sorry for the OT but i have to vent.
some of you guys know i had back surgery in march.
i had 2 bulging disc and had them worked on.
i spent 3 months at home and a lot of time here. i made some good friends here and had a few phone calls checking on me.
reading post kept me sane while i was confined to bed.
well my back started hurting again a few months ago, i had some scans of my back and one of them is ruptured and one is ruptured and has a split in it.
so the only way to fix them is to remove the bad disc 2 of them. add screws and bone from hip to fuse the bones in the back then turn me over remove my guts to get to spine from the front and add bone to fuse them.
some time i have to laugh to keep from crying.
this friday(11-12-10) will be my last day of work for about 5 or 6 months.
i do have to say i work for a great company(goodyear tire), they have supported me so far with missing work, and told me when i get better to just come back to work, i will miss tig welding every day.lol.
hopefully this will get me out of pain and back to work for good.
the bad part is my surgery date is the day before thanksgiving and ill miss all the good food the wife and my mother always cook.
so ill be around here alot for the next few months .
sorry for the venting.
by the way my truck is running good. im chasing a small oil leak around the engine vally. it only leaks when i drive it like a race car. i guess when the oil pressure gets high when i floor the fuel it leaks.
not enough to worry me. just that i dont like it.
DP tuner is working good for me,i have about 20,000 miles with it and no problems so far.
i pulled my International 30 hp tractor and my dads 50 hp tractor all summer to my deer lease to mow and till up food plots.
i know some of you guys pull much more. but its cool how much power these trucks have. the raw torque is awsome,
and its like another truck with the DP turned on.
i drive in 80 econ about 99% of the time that gets the best MPG for me.
the 60 hp tow works good getting a load up to speed.
the only thing i want to change is to change my 325-65-18 tires and 18x10 rims out. thet look great. but i want to go with 16x8 or 16x10 black steel wheels and 315-75-16 tires
but it will be some time till i can afford to do this.
anyway thanks for listening

 

I can sorta relate to that,I had two spinal surgeries in eight days because a disc blew out seven days after the first surgery
Now I have a bunch of straps and screws holding my head on

 

Good luck Don, our prayers are with you on this go around and were glad to have yaa on here, take care..

 

Don I am so sorry to hear this. If there is anything that I can do from afar please let me know. You will be in our thoughts and prayers for sure. God Bless you

 

good luck with your surgery. My dad had to have one so I know from his experience what back pain can do to you.

 

Good luck with the surgery! I dodged a bullet when my doctor decided not to do surgery on me when i fractured a vertebra back in February riding my dirt bike. I'm only 16 and my back is healed now and hopefully ill never go through anything like you are!

 

Don: Just to let you know you are in prayer.

 

I know how You Feel Don, I had back surgery when I was 25 for a ruptured disc in My lower back L3 & L4. My prayers are with You for a speedy recovery.

P.S. I am waiting on My DP tuner right now. can't wait

 

thanks for the thoughts and prayers.
FLOYD mine is about the same spot L4 - L5 and L5 - S1
JOE all my pain started when i was 29 and wrecked a 4wheeler racing. had a surgery about 4 months after.
RAY i love the way you put that, about holding your head on.
i think long term pain makes you bitter and hatefull or like me and you it gives you a sense of humor.
last week while my doctor was being serious and telling me about screwing my spine together he ask me what i thought . well in my best welder humor i told him that i had waited all my life to have something metal inside me to set off metal detectors. he did not think that was verry funny.
but i told him you can laugh or cry . im a laid back patient, slow , thoughtfull kind of guy and dont want to be depressive. so i use humor to get by.
i have two sons one is 13 and one 10. i try to keep things light around them.
i dont want them to worry about me . being a kid is hard enough.
i dont want them to think i feel sorry for myself or that its ok to give up because life is hard. so i try to keep my head up. laugh when i can . and try not to get overwhelmed by it all.

 

I feel your pain, ruptured the L5-S1 disk in late July, surgery went good, behaved myself for the recommended 6 weeks then started working and re-ruptured within a week, so back to the operating room again! Just hit the 6 week mark on this recovery and am keeping my fingers crossed for no repeats this time. Doc wants me to take it easy and not do too much for 4 months to make sure it heals well this time. I wish you good luck on your surgery and recovery.

 

Greg i hate to hear about that. i know how being hurt again after having surgery can wear on the nerves.
it looks like there or a few of us here who have the same problem.
i will keep you all in my payers also.

 

Good luck with that. Hear they are replacing ruptured discs with a silicone insert now. Co-worker went under the knife Monday for same problem. He survived. Keep us posted.

 

Don-

An old gf's dad was a critical care physician who used to teach at Harvard Med. He now "works on" people in your very condition. He said the #1 thing to do before such a surgery is to get your cardio system as fit as possible. Now I'm guessing you can't really run stairs right now but maybe you can do squats or some sort of arm exercises or something? It really helps in your recovery to start with the best fitness you can.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

My surgeon talked about the silicone inserts, said they are still having problems with them. Seems they have not figured out a good way to keep them in place so they tend to move out of the correct position. But they have good potential once the kinks have been worked out.

 

Don, best of luck brother! I have some rods and screws from T12-L2 after a 30ft fall gave me a compression fracture of L1. Very fortunately, I had no soft tissue damage - those ruptured discs cannot feel good pinching your spinal cord...

It seemed to me like most people who have this kind of injury are milking a workers comp or insurance claim and/or trying to get on SS disability. I treated my recovery like a full-time JOB. I honestly did everything they told me to do and nothing I wasn't supposed to. I would ask 'Can I walk farther today?' and they ALWAYS seemed surprised. I believe most people must not do the PT they are prescribed - at least most of the people I've talked to.

What I wish I hadn't done was take their pain meds they way they were 'prescribed'. In the hospital and right after surgery, I'll buy into 'less pain helps you heal faster' - but I think its retarded to think we can take hydrocodone (and increasingly stronger meds) for the rest of our lives. I work out of town, and was getting increasingly frustrated trying to get to pain management appointments for prescriptions. I often 'suffered' while trying to make meds last until I could get home again - then got a ration of crap from Dr's office because I was ALWAYS rescheduling appts they made me make 3mths in advance. It pissed me off enough I decided to QUIT taking pain meds (carefully - cold turkey is not a good idea!!). What I've found is I have a moderate level of pain most of the time, but NEVER have the severity of discomfort I had when I was 'stretching my meds out'. I've decided I'd much rather have this level of 'discomfort' all the time than to HAVE to take the meds or be MISERABLE. My current level of pain keeps from doing very little I want to do and it still seems to be getting better as I 'adapt' to it. What pisses me off is every time I discussed stopping the meds with the Dr's - they always said it was a bad idea!! Again, I think much of their experience is dealing with people who have ulterior motives...