunch of core exercises. (something that I know I need to do, but don't/haven't)

That sucks! (I really shouldn't be laughing, but...)

One of my buddies is a fit and active guy. He was working on a sprinkler system in the far back of his yard, and something in his back went pop. He was in agony, his cell phone was in the house and it was scorching hot day. He was bent over and finally managed to get to his hands and knees and crawled like a very slow baby to his house. He said it was the slowest most painful thing he ever did. He finally got to the door and fortunately the door was not locked. He managed to crawl over to the phone on a charger, pull the charge cord and get the phone to the edge of the cabinet. He called 911 and told them to come to the back door.

As he was waiting he managed to drop to the floor and slowly lay flat on his back. They took him to the hospital and with the right pain meds and help got him back on his feet.

After that he got a waterproof phone case and a belt clip and never went anywhere without his phone. He said he used to laugh at the old commercial "help I've fallen and can't get up" commercial but he understands now.

Years ago I worked for a company that had techs that went out and did installs. Because of those guys, we had a monthly "safety training" meeting. One of them was about back issues, and the guy teaching the class said that most back issues are triggered while brushing your teeth (I guess leaning down to spit or something).

...and? Those are?

I can smell the Bengay in this thread...

I try to always have my phone on me. I take it with me when I mow (although the missus has taken that over). You just never know when you'll wish you had it.

LOL

This has been the last few years at my annual physicals or any time in between that I need to go see the Doc.

Well Scott, it looks like we've got this thing going on with you.

"Really, what caused that?"

How old are you now? seems to be his response to the majority of my questions.

Yup. I am always looking for more ideas.

BTW, I thought the Stones no longer play, 'Mother's Little Helper".:D

Yep...one morning I was leaning over the bathroom sink washing my hands...then the knife in the back feeling.
Extending ones arms to pick something up is very common to back pain.

Most of my injuries happened in my back yard.
Lifting stuff, slip and fall and hitting my head diving into the pool.

You should consider avoiding your back yard! I've decided not to clean my shop anymore. I'm just going to add on from here on out whenever a bay gets too full to work in.

That would of got a reaction as the husband is an ordained minister. :D

Impossible with my green thumb and 30 plumerias. ;)

in the words of Randy Bachman. "you ain't seen nothin' yet" ........

My pharmacist knows me by my name.

Yep...hopefully I'll be 78 in a few weeks...ahh, to be a lad of 50...

Man, y'all are old and broken down

I'm broken down but I ain't old yet!

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