Author Topic: Some Advice For the Pups  (Read 16386 times)

the PAINTSMITH

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Some Advice For the Pups
« on: June 05, 2010, 01:49:55 PM »
I don't know how emphatically to impress this on you; LIFT WITH YOUR LEGS!

We've all heard it, many of us repeatedly, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one who thought himself invincible in his youth only to be in the shape I'm in now--We know because we failed to heed.

In 2003 I was getting tired of recurring, near-debilitating back pain. I went in for an MRI and a consult with a neurosurgeon. My diagnosis was a bulging disc between C7 and C6 (bones in the spine), the crossroads of the human torso. It made turning my head, looking up or down and certain positions "difficult". I was told that I was doomed to a surgical proceedure that would fuse the vertebra in my back and limit my range of motion. Being as they would have to go in through my throat, my voice would not be the same either. It was suggested by the surgeon that I take it very easy and wait til I was 70 to have this done, as the cure is a curse of its own...

I tipped my hat and vowed to "take it very easy", a promise that I kept...For a week or so. I had money to make and damn the torpedoes, I was going to do what I had to do.

I just had another MRI a week ago. The disc in question is now bulging on three sides, and I can't cough, sneeze or hiccup without a lightning bolt of pain shooting across my back and down the backs of my arms. When I'm not coughing, sneezing or hiccuping I have a constant, 24 hour a day, toothache in my back. There is no such creature as a good nights sleep for me, and the simplest of motions now require a serious consultation with my better judgement.

I'm going in for "nerve root injections", a stop-gap attempt at relieving pressure on the main nerves coming off my spinal cord. I'm told that this steroid treatment has worked wonders for some with my condition, and they won't consider surgery until I've tried it. The needle is around 3 inches long...

Surgical technology has improved in the 7 short years since my first diagnosis, arthroscopic is a consideration, also something called "clips", which are supposed to hold the disc in and the vertebra apart...Both are new...I'm waiting for the spinal transplant...Maybe by the time I'm 70...

All this is unneccessary. And painful...And yet I work, as my investment portfolio is kinda...sparse...

If you younger guys and gals read this and find a way to ignore the wisdom (or in my case, lack of), you've been warned.

LIFT WITH YOUR LEGS! is no joke, boys and girls. I'm waiting three weeks just for the consultation with the pain doctors, then who knows how long to get in for the shots.

...And Obama's utopian healthcare hasn't even kicked in yet...


Offline BrushJockey

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Re: Some Advice For the Pups
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2010, 09:41:37 PM »
Heh Eric- You're a mess. Of course I mean that in the goodest way.  Sorry to hear about yet another major medical event.  But yes I CONCUR!!  Working smarter should not begin when there is no other option.

Y'all can learn it the hard way, or learn from others mistakes. Here is one of those opportunities....
"It would be ludicrous to think I'm new to this, I know this, this is what I do"  ( Prince and Geo Clinton..)

Offline Jake

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Re: Some Advice For the Pups
« Reply #2 on: June 07, 2010, 12:54:02 PM »
Jeeezus Eric!

It's a crazy thing, these human bodies we LIVE IN

So fragile, and yet, the abuse they can endure..............

Notice in the above I mentioned that we LIVE IN our bodies.

It never ceases to blow me away the fact that so few are in touch with their own Bodies/Being!

I mean even in the most simplest ways....

It's rediculous, but that's what happens when the blind are distracted by media spinning b*llshit continuously spewed in cow-tounge talk... an idiot box society, chewing a cud, and being treated like a mushroom... The allure of big box entertainment and the fact that none but the rich can afford their credit card payments anymore.

People need to take the time to smell the roses once in a while, and learn to listen to what goes on inside of themselves.

That includes remembering to LIFT WITH YOUR LEGS!

That's solid advice.

Hope you feel better E!

One thing you might wanna look into is myofascial release.... It might be a little late in the game for it, but then again, it might be just the thing you need.

Also, If I was you, at this point in time, there is NO WAY I'd still be slinging a paint brush.... F*ck that!

Anyway, hope you feel better SOON!!!!

Cheers bro!

The only thing that separates Paint from Pain... Is a t.

Offline deliberate

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Re: Some Advice For the Pups
« Reply #3 on: June 10, 2010, 01:59:54 AM »
Allow me to suggest reading Your Body’s Many Cries for Water by Dr. Batmanghelidj (“Dr. Batman”). To quote a review at Amazon.com: "The advice is simple: to drink one ounce of water for every two pounds of body weight plus one and one half additional ounces of water for every ounce of beverage [consumed] containing caffeine, carbonation or alcohol. Do this every day."

The book contains an illustrated discussion of the spine and its disks. Don’t miss it!  ;)

You will need to ignore the book's Many Cries for Revision.  ::)

The book has nothing to sell. However, if you don't have one already, you might wish to buy a good water filter.

Wishing you all the best.

Offline PaintingDenver

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Re: Some Advice For the Pups
« Reply #4 on: July 01, 2010, 02:02:45 AM »
Heck getting old Eric. Don't quite have it that bad, but know just about everything is connected to the lower back. Have had my spells over the years, not wishing to eat solid food, knowing what's to come the next day. Wish you all the Best!
Painting Contractor, serving Denver Front Range and State of Colorado, providing complete House Painting by Colorado's Finest House Painters

Offline mistcoat

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Re: Some Advice For the Pups
« Reply #5 on: August 10, 2011, 07:15:52 PM »
Sorry to bump this thread, but it might be of help to some of you.

Lift with your legs is great advice, but don't forget to add,,, "lift with a straight back too." You can soon pop that fluid out of your discs with incorrect lifting of paint cans and ladders etc.

I have suffered with back problems and still do to some extent. But the program I have followed has helped greatly. I do not follow it religiously, but when I do it helps immensely and allows me to keep my money in my pocket and not in my Osteopath's pocket.

Have a look at - Bullet Proof Back dot com

It is cheap at half the price!!!   

I have no affiliation with this program only that I bought the program and it is helping my situation just by using the basic exercises.
Happy Days!!!

Offline rmichael

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Re: Some Advice For the Pups
« Reply #6 on: August 11, 2011, 10:21:31 PM »
Ah Hell... Just play the system.. Got a little back pain? Go to the Doc and insist that nothing stops the back pain then contact one of those TV lawyers and apply for total disability, of course not being able to work makes you eligible for welfare and food stamps so you can pay some Bills and eat while your lawyer works the system to get your benefits. Then one day a check arrives and you are set to get one every month... and the good thing is that you can't be seen working or even trying to work or the checks will stop....   Unfortunately there are a lot of parasites here in the US that do exactly that, and it is an insult to people like Eric and many others on the forum that work though their physical pain every day in order to put food on the family table and keep a roof over their heads. Integrity has no socioeconomic boundaries but in my opinion most working folks have more of it. 

Pro Painter 30 years ~ Down East Coastal NC

"Hell Son, It's always been about the work."

Offline chrisn

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Re: Some Advice For the Pups
« Reply #7 on: August 12, 2011, 04:41:29 AM »
"Integrity has no socioeconomic boundaries but in my opinion most working folks have more of it. "

 Great quote ;D

Offline mistcoat

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Re: Some Advice For the Pups
« Reply #8 on: August 12, 2011, 05:34:46 PM »
Ah Hell... Just play the system.. Got a little back pain? Go to the Doc and insist that nothing stops the back pain then contact one of those TV lawyers and apply for total disability, of course not being able to work makes you eligible for welfare and food stamps so you can pay some Bills and eat while your lawyer works the system to get your benefits. Then one day a check arrives and you are set to get one every month... and the good thing is that you can't be seen working or even trying to work or the checks will stop....   Unfortunately there are a lot of parasites here in the US that do exactly that, and it is an insult to people like Eric and many others on the forum that work though their physical pain every day in order to put food on the family table and keep a roof over their heads. Integrity has no socioeconomic boundaries but in my opinion most working folks have more of it.

I am so pleased to read that the US suffers from scrounging benefit cheats too 
Happy Days!!!

the PAINTSMITH

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Re: Some Advice For the Pups
« Reply #9 on: September 14, 2011, 07:29:44 AM »
The ONE time we ever applied for assistance (due to medical charges for one of my kids), they put us through two weeks of interrogation and were ultimately and flatly denied. We simply were not illegal enough, and that is a FACT.

I will not subject my family to that humility again.