-=> CHARLES ANGELICH wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

 CA> The adrenaline shots I received (twice in one year) were given
 CA> with a syringe that looked like it should be used on a horse.
 CA> Cake-decorator sized with a needle that looked like a crochet
 CA> needle. The needle was inserted directly into my ligament and
 CA> you could hear when it went in like stabbing rubber. After the
 CA> shot it felt like someone had pounded my thigh with a hammer
 CA> for about three days then suddenly all the pain would
 CA> disappear. 
 
 Gee, that sounds like a lot of phun :-(
 After the arthrograms at least I had some amusment for some hours
 when I bent my knee the dye would shift making a squishing sound
 easily heard across the room, seemed to make others cringe
 in discomfort ;-)

 CA> shoulder. I went to physical therapy for four months and
 CA> managed to recover the use of my left arm but both shoulders
 CA> were severely damaged. Something about supranatal muscles? The
 CA> surgeon said the surgery was no guarantee and could leave me
 CA> with permanent pain and he did not recommend it. 

Same here plus an AC separation. Made pushups all but impossible 
and lifting weight above shoulder level difficult if not imposssible
weight dependent. I managed fine with those injuries.

 CA> It was up to
 CA> me and as before I declined thinking I could 'fix' it as I had
 CA> done my knee. No such luck. I am not allowed to lift barbells
 CA> ever again for the remainder of my life and at present haven't
 CA> even tried since the shoulder injury - the pain is that bad
 CA> when I irritate the shoulders that I am unwilling to even try.

I can do about 7 pushups before the shoulder pain becomes unmanagable,
oddly this doesn't bother the spine.

 CA> At the time of the accident I could lift my 100 lb older son
 CA> over my head (as a joke) any time I wanted to. I've always been
 CA> strong for my size, 5 foot six and 170 lbs. 
 
I've lifted 560 or more to waist level and am certain 
I've put over 220 over my head just not since 1990.


 WC> I OTOH having no option and the doctors assurances finally
 WC> agreed to the discectomy, bad decision, bad outcome.

 CA> If the vertebra is shattered there is nothing much to 'fuse'
 CA> and any piece that got loose could kill you. There may have not
 CA> been enough remaining to 'fuse'?

Not a problem in this case.

 CA> --8<--cut

 WC> If my back were OK I could entirely ignore the knees and
 WC> except for the occasional unexpected fall and the rather
 WC> amusing snap, crackle, pop and crunching noises they make.

 CA> Yes mine too. People at work have thought I had a wooden leg
 CA> when I turn too fast and it pops. It does sound mechanical I
 CA> guess?

 Again, clearly audible across a room.

 WC> Muscle tone would take up a lot of slack. Fact is I
 WC> attribute the recent deterioration of stability in my right
 WC> knee to loss of muscle tone caused by limited mobility
 WC> caused by the spinal injury.

 CA> Same thing that is happening to me now that my shoulders are
 CA> shot. :-\

 Sucks. Still retain a great deal of upper body strength but with
 the lack of a firm lower body foundation I can't usually
 actually use it to an effect.

 CA> I think the brain begins to 'retranslate' the constant pain
 CA> into something more tolerable? 
 
Or Endorphines are released so the interpretation differs?

 CA> I have fallen a few times lately when I accidently back into
 CA> something that is at knee level for some reason my knee just
 CA> quits and I fall. Funny in a way something like in a cartoon. I
 
 I need not bump anything it's just bam I'm down and the shot of
 pain seems to be too intense for me to think to try to
 catch myself or do much about it.
 
 Third bloody Packard Bell monitor to start flickering on me now.
 I'll have to open it up and see if it's the same cause as the other
 2 one of which died from the problem.
 
 CA> know I'm falling but my leg won't move to catch my balance and
 CA> I fall like a tree in the forest. Fortunately it's been indoors
 CA> with no witnesses to see how really bad my leg is.

 Mostly indoors for me as I'm seldom out but the last one was
 outside, really bad and I couldn't even attempt to rise
 for a couple of minutes. How I cracked a rib falling flat 
 on my back I'll never know. Trauma from impact however gave me
 several days relief from back pain.

 CA> I have concealed my injuries for 35 years. None of my employers
 CA> had any idea I had a bad leg. 
 
I concealed the worst injury from my employer for two months,
after that I was totally wiped out.

 CA> A few suspected because when I
 CA> get tired I begin to limp just barely. Some have noticed,
 CA> others not.

It's obvious I'm messed up now and has been so a number of
years and no possibility of concealing it.

 CA>> Not a doctor here nor attempting to be one. Just a
 CA>> concerned long time suffer of similar ailments.

 WC> I sure hope you're not as bad off as I am.

 CA> No, I would say I'm not as damaged. Just enough to not feel
 CA> good about it and enough to force me to avoid things other men
 CA> do for fun. No risk taking, jumping, or even running here for
 CA> me.

 I can't even jump out of the way of a car.
 Saint Pete recently passed an 80 dollar jaywalking fine
 and I've mostly taken the extra steps so what just happens
 a week ago? Crossing at the crosswalk with the light in my favor
 and walk sign lit a cop rolls the stop at about 20 MPH
 just missing me by widening his turn into the third lane :-(
 I was like a deer in headlights frozen unable to reverse my momentum.

 WC> Pisses me off when they spend 16 million rehabilitating a
 WC> whale for release back into the wild when I could still he
 WC> working had that spinal fusion been done.

 CA> It would be nice to have less discomfort and something closer
 CA> to what I had in terms of physical strength but I'm probably
 CA> just lucky to be alive and have the mobility that I do have for
 CA> now.

It's a phreaking miracle I'm alive all things considered. 
I bet I'd make for an interesting autopsy to see
all the accumulated damage.

 WC> As it turns out the surgery he did do left me quite a bit
 WC> worse off than before. I had a job waiting had such a
 WC> fusion procedure been successfully done. In fact I never
 WC> had trouble finding jobs even when the market was supposed
 WC> to be tight, a bit of extra effort always did the trick.
  
 CA> The job market is
 CA> brutal out there and being over 50 is like being a 'leper' now,
 CA> at least in Michigan it is.

Bet if my spine wasn't injured I could still trade on my size
to keep working as my father did.
Doesn't get much worse than Florida as a "right to work state"
which is a deceptively named piece of legislation.
My brother in law a former special forces guy says he was astonished
to see my father carrying an AC unit up to the second story
on a ladder at the age of 67 and this _after_ having had a
spinal fusion. I maintain I would still be able to trade on my
size given my persistence were my spine uninjured.
The wall I ran into was the qaulity of health care available 
to the disabled because health care had not yet kicked
in after I traded up jobs.

 CA> What makes it even worse is that everyone is in denial and
 CA> won't admit there is anything wrong with this picture.

No, it becomes obvious as one ages this is a youth oriented
culture.
 
--- MultiMail/PBellDOS v0.42