Counting my blessings

moto-rama

Well-known member
Earlier today I read through Aaron's post in general about his catastrophic injuries and paralysis condition.
It put things in perspective for me. Really.

There are also several reports in this subforum that are very sobering. I've had one fairly serious injury in the almost 50 years I've been riding, so I don't suppose I've got much to complain about.

Note: there was no apparent injury that caused the following chain of events.

But last year about a month before Christmas I was down and out with a mysterious series of health issues, digestive tract not functioning, non specific lower back pain, numbness and pain in my right thigh, and could barely stand, bouts of dizziness, nausea, stomach pain, I lost 50 lbs in 3 months.....Just bizarre. ...I have Kaiser, and a pretty good doctor, but she just shrugged her shoulders when I came in, or called to report yet another thing was happening.

I was sent to a medley of specialists and they all missed the point, I was fucking going down hill like a ton of shit and no one could figure it out.

Then my Neuro sent me for a full spinal MRI....

A few days later they call and send me to "physical medicine". Huh? A sports doctor sort of guy? Really?

I get there, barely able to crawl at this point. The doctor is 6' 7", at least. OK, he's a foot taller than me, but maybe he knows something.

Hangs up my MRI images and points to L1 and says " Wow, that must be causing some problems. How do you feel?"
Well after nearly 9 months of feeling like I could die at any moment... I said "have you got an hour?"

Diagnosis: Herniated L1-L2 vertabral disk. Prognosis: physical therapy and you can avoid other intervention. Oh really? Is that IT?

Sure enough, a physical therapy regimen had me back on the road to recovery within a week. One week.

Still not 100% but am gradually getting there after 6 months or so of doing the right exercises and avoiding things that can aggravate or reinjure it.

Who knew that a herniated disk could cause so much havoc? I had no idea.
 
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Schnellbandit

I see 4 lights!
Fantastic you got figured out. Hope your 2017 has you back in the game full steam. Get to these years and every time you turn around, another one bites the dust. You're beating all the odds. Its what you don't know that gets you, this you know about.
 

moto-rama

Well-known member
Fantastic you got figured out. Hope your 2017 has you back in the game full steam. Get to these years and every time you turn around, another one bites the dust. You're beating all the odds. Its what you don't know that gets you, this you know about.

I'm very glad to be on the upward trajectory, that's a fact.
Thanks for the encouragement!
 

Phanuel

Confused
What doc are you seeing for your back?

I messed mine up in a way that nobody seems to be able to diagnose over 6 years ago.
 

BroZorro129

New member
But last year about a month before Christmas I was down and out with a mysterious series of health issues, digestive tract not functioning, non specific lower back pain, numbness and pain in my right thigh, and could barely stand, bouts of dizziness, nausea, stomach pain, I lost 50 lbs in 3 months

Have these symptoms resolved at all?
 

Maddevill

KNGKAW
The thing I find aggravating is that Kaiser says that chiropractic work is non standard in their opinion. My wife had over $3000 of spine work to alleviate compressed disks in her neck. The treatment worked very well and was proved by x rays. Kaiser paid $600...
There is no one else who works on the structure of the spine other than chiropractors, so why not make it part of preventative care?
 

BroZorro129

New member
Maddevil, as someone who is very invested in your above statement, there are MANY things that play a part as to why chiropractic isn't covered fully. Not sure that this thread is the place to discuss it but would be happy to PM or start a thread elsewhere?
 

moto-rama

Well-known member
mostly...thank gawd

Have these symptoms resolved at all?

Thanks for asking....And Yes, it's taken a long time, and I still have the occasional setback, but compared to where I was 12 months ago, Yes,very much so.

The pain and leg weakness, numbness is nearly non-existent, the digestive stuff I'd say is like 85% resolved. I have cleaned up my hedonistic diet and am committed to walking a couple of miles every AM, and that has been helpful.
Thank gawd I have good medical coverage, I'm the poster boy for preexisting conditions....:)
 

moto-rama

Well-known member
What doc are you seeing for your back?

I messed mine up in a way that nobody seems to be able to diagnose over 6 years ago.

I saw my GP, my neuro, a urologist, a gastroenterologist, who ordered a full body MRI, that took about 4 hours in the claustrophobiatube. That was evaluated first by a physical medicine specialist, who diagnosed the herniated disk. ( Dr. Reutter) He referred me to a physical therapist who had me on the way to recovery in about 2 weeks or less.
What screwed me up might've been my yoga practice, which included deep flexion (bending Over). The worse my condition got the more I pushed myself....
As it turns out, that deep flexion could've caused more damage. The PT exercises were all Extension of the spine, the exact opposite of what I had been doing.
Doh....I felt like an idiot. For a couple of months I had really been making the injury much worse.
I still do some yoga but limit flexion to the bare minimum.
 

moto-rama

Well-known member
2.5 year update:

Turned out that I also had Hepatitis C, and that was causing all the digestive awfulness, dizziness, and you name it. I probably caused the herniated disk while doing some extreme yoga to improve my digestive issues....

Jeez.

Now cured of Hepatitis C, back is great, and life is grand. Thank Gawd for good medical coverage!
 

moto-rama

Well-known member
Still thanking Gawd...
Just recovering now from a double whammy.

I was put on Bactrim , really serious antibiotic for a suspected prostate infection...then after 5 weeks of barely tolerating that stuff...I was hospitalized, for acute pancreatitis....OuCh!

4 days in hospital, fed through IV, nothing by mouth, except one little sip of water once an hour... and finally my blood work was improved enough to send me home with a strict non-fat diet.
Wow 5 days of agonizing pain and fever around 103...no fun, bruv, nope not at all.

Home a week now, snuck a short ride to Ocean Beach for some air.
But that pancreas/gallbladder shit ain't no joke.
Nosiree.
 
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