No Broken Bones… this time

[Jeff-C175 7,199]

1 hour ago, ri702bill said:

Widow Maker

 

I don't think the Freightliner Guy has to worry about that exactly for quite some time yet!  

[The Freightliner Guy 1,327]

Currently I’m more of the Freightliner kid at the moment 

[ri702bill 8,316]

6 hours ago, Snoopy11 said:

A person asked the question... "why do people use intoxicants?"

 

The other person answered.... "because it brings out your personality..."

 

Had a great Supervisor at my last job - until he started drinking. We all went to the local watering hole once - I told the boss that since alcohol intensifies your personality, HE should be the designated driver !!!

[953 nut 55,189]

7 hours ago, Bill D said:

Why, Kevin why?  You're old enough to know better.  The older you get the easier it is to get hurt and the slower you heal.  Hope you feel better soon.

One thing we know for sure is that Kevin is good at healing. He has healed up from more accidents in the past few years than most of us will have in a lifetime.

10 hours ago, Pullstart said:

Mrs. P simply stated “no thanks, I want him to feel it.”  I responded “I feel it Babe!”

Taylor has a way with words, love it.

4 hours ago, Achto said:

This same thing happens on dirt bikes. After a good day of riding you end up with a bad case of "monkey butt"

        That is how I screwed up my back, riding motocross in the early '70 when dirt bikes didn't have much suspension.

[davem1111 2,030]

11 hours ago, Pullstart said:

@davem1111 you take the prize!  After x-rays in the ER and a follow up with “Andrew” (that’s right, he didn’t even get a title from the staff at the doc’s office!), I just have bruised ribs and a strained supraspinatus muscle.  PT and RICE for me.

 

I feel your pain, brother. In terms of the ribs, you are worse off than I was.  I knew I had at least bruised them but didn't think I'd broken any and even if I did, there's not much the doctors can do about it unless they're displaced and dangerous to the internal organs. I kept doing most of what I usually do for about 2 weeks without much pain, but then it started getting worse.

 

Rib pain is almost gone now, but I have MUCH WORSE pain in my lower back on the opposite site. Had a CT scan today, nothing abnormal except a "Grade 1 anterolisthesis of L5 on S1 with associated bilateral pars defect."  Whatever the heck that means. Well, I kinda know. But I think I strained some muscles and squeezed some nerves in there. Steroids, muscle relaxers, lidocaine patches, and I still can't find a comfortable position to sleep more than an hour or 2. I'll take the rib breaks by themselves any day. 

 

Good luck healing, Kevin.  Take it easy - those tractors will wait for you. 

[Pullstart 62,834]

Honestly, other than breathing, farting, coughing, sneezing, my ribs aren’t my worry 

 

My shoulder is in pretty dire pain and I am doing the RICE as often as possible. Rest Ice Compression Elevate.  I probably pushed it yesterday with my self PT…

[953 nut 55,189]

24 minutes ago, Pullstart said:

Rest Ice Compression Elevate.

Rest, Ice Cream,  Elevate                     

[rmaynard 15,434]

I stopped drinking alcoholic beverages when I developed AFib. However, that didn't stop me from hurting myself. That seems to come with old age.

[953 nut 55,189]

6 minutes ago, rmaynard said:

that didn't stop me from hurting myself. That seems to come with old age.

The key to my success (so far) is learning to fall gracefully. If you are falling, you might as well fall and get it over with! If you attempt to break your fall you are likely to brake your wrist instead. Land on your but, dust yourself off, look around to be sure nobody saw you fall, if nobody saw it; it didn't happen.

[Pullstart 62,834]

34 minutes ago, 953 nut said:

The key to my success (so far) is learning to fall gracefully. If you are falling, you might as well fall and get it over with! If you attempt to break your fall you are likely to brake your wrist instead. Land on your but, dust yourself off, look around to be sure nobody saw you fall, if nobody saw it; it didn't happen.

That’s the method I used… but someone saw so it did happen 

[davem1111 2,030]

32 minutes ago, Pullstart said:

Honestly, other than breathing, farting, coughing, sneezing, my ribs aren’t my worry 

 

My shoulder is in pretty dire pain and I am doing the RICE as often as possible. Rest Ice Compression Elevate.  I probably pushed it yesterday with my self PT…

 

I'm going to share something I've learned recently, that some may find useful and some may say "pyschobabble",  "hogwash",  "poppycock" or just plain "BS". It's a bit hard to understand and believe at first. I'm sharing this especially because a lot of us here are in the "older" age range and may get some helpful information from it. If you're a firm believer that pain could never be caused by your own brain "trying to protect you", then this probably isn't for you. 

 

It appears that for minor or moderate injuries, it's pretty obvious there should be pain associated with it. But what causes that pain? In many cases, the actual pain is caused by the subconscious brain decreasing the blood flow to muscles and organs near that area so your conscioius brain knows there's a problem that needs attention, so you'll take care of it, and also possibly to slow the blood flow if the injury involves bleeding. But also, the subconscious can use this mechanism to invoke pain where it isn't really "needed" to distract you from other things, even things like suppressed anger, fear, sadness, etc.  Obviously, you need to give time and care to healing actual physical injuries, but oddly, the strength and duration of the pain may be more under the control of your subconscious mind than something truly physical.

 

Case in point:  I cracked my ribs about 3 weeks ago, and yep, it hurt, but not too bad. I didn't even think I cracked them, just bruised, so I lightened up a bit but still went about my business doing yard work, etc.  Over about 2 weeks the pain got *worse*, which I think was my mind/body trying to convince me that I was overdoing it and give it more rest and time to heal. It was at about this time when my wife, having some health problems herself, asked me to please spend less time in the garage and more time helping in the house and with the teenager.  This kinda pissed me off.  To me it was only an hour or two here and there, except on the weekend maybe it was significantly more. Anyway, almost magically, I started having intense pain in my lower back for no apparent reason, and the rib pain almost entirely disappeared. Okay. Weird.  We talked about the subconscious connection and she is the one who brought up the work of Dr. Sarno (more about him later), and what he has termed "Tension Myositis Syndrome" (TMS).  Within a few days after looking into this, the pain across my lower back also "magically" disappeared overnight, but was replaced by a searing pain in my lower right side that felt deeper inside. I thought, maybe I damage something in there when I fell and broke my ribs, and it's just starting to manifest now. Hmmm....

 

After a couple days of that intense pain and not being able to sleep much, I went to the doctor - could only see a Nurse Practitioner on such short notice. She ordered X-Rays for the ribs, and also said she thought the other pain might be my gall bladder (even though I had no other gall bladder symptoms, like nausea, vomiting, etc.) and she ordered an Ultrasound. Unfortunately the Ultrasound still would not have happened until maybe next week because it wasn't ordered as a "STAT", since she didn't see that kind of urgency to it. I did get the X-Rays right after that, and found out by early afternoon that I had broken 2 ribs but they were "non-displaced" so no danger to internal organs. Not much you can do other than 6 weeks rest with no heaving lifting or strenuous exercise. She prescribed muscle relaxers and lidocaine patches for the pain in my side.

 

That was last Friday. Over the next few days, even with the muscle relaxers and lidocaine and ibuprofen, I was in pain levels of 7-8 most of the time with spikes to 9-10, teeth-gritting and nearly invoking tears to my eyes. Couldn't sit for more than 5-10 minutes, couldn't get comfortable to sleep for more than an hour or 2 at a stretch. Grrrrr....   

 

Monday, I contacted my regular doctor and practically begged to have this looked into more deeply. She was able to fit me in her schedule first thing at 8:00 AM yesterday.  She took the time to listen and check things out, agreed that it didn't sound like gall bladder and that we should take a closer look. Gave me a shot of steroids and a continuing 6-day steroid pill prescription, and ordered a CT scan "STAT". I had to drive to another town about 30 minutes away to get it that day since the local places were all backed up. I would have driven an hour or more if necessary, even though it hurt to sit in the car that long.

 

Got the CT done, and it came back "Normal".  Ugh. WTH? Okay, I'm glad I don't need surgery, but what is going on here?  So I took another look at the psychosomatic implications, and concluded that my subconscious was using "Plan B" to distract me, by moving the pain and making it even more intense. Sadistic bastard.    So I started telling my subconscious "enough of this sh*t!".  And guess what?  Today the pain is starting to diminish. I think it's going to take a few days or longer, but it actually looks like it is going to work. Coincidence?  Maybe - I don't think so.

 

I recommend that anyone who has chronic back, shoulder, hip or joint pain, or migraines, etc. check this guy out. He's been working on this for several decades and his statistics appear solid. Of course, the mainstream doctors, surgeons, and pharmaceutical companies don't like him, because he's taking away their "cash cows".   I won't post a link to his books, because I'm not sure that's permitted, but if you Google "Dr. john sarno books" you'll find plenty.  He goes over a lot of case histories in some, which isn't necessary if you're open to this idea. Not a quack:  "John Ernest Sarno Jr. was Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, and attending physician at the Howard A. Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University Medical Center".  I think his earliest book is the shortest but pretty much covers the basics. Hope this is helpful to some of you.

[Pullstart 62,834]

@davem1111 I am right there with ya buddy!  My wife and her mother are huge into the holistic health, strong minds, etc.  When the girls are sick, or in pain, we make them say aloud that they will get better, make them believe it.  Sometimes even a placebo effect  Vitamin C and D are huge boosters!

[ri702bill 8,316]

1 hour ago, Pullstart said:

That’s the method I used… but someone saw so it did happen 

And the someone probably has the cell phone video.....That we won't see.

Edited August 31, 2022 by ri702bill

[Pullstart 62,834]

1 hour ago, ri702bill said:

And the someone probably has the cell phone video.....That we won't see.

unfortunately not… there were cameras but not rolling at the time of impact…

[Pullstart 62,834]

So today I went in for an hour long massage and chiropractic adjustment.  They both focused on my shoulder muscles and I am feeling the good burn.  My range of motion has improved greatly.  I’ll keep on “light” work and exercise.  I’m glad though that they were able to free me up a bit more!

[ri702bill 8,316]

Should they rename the "Bumps and Bruises" heading to "Kevin's Korner" ?? !! @Pullstart

[Pullstart 62,834]

On 8/31/2022 at 2:24 PM, ri702bill said:

Should they rename the "Bumps and Bruises" heading to "Kevin's Korner" ?? !! @Pullstart

I’ll credit @The Freightliner Guy for this… he asked if I can @Pullstart tractors yet…. we can rename me “Start” for a while!  

[The Freightliner Guy 1,327]

Or no starting 

nope nvm just start is better as in start healing to start tractors 

Edited September 1, 2022 by The Freightliner Guy

[ri702bill 8,316]

1 hour ago, Pullstart said:

we can rename me “Start” for a while!  

Or, you could ask one of your kids to give the rope on Putt-Putt a yank for you - probably not best to ask your wife - yet...... someday.....

[Pullstart 62,834]

Quick update.  I golfed yesterday for the third (?) time since my injuries.  First time back at a full swing.  There is a pain still lifting my arm straight out like measuring wingspan, but I have full motion again.  I had poor swing control and shot an 11 on my first hole… a par 5.  I finished the night (9 holes) with a 56, not bad at all compared to my average.  

[ohiofarmer 3,265]

    We aren't immortal. i will have to say that if cats have nine lives and we have maybe the same, I don't need another off on a gold Wing at 40 MPH.  68 years old at the time.

Compared to those brave men in uniform, not a big deal.   The Hospital overmedicated me ---probably a double dose of pain meds and shipped me to a level one center down the road. That was the big deal as pulse rate was lower than a hibernating bear. You can be tough and you can be lucky, but sometimes you need both.

  you heal up, Mr Start----I'm  ''Pullin" for ya

Edited September 16, 2022 by ohiofarmer

[Pullstart 62,834]

First time working on a vehicle in 3 weeks, I replaced spark plugs on a V6 car today.  The back plugs were no treat, but I managed.  An air ratchet surely helped!

[8ntruck 6,998]

Ever do plugs on a V8 Monza?  The #3 plug was nigh on to impossible.  I ended up making a custom socket to get it.  Be live it or not, access to that plug got better when I installed a set of headers.

[Jeff-C175 7,199]

1 minute ago, 8ntruck said:

Ever do plugs on a V8 Monza?  The #3 plug was nigh on to impossible.  I ended up making a custom socket to get it.  Be live it or not, access to that plug got better when I installed a set of headers.

 

Rear plugs on a 67 Mustang big block... Impossible.

 

2" hole saw to the rescue.  No more unbolting motor mounts to lift the engine.

[Pullstart 62,834]

Chevy S10 4.3L V6.  Gotta take the steering shaft out for the number 3(?) plug.