Falling Flat On the Back

[PhysAssist]

That all makes me cringe in pain just to read it! I'm glad that you are on the mend again.

Hi FG,

SORRY! I forget that people react that way to the description. It WAS 3 years ago, but they think the infection after that was what resurfaced in May.

Thanks,
Thomas

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Here are some activities and exercises to keep loose:

https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=A6XUVjK9W4o

Dave I tried over half of them but I think I'm doing worse now.

Actually two weeks later I guess I'm doing quite well. The daughter bought a 10 by 20 horse barn and we went yesterday and loaded it and brought it home one hundred miles and still is on the truck. The seller lifted the heavy tack room end about four foot with his skid steer loader and we blocked it up
and I backed with the bed dumped and slid it up onto the bed then let it down.

That made for one long trip on a 8 by 16 flat dump bed. It was too high and wide for my comfort so we only drove about 35-40 miles per hour.

With the large heavy Autumn we had today I'm sure glad we've got some shelter for them and I seem no worse for the wear.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Closing on six weeks and still dealing with catching pain between the shoulder blades and just below that area on certain movement but getting out and about. Last Sunday I was here by myself and decided to level a pile of dirt for the neighbor as I had promised before the fall. When I was pinning up the manual thumb I pulled the area again when I reached around to unpin and reinsert it so I have to be careful as I am improving.

I was told at 62 things take longer and hopefully I will get back to pre fall state. Thankfully it is positional pain and I sleep just fine.

One thing I have learned is unexpected movement is not good. A week ago the kids got their driving permits so not being under the wheel things happen that I did not expect.

As a follow up last Wednesday we did get the horse barn off the F700 truck and on the exact spot when we dumped it off. We had to guess where to park so when we slid it back and dumped the rear would would make contact where we wanted it. The daughter said after it was on the ground that the event was less drama than she expected.

We dumped so the front of the bed was a couple feet off the truck frame and took the FEL with four chain in forks and lifted the rear of the building and dragged it backwards until just before we reached the tipping point. Then i would raise the lift and the daughter would drop the FEL while the son monitored from the other side then we would repeat until the rear corners where touching the ground with a great deal of pressure
Then I raised the bed more and drove forward at idle with a lot of clutch slipping. When the front runner tips were about 18" from the end of the 16' wooden bed we put blocks under each outside 4x4" runner and when we had cleared the building I let the bed down and parked the truck and raised the barn with the FEL forks and the son removed the blocks and I let it down and called it a day.

I have photos of it on the truck and on the ground but it was so intense during the removal making sure no one got hurt or we crashed the building there are no photos of that in my phone. Basically as noted above we just reversed how we loaded it.

 

[PhysAssist]

Hi Gale,

I'm glad to hear that you are still moving forward, with minor speed bumps. Just keep avoiding the major ones, and it will eventually all be in the past. I'm doing well with strengthening and regaining my range of motion at PT, but as you noticed, each time takes longer than the last, and fighting impatience is an important part of the gradual return to normal. My boss/wife has had to keep reminding me that I have been unable to use my left leg much at all for over 5 months and that I need to moderate my desire to be back at full activity. My ortho had good news this week after looking at my x-rays in that my bone injury is healing well, but he reinforced my need to very slowly and gradually increase my activities to allow the bone sufficient time to heal into my knee implant. I actually think it os harder because I haven't had much, if any pain since about the end of September.

Hang invthere and keep moving slowly forward, and God bless,
Thomas

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I think I need to keep in mind my age too. Two weeks ago I wanted to use the backhoe and I was home alone and pinned up the thumb out of my way and that triggered a set back. It is so hard to limit myself when I get to feeling better and some much to get down before winter temps get here. Tomorrow I have taken off to get the gutters on the horse shed that and finish the related dirt work (filling the stall area some) and get the fencing back in place. The gates and things can be addressed later but the gutters are going to help keep down the water flow in the lot. We got the barn on the high spot and on a filled pad of high clay content just to insure the barn will always be dry and no water pulling under the tack/feed room.

There is still two or three positions that I can get in that the pain shuts me down but thankfully it is not bad in my normal daily routines and the tractors are not any problems.

 

[PhysAssist]

I think I need to keep in mind my age too. Two weeks ago I wanted to use the backhoe and I was home alone and pinned up the thumb out of my way and that triggered a set back. It is so hard to limit myself when I get to feeling better and some much to get down before winter temps get here. Tomorrow I have taken off to get the gutters on the horse shed that and finish the related dirt work (filling the stall area some) and get the fencing back in place. The gates and things can be addressed later but the gutters are going to help keep down the water flow in the lot. We got the barn on the high spot and on a filled pad of high clay content just to insure the barn will always be dry and no water pulling under the tack/feed room.

There is still two or three positions that I can get in that the pain shuts me down but thankfully it is not bad in my normal daily routines and the tractors are not any problems.

It is not necessarily about age, but it is also about what changes have happened while you were less able and "laid up", as I have been finding out for my self.

While I have known (intellectually) for a long time limiting activities quickly causes atrophy, loss of exercise tolerance, weakness, and other debilitating effects, and theyconly slowly reverse themselves when activity is resumed.

I thought I was well over all the weakness and windedness I had been experiencing right after they removed my knee for the infection, but while I had improved, it wasn't anywhere near back to normal until I got my knee replaced again and started to be able to use it, even though forcthe first 6weeks, my weightbearing on it was limited to only 50%.

Now that my surgeon has given me the ok to increase slowly to full weightbearing and PT has ok'd me for stairs and more, I really am slowly getting both my wind and strength back, but as you have already said, it is all too often hard to gauge where to draw the line between enough and too much, and sometimes we pay for having too much confidence, (or as my wife says, too little sense).

Keep at it, albeit slowly enough to avoid unnecessary setbacks and the possibility of further injury, and you (and I) will get back to normal eventually, although it may be a "new normal" depending on what heals and what scarring is left.

Best wishes, and continied prayers,
Thomas

 

[Gale Hawkins]

This morning I awoke with the garage cleaning task on my mind and do not remember any pain from getting out of the bed for the first time since my fall.

Put in a long day in cleaning out an old garage that we plan to tear down in a few years but we need some place where we can work on the ATV's, mowers and stuff some this winter. Finding a lot of odd and end tools and stuff. In a rush about 5 years ago we had added a lot of stuff when we had to clean out the FIL place. Kind of junk on junk deal with some good stuff mixed in. While I am whipped after the long hard day my back is not in that much pain considering the day.

The old garage main function has been to house our back up generator so with them calling for ice after we got a lot of stuff hauled out we tried to start it but no click from the fuel flow solenoid. We did run it about 45 seconds on carb cleaner and after that it became unstuck and started working. I peeled off the air flow metal and cleaned out wasp and dirt dauber nests. Noticed the fuel line was leaking at the fuel filter after 25 years and decided 25 years was long enough for the plugs and air filter as well the gas line and filter.

If I can get out of bed in the morning we will hit it hard again with Wednesday the last day of 70F temps forecast for the rest of this year.

While I have a ways to go I think by Christmas I will be 95% back to recovered. Falling flat on my back with all my arthritis was the worse fall I have ever taken. Snap back at 62 is a slow motion event I am learning.

 

[dave1949]

Glad to hear you are feeling better and able to get after the chores. Don't over do it.

 

[dmccarty]

Gale, at least you hurt you back doing something Manly...

Last Wednesday I was working from home and sitting in my usual comfy chair. Some how I pulled a muscle. :confused3: Twas not bad but you noticed the back was not right. I went to the gym that night and did not really have any issues with the back The muscle was healing Thursday and Friday. Friday I went and saw up a 3-4 trees with the chainsaw and all was good. Saturday I did the same. However, don't you love howevers, as I was working, there was a stick in the way. I grabbed the stick to toss it and low and behold it was not tossable. :shocked: A log was sitting on part of the stick and I jerked my back pretty badly when I tried to rapidly move something that was not moveable. Course, this is the same side as the "chair" injury. Pain was there but not bad. Sunday I rested and things were going well. Monday I went to work and I was riding a desk/chair again...

I sat for at least 4-5 hours without getting out of the chair. Well, when I finally moved, Boy Howdy did my back hurt! I could only take baby steps and even that was painful.

So I am sitting here in quite a bit of pain, popping ibuprofen and acetaminophen pills, and hooked up to a TENS unit all because I was sitting in a @#$%^&*()_ chair. :shocked:

Walking into work yesterday was really painful. I could only take a step that was 1/3 of what I normally stride and it was painful. Last night we used the massage dohickey on my back and I could almost walk my normal stride and with minimal pain. I really should have worked from home today to use the massage dohickey but I really needed to be physically at work today. Lesson learned. Use the massage dohickey, hook up the TENS and take the pills. What a dummy, like I have not learned that lesson before.

The only good thing in all of this is that it looks like it is going to rain all weekend so I would not be able to do anything outside.

Later,
Dan HurtByChair