The light at the end of the tunnel turned out to be a headla

[Levitation]

Last Friday I was at Home Depot loading cement blocks for a hearth oven I am building when I got a back spasm and had to stop... Tim finished the loading and I drove home. and he unloaded... I gimped around the rest of the day and was halfway better Saturday morning so after lunch I started shoveling black dirt back around the oven foundation and suddenly went down when my left leg gave out... I crawled onto the couch and stayed there... About 10:30 PM I got that deep burning pain in my left thigh/hip/knee/calf that you just can't ease up and it left me flopping like a wounded fish... I spent the rest of the night on the couch pulling my knee to my chest , quivering, swearing, and trying to sleep... Finally, at 6AM I was finished physically and mentally - I just could not take the pain any longer... Char drove me to the hospital where I have been on staff for over 25 years - anyway, that and some really impressive hyper ventilating and whimpering got me prompt attention / IV Dilaudid / MRI scan / etc...

My EMR doc/friend/colleague of many years came in the room with my scan and without any preamble said, "who do you want for a surgeon?"... (ah jeez)
So, they kept me stoned on dilaudid until they could get a surgery slot Tuesday afternoon... The surgeon found that the disk had burst the rear wall completely off the annulus of the L3 disc and that big fragment had slid down between the spinal cord and the vertebra wedging the L5 and S1 nerve roots leaving me with a left leg that would not respond and acute urinary retention...

I have been home since Wednesday night (Saturday now)... I do not do narcotics or muscle relaxers worth a damn (big time side effects) so I checked myself out of the hospital and I have been nursing a bottle of plain tylenol supplemented with 4 letter words (lots) - I did get a series of phone calls from my doctors after I left all saying pretty much the same thing "what the eff are you doing ???"
The left leg is weak in certain directions and gives away at times (improving a bit tonight)... I took the foley catheter out myself about 1AM Friday morning and I have been able to pee reasonably well since (small favors)... That deep, burning, nerve pain is gone (thank you god) and what I have is the incision pain in the back and the chisel work on the spine supplemented by electric shocks from nerves attempting to function again...

So, I am at a cross roads in life... I suspect I just retired... I have always been relatively healthy and I do not do this "being a patient" routine with any grace or skill at all... And I am acutely depressed (a self diagnosis - worth exactly what I paid for it) at the moment...

Yes, the leg will improve to one degree or another and in a few weeks I can return to treating patients... At this moment I don't intend to do so (which is gonna be real shock to the folks who bought my business)
Anyway, I am sitting in the shop, leg partly up on a box ( and giving Char a break from my vocabulary) and looking at Levitation sleeping on her trailer... I would like to be on board but I can't get up the ladder...

So I join the good folks on C-Brats-Tugnutters who have had life come along and slap them around - you all know their names... Perhaps I will be at some of the splash-in's later this winter if I am safe to drive, launch, etc...

cheers

 

[Stella Maris]

Denny,
While life sometimes leaves us asking why, remember, there are always people out there worse off than we are. Some people leave home in the morning and never come home for dinner that night. Some go to bed at the end of a long day and never place a foot on the floor again.

While this all may not help you now, it may just be God's way of telling you it is time to move on to your next adventure in life. Time to stop working and time to start living. You have one consolation that you can look at right now, Boating in November in Michigan is really not any fun! Be thankful that it is not summer! Be thankful that your leg works. Be thankful for Char being there to help you.

Wishing you a speedy recovery!

David and Maureen

 

[Trinity]

Our prayers are with you!
This is a tough time for your and your family. I don't know exactly how to say this, but next time your get on your tug, you will take a deep breath and think......"this is exactly what I needed." Then comes the big smile.... 😀
Hang in there-
Nancy and Kerry

 

[K7MXE]

Denny I can say I know what your going through. I squashed Lumbar 1 this July and it messed me up as well. I was back home in a week and a half but all this time later I am not back to the way I was.
My troubles started when I was warming up the oil in my brush hog. I bumped a 30 foot cedar power pole with the mower and it being rotten decided it needed to fall down right on the spot but trouble was my head was between it and earth.
Making a long story short I opened up the back of my head about twenty staples worth and my back was purple from arm to arm and this all ended up cracking and squashing L1. On the positive side I had just gotten a short haircut so hair did not get in the way of the trauma team and was getting fixed up in less than 4 hours after it happened. I was very lucky. The tractor did not fair well either as it kept on going with me on it and ran into another power pole that did not give. That pole got wedged between a bent headlight and the front wheel. I asked the emergency folks to turn off the key for me.
I was only knocked out for a hour and spend another hour getting 90 feet to a ham radio set that I called for help on. These power poles were well used light company poles that saw a second life as antenna poles. I made what I would call a couple of good decisions and one was to pass on the pain pills, handicap pass and did not go for a wheel chair either. I felt that I would have some pain but the rewards would be sooner in the recovery area. This kept the boat out of the water and only got out once and decided that was not a good idea afterward. Next year I should be back to normal. It also sucked asking people to carry heavy things for you but things got done. Some might ask why I did not have a cell phone and call on that, well not everyone lives near a cell tower.
I did listen to the medical folks for the most part and what they said as far as a time table went that it would just take time to get close to normal.
Denny be patient it will take time. Bob Heselberg in Eatonville Wa

 

[JamesTXSD]

Hi Denny-o,

Sorry to hear what you are going through. Pain sucks. Hope I'm not getting over your head with those technical medical terms. 😉 Sending our best wishes for a fast recovery.

Something to think about while you're recuperating: that retiring thing. Sometimes we plan for it for years and other times it comes quickly. I always said, "I can make more money, I can't make more time." It took me a while to act on my own advice. To retire when you have the health to enjoy it is a winning game plan. Get yourself better, then make that decision. Then enjoy what ever you decide.

Oh, and try to avoid "home projects" that require great amounts of physical effort, especially heavy lifting. The Blonde always seems to come up with those kinds of projects when we're home, and her plan always involves ME doing that lifting stuff. Part of the reason I try to keep us away from home as much as possible... working on the boat doesn't seem to carry that same pain penalty. Just saying.

If/when our paths cross, I would be happy to help you launch, as would a whole host of others on these forums. We understand.

Best wishes,
Jim B.

 

[rt11002003]

denny-o,

Sorry to hear of your injury. Injured my lumbar in 1964, it took two years before I was able to do much, slow healer. Fortunately, I didn't need surgery. Learned what to avoid to prevent pain. Must be a slow learner, or forgetful, sometimes I irritate the injured area. But, it passes. For the past several years, I've had severe cervical problems, all seven of the hummers are defective. Including spinal stenosis in one. Surgeon told me he would advise his father, if he was in my situation, not to have surgery. Said he could make it look pretty. But, wasn't sure he could improve things. Pain gets to be a fact of life. An excellent pain management doctor has been helpful. Tylenol is now my drug of choice.

I've also suffered kidney stones regularly since I was 22 years old, fifty years now.

I can only conclude the good Lord has designed us to tolerate certain levels of pain. I've learned to do all I can of the things I enjoy and not let the fear of pain keep me from doing them.

Hang in there, things will improve.

Gene

 

[Levitation]

Thanks for the good wishes, guys...

denny-o

 

[RProffer]

Denny,
Sorry to hear about your situation. I had a similar situation where I spent three months in the hospital, a year to recover, and was forced to retire from the Navy. I remember that it was devastating and scary - what do I do now - how do I take care of my family. As it turned out, I was able to get well enough to return to the Navy and finish my career and then retire from the Navy. I started my second career and was within three years of planned retirement when my company laid me off as part of a reduction in force. Again, I was devastated and scared. I wasn't ready for retirement yet. Each time, I had to think outside the box to see where I had to go and what to do. I just had to think things through and take it one day at a time. Think positive and go forward. Things will work out, even if they don't seem like it right now. I wish you well.

 

[captain's cat]

Denny, oh my! What a "mishap" or whatever $#@%&*%$ you'd like to call it now. Missed meeting you at Langford with the Brats when the weather got to your plans to fly in. Still have your name tag on it with an airplane instead of a boat! 🙂 Hope you take it easy and get back to being able to get up that ladder.

Yes, might be time to "retire"! I've done it several times and look forward to the next time but without the requirement to "have to".

Take care, stay warm this winter and stay on the Nuts and the Brats!

Charlie