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Back Issues

So anything elastic for underwear triggers pain for me…I thus have to wear old boxers whose elasticity has worn down after so many years.

Any idea why that would be? Is it doing something to my nerves? My hip bones?
 
I genuinely wonder how much of our back issues is because of poorly designed sofas and chairs.

Obviously some can be genetics or from accidents and it often arises because we just sit too damn much and we weren’t “born” to do that—we have been designed to be hunters and always be moving.

But I wonder how many of us would have these issues if our seating was just designed better. For instance, my ergonomic chair at work is great. It doesn’t cause me to tighten up the way most other seating does.
 
Keefe said:
I genuinely wonder how much of our back issues is because of poorly designed sofas and chairs.

Obviously some can be genetics or from accidents and it often arises because we just sit too damn much and we weren’t “born” to do that—we have been designed to be hunters and always be moving.

But I wonder how many of us would have these issues if our seating was just designed better. For instance, my ergonomic chair at work is great. It doesn’t cause me to tighten up the way most other seating does.
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This makes me wonder if those of us that have standing desks uses them enough, and for those that do use them heavily if it helps them out.

Anyone?
 
I had 2 herniated discs when i was 17 playing aussie rules. I feel the pain of everyone here, absolute nightmare of agony that took me about 5 years to be pain free without surgery. I got rashes due to the pain, almost in tears sitting in a car or the school bus. I hid it well and developed a decent pain threshold. And yes, wearing a belt or tight underwear etc made it worse for me also.

I consider myself lucky even though it forced me to stop playing sports during my prime. Went to many docs, physios, chiros who had me doing exercises, stretching all sorts of crap that didnt help. Finally after 2 years of that i found a neurosurgeon who put it to me straight. 2 years with a brace, multiple short walks each day increasing as time goes on, no bending down at all, anti inflammatory to help with pain. He also said i was too young for surgery. So rather than laying down all day he made me more active and it slowly worked. Once i was pain free i kept active with gym, walking and running but not pushing it. And by my mid-late 20's i was back playing basketball and i still play to this day, i'm 40 now and work an office job.

My hips and shoulders are still out of alignment due to the tension i had for so long caused by the pain. And on a few occasions i had done my back again where i was back in a world of hurt but i figured out it was all in my mind. I was so scared about my discs, my whole back tensed up which caused even more pain. I found this out when a doc tried me on a very small amount of Valium. It released the tension and my pain was gone in a day. So in reality i probably just did my back like every normal person does.

Its crazy how just a mm difference in a disc can mean a very different story. Just thought i would share :)
 
leftyjace said:
This makes me wonder if those of us that have standing desks uses them enough, and for those that do use them heavily if it helps them out.

Anyone?
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They never did much for me, but my back pain is due to a pretty substantial spinal fusion, not really structural issues like most others here. I used a standing desk a lot for several years but didn't think it did that much for me so I haven't bothered recently.
 
Met with the orthopedic surgeon. I might switch orthos because this guy has the attitude that the only reason anyone could want to talk to an ortho is to get drugs. Can't stand doctors like that. As soon as he saw I was getting percocet he said "so your doctor wanted someone else to write the prescriptions for your narcotics, huh?" After that he loosened up a bit or I would have just walked out. Once he saw my films and history, etc. I am sure they get a lot of people drug-hunting, but man, have a little compassion out of the gate my dude.

Anyway, getting set up for MRI, CT and PET scans. Should be fun.

If anyone is curious here is a pic of the x-rays they took for the appointment yesterday. The curvature here was caused by the fusion they did during my tumor resection surgery, where it had pushed my spine apart on the left side which partially took, so when they did the repair surgery it already had a fused curve in my spine to the right. You can see that here.

1666711458342.jpeg

You can see here that they put a permanent curvature in my spine. The doctor at the time told me that would help with pain and posture as it was a more natural position for the spine than if they fused it straighter. If that is true, then damn it would have been painful if they had done it the other way.

1666711524990.jpeg

Interesting new contraption for x-rays I haven't seen before, like a weird telephone booth. It is called an EOS imaging system, low-dose x-ray. Although I have had enough x-rays over the years I should be the hulk by now. Here is the booth thing. You just stand inside it and hold still. No film to add into a panel or anything. Obviously it has been a while since I had an x-ray as I was unfamiliar with this thing.

1666711118050.png
 
LogGrad98 said:
Met with the orthopedic surgeon. I might switch orthos because this guy has the attitude that the only reason anyone could want to talk to an ortho is to get drugs. Can't stand doctors like that. As soon as he saw I was getting percocet he said "so your doctor wanted someone else to write the prescriptions for your narcotics, huh?" After that he loosened up a bit or I would have just walked out. Once he saw my films and history, etc. I am sure they get a lot of people drug-hunting, but man, have a little compassion out of the gate my dude.

Anyway, getting set up for MRI, CT and PET scans. Should be fun.

If anyone is curious here is a pic of the x-rays they took for the appointment yesterday. The curvature here was caused by the fusion they did during my tumor resection surgery, where it had pushed my spine apart on the left side which partially took, so when they did the repair surgery it already had a fused curve in my spine to the right. You can see that here.

View attachment 13240

You can see here that they put a permanent curvature in my spine. The doctor at the time told me that would help with pain and posture as it was a more natural position for the spine than if they fused it straighter. If that is true, then damn it would have been painful if they had done it the other way.

View attachment 13241

Interesting new contraption for x-rays I haven't seen before, like a weird telephone booth. It is called an EOS imaging system, low-dose x-ray. Although I have had enough x-rays over the years I should be the hulk by now. Here is the booth thing. You just stand inside it and hold still. No film to add into a panel or anything. Obviously it has been a while since I had an x-ray as I was unfamiliar with this thing.

View attachment 13237
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Oh my ****ing lord, my dude. Good luck.
 
Keefe said:
Oh my ****ing lord, my dude. Good luck.
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Thanks. It does look pretty gnarly like that in x-ray. The scars are pretty cool too. I like going to the beach and public pools and such and catch people staring at the scars. Gotta be a bit shocking I would imagine. Of course I can't see them and my wife is used to them, so it is funny to point it out when people are obviously staring. Or it could just be my overwhelming natural beauty, I suppose.

Another interesting thing is I, and my wife or anyone nearby if the room is quiet, can hear the metal moving in my neck when I rotate my head side to side. I can hear it through the transfer of sound through the bones, but my wife said she can hear it too as a light scraping/scratching sound. Weird.
 
LogGrad98 said:
Met with the orthopedic surgeon. I might switch orthos because this guy has the attitude that the only reason anyone could want to talk to an ortho is to get drugs. Can't stand doctors like that. As soon as he saw I was getting percocet he said "so your doctor wanted someone else to write the prescriptions for your narcotics, huh?" After that he loosened up a bit or I would have just walked out. Once he saw my films and history, etc. I am sure they get a lot of people drug-hunting, but man, have a little compassion out of the gate my dude.

Anyway, getting set up for MRI, CT and PET scans. Should be fun.

If anyone is curious here is a pic of the x-rays they took for the appointment yesterday. The curvature here was caused by the fusion they did during my tumor resection surgery, where it had pushed my spine apart on the left side which partially took, so when they did the repair surgery it already had a fused curve in my spine to the right. You can see that here.

View attachment 13240

You can see here that they put a permanent curvature in my spine. The doctor at the time told me that would help with pain and posture as it was a more natural position for the spine than if they fused it straighter. If that is true, then damn it would have been painful if they had done it the other way.

View attachment 13241

Interesting new contraption for x-rays I haven't seen before, like a weird telephone booth. It is called an EOS imaging system, low-dose x-ray. Although I have had enough x-rays over the years I should be the hulk by now. Here is the booth thing. You just stand inside it and hold still. No film to add into a panel or anything. Obviously it has been a while since I had an x-ray as I was unfamiliar with this thing.

View attachment 13237
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Holy crap that is terrifying. Im sorry bro.
 
LogGrad98 said:
Thanks. It does look pretty gnarly like that in x-ray. The scars are pretty cool too. I like going to the beach and public pools and such and catch people staring at the scars. Gotta be a bit shocking I would imagine. Of course I can't see them and my wife is used to them, so it is funny to point it out when people are obviously staring. Or it could just be my overwhelming natural beauty, I suppose.

Another interesting thing is I, and my wife or anyone nearby if the room is quiet, can hear the metal moving in my neck when I rotate my head side to side. I can hear it through the transfer of sound through the bones, but my wife said she can hear it too as a light scraping/scratching sound. Weird.
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My wife asked me to ask you to post pictures of your scars. She wants to see your natural beauty.


Sent from my iPad using JazzFanz mobile app
 
I couldn’t imagine being in your shoes my dude. I think the worst back pain I have experienced is a pinched nerve in my SI joint, done that a few times now. I’ve been pretty lucky with my body and health. No major issues, at least not yet. I am 35 in April.


Though it doesn’t pertain directly to your situation, I believe some newer Harvard studies suggest static stretching a total of a simple 5m a week (not even at the same time) can help improve and even maintain full ROM (Range of Motion). longer, up to 2m stretches can expand the time between stretching sessions, or less through out the week.
These static stretches can be low intensity and painless, reaching to your current ROM. Full ROM will still improve over time.

It has beneficial effects for reducing potential tumor growth. (I am unsure if they referenced the whole body or just the limbs.) More preventative maintenance then anything.


Sent from my iPhone using JazzFanz
 
Jaymz said:
I couldn’t imagine being in your shoes my dude. I think the worst back pain I have experienced is a pinched nerve in my SI joint, done that a few times now. I’ve been pretty lucky with my body and health. No major issues, at least not yet. I am 35 in April.


Though it doesn’t pertain directly to your situation, I believe some newer Harvard studies suggest static stretching a total of a simple 5m a week (not even at the same time) can help improve and even maintain full ROM (Range of Motion). longer, up to 2m stretches can expand the time between stretching sessions, or less through out the week.
These static stretches can be low intensity and painless, reaching to your current ROM. Full ROM will still improve over time.

It has beneficial effects for reducing potential tumor growth. (I am unsure if they referenced the whole body or just the limbs.) More preventative maintenance then anything.


Sent from my iPhone using JazzFanz
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Count your blessings. My cancer was discovered when I was 28. Tough time to go through that. But I had my own blessings as well.

I do a stretching regimen daily for my shoulders, upper back, neck, and mid-lower back. Was prescribed by a physical therapist I had in the past. I have gone off and on to physical therapy for the pain, and it does help, especially during flare-ups. Right now I am concerned that something has changed. A little over a year ago I had an incident where I went to pick up a box off the floor, weighed maybe 1 pound, and had my left arm go completely dead, while at the same time extreme pain shot from my surgery site down my arm, all across my back, and up into my head, causing me to nearly black out. My arm was dead for maybe 2-3 minutes, then slowly recovered and I could move it again. But that event sent my pain level soaring. So that is what they are looking at now, what may have changed to cause that, and why I had those x-rays taken recently. Unfortunately my ortho's immediate thoughts were that since this last fusion was done about 18 years ago, that there won't be much they can do to alleviate anything unless they find something anomalous, like excess scar tissue or a new tumor growth. But from the x-rays he said it looks a lot like the last x-rays I had taken 6 years ago or so, so he is not confident they will find anything to actually work on. Worth it to go through the motions if I can find something, anything, that helps.
 
I don’t have any sort of medical degree. I do a lot of my own re-search based off of self interest. My mother was a massage therapist and taught me a lot of tissue manipulation growing up. I am currently in massage therapy school as a full time student due to graduate in January. Afterwards I will pursue my medical massage therapy certificate immediately.

Two things I personally would recommend based off of my limited education would be massages and infra red light therapy. On top of the stretching.

If your surgeon does not want the massage therapist to work around the implants(massage therapist will need written consent from your physician to massage the area) then you can still have the therapist work on surrounding muscle groups, joints and ligaments as well as eccentric muscle groups. It would promote a lot of healing on the cellular level (and scar tissue)as well as help surrounding tissues and muscles relax.

My thinking process from your symptoms would be that when you bent over you might’ve had a muscle spasm that pinched a nerve between your vertebrae muscles and one of your implants that is connected to your arm through your spine up to your brain of course.

I like infrared light therapy because it’s non invasive, non manipulative process. Helps your body by boosting natural processes


(I am no doctor please talk with your physician before proceeding with any alternative therapies for your injury and operations)

Also good luck with the pain management. Even if I have a slight back ache it affects my mood dramatically.
 
Also vibrations like from massage tools (gentle vibrations)or floor/car buffer(heavy vibrations) can help move lactic acid in areas you otherwise couldn’t manually by moving.

(I use ryobi floor buffer from Home Depot for $30 because I like it rough no-homo. I’m 6’0” about 225lbs)
I actually do this daily to make sure I’m not dead sore when I wake up the next day after any exercise.


Sent from my iPhone using JazzFanz
 
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Jaymz said:
I don’t have any sort of medical degree. I do a lot of my own re-search based off of self interest. My mother was a massage therapist and taught me a lot of tissue manipulation growing up. I am currently in massage therapy school as a full time student due to graduate in January. Afterwards I will pursue my medical massage therapy certificate immediately.

Two things I personally would recommend based off of my limited education would be massages and infra red light therapy. On top of the stretching.

If your surgeon does not want the massage therapist to work around the implants(massage therapist will need written consent from your physician to massage the area) then you can still have the therapist work on surrounding muscle groups, joints and ligaments as well as eccentric muscle groups. It would promote a lot of healing on the cellular level (and scar tissue)as well as help surrounding tissues and muscles relax.

My thinking process from your symptoms would be that when you bent over you might’ve had a muscle spasm that pinched a nerve between your vertebrae muscles and one of your implants that is connected to your arm through your spine up to your brain of course.

I like infrared light therapy because it’s non invasive, non manipulative process. Helps your body by boosting natural processes


(I am no doctor please talk with your physician before proceeding with any alternative therapies for your injury and operations)

Also good luck with the pain management. Even if I have a slight back ache it affects my mood dramatically.
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Thanks, I will discuss with my ortho and PT.
 
LogGrad98 said:
This is supposed to be a place safe for children. It would be terrifying, trust me.
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Probably a dumb question but have you tried marijuana for pain? Im quite certain that it would be ineffective and not make a dent in your pain with what you are dealing with but im still curious. After seeing your X-rays I figure slamming heroin into your veins probably wouldn't be sufficient. Just curious
 
fishonjazz said:
Probably a dumb question but have you tried marijuana for pain? Im quite certain that it would be ineffective and not make a dent in your pain with what you are dealing with but im still curious. After seeing your X-rays I figure slamming heroin into your veins probably wouldn't be sufficient. Just curious
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Yeah I tried all but smoking or vaping it, including oil, sublingual, gummies, etc. I have a pretty high tolerance for such things, I am finding out, and by the time I get enough to do anything for the pain, it is too much. And CBD by itself did literally nothing at pretty much any dose. With THC it had some minor effect but only after the point I had too much. That is no ****ing fun, I can tell you that. So I gave up on that avenue.


I have mentioned this before, but for me Kratom has been a god-send. Not as harsh as narcotics, but much of the same effect and seems to be even more effective than my narcotics when the pain is more moderate. The one issue there is I build up a tolerance pretty fast so I have to continually increase my dosage. But it works, and I go that route before going for the percocet whenever I can. Unfortunately there are times when only percocet will touch it, but I don't like it much because it completely ****s up my sleep cycle so I end up groggy and disoriented for 1-3 days after depending on the dose. And with my long-term use I have a pretty solid tolerance so I take more than most, when I do take it. Luckily I really only need something, kratom or perc, a couple times a week at most, and some weeks not at all. Mostly 30 percocet last me about 60 days really (10 mg oxy). But in the last year since the incident with my arm it has ratcheted up to 2-3 times per week solidly, so kratom helps me control my percocet usage. I wish they would open up for more research into kratom. I know there are risks but it is worth it for me to have some pain relief.
 
I would be pro-marijuana for the relaxing effect to the muscles. But there are more factors to consider when ingesting certain medications.

That being said, I gifted my mother a vape battery with a cartridge to help alleviate some pain symptoms when other options fail her.
 
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Jaymz said:
I would be pro-marijuana for the relaxing effect to the muscles. But there are more factors to consider when ingesting certain medications.

That being said, I gifted my mother a vape battery with a cartridge to help alleviate some pain symptoms when other options fail her.
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I have told this story before but I will tell it again.
My dad was having extremely severe PTSD from the vietnam war. It was ruining his life and our families lives to a certain extent. He would basically go into pretty long and painful seizures except he would be conscious. They would wear him out. They prevented him from attending family functions and if he did attend he often had to go home early and sleep. (we would give him a sedative when an attack came on). He saw numerous doctors and therapists and tried many medications. Even stayed in the VA hospital for like a week.
Now my dad is a very religious man (he was a bishop in the church for awhile) so was pretty anti drugs. But we decided to have him try taking a hit of marijuana oil off a vape pen when he started having an attack one time.
It was a miracle. stopped the attack in a few seconds and he was fine. Now he has less attacks and is not afraid of them since he has a vape pen on him all the time (he got a medical marijuana card). Pretty much saved his quality of life (he is 79 years old) and eliminated our families worries.

My brother in law also uses it for PTSD and his mom now uses it for sleep and pain. (she is also very religious and was skeptical but it has changed her life for the better in a big way as well)
 
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