TT Injured Reserve List

“Ah Geo...hate to hear that. Hope you get better soon!!!”

“adding myself to this list today. Yesterday I went mountain bike riding. I am learning and probably taking things to slow which caused my wreck.

Instead of going over the handlebars I got my legs into the frame so me and the bike went over a log down the hill into trees and rocks. When I came to a stop I had to slowly get my legs untangled from the bike. First time my legs ever looked like pretzels. One of the people I was riding with heard all the noise and came back to check on me. She said all she could see was legs in the air. I pulled the bike back up to the trail and off I went to finish the ride.

When we got back to the cars after riding I noticed a swelling in my knee. By the time I got home
my knee looked like it had half of a softball coming out of one side and half of a tennis ball coming out the other side.

I sat the rest of the night with an ice pack on it. The swelling is down this morning but the inside of my knee is black and blue.

Hope it gets better my this weekend, more trails to ride.”

“You might take it easy on that knee awhile, or even get it checked out. Could be a problem there and you could aggravate it.

Still having problems with my knee. What is it with knees?”

“Geo, if it doesn't start feeling better in a day or so I am headed to the Doctor.

I really need it to be ok by this weekend. I have plans and I don't want to let some people down.”

“Ewker - Good luck.

Advice: Put those knees first. Don't worry about people or weekends.”

“Take care of those knees, Ewk & Geo!

I'm putting myself on the list for about a day - strained my back a little yesterday removing our front lawn. It'll be OK by tonight or tomorrow....”

“So, there's a hole where your front yard used to be, BowlderMan?”

“Maybe he's building a ballfield to see if they come.”

“It reminds me of the country in the Dilbert cartoons who sold all of the mud in their country for cosmetic facial mud packs, then died because they had dug down to the mantle.”

“Hah! Well, not too much of a hole. In order to get rid of the hunks of old crappy sod, I dug a big hole in the back yard, brought the good soil to the front, and threw the sod hunks into the hole. Still have a lot of work to do - adding to the sprinkler system, etc.

Ya know, Geo, we have a decent sized back yard, and, since Cameron loves to play catcher, I've thought about building a pitcher's mound and home plate so we can practice together. I still may do it....”

“I almost ended up on this thread. I've been repainting a few ceilings for my Mom. That's what she wanted for Mothers Day. I almost did a backstep off the ladder when I slipped. Somehow I didn't spill any paint. Whew!”

“Mmmmmmmmmm, catcher. If bad knees are the price, so be it!

I was talking to a guy about catching over the weekend. As soon as the conversation turned to catching, four eyes lit up like neon signs!”

“Here's why my back is sore today:

Before

After

Ouch.”

“I'd be on my back if I did that much digging, Bowlderman.”

“If you had dug a little deeper, you could have just climbed in and let your survivors shovel the dirt on top.”

“Whew! It was kind of tiring. Tonight I will probably be pitching batting practice to the kids again - another 250 pitches, coming up!”

“She said all she could see was legs in the air.

LMAO @ Ewker... sorry, but the mental picture was kind of amusing!

Hears to a fast recovery.”

“Well, I guess I belong here for now, being that I had to put off my Virginia trip next week courtesy of my left knee. I get this acute pain in the left of my left knee when I put my right foot forward going down stairs or down a steeper hill. There's absolutely no swelling or visible bruising whatsoever. Anyone else had this problem?

Anyway, it has been improving significantly since it first started after a PA hiking trip 2 weeks ago (go figure). I just don't feel I'm back at full capacity yet. Funny thing is that I'm only 25, never had any knee problems before, and don't recall doing anything to it. So far, I've been good on home remedies -- if it doesn't continue to get better, I'm going to have to go see the doctor :(”

“Aww, good luck”

“my right hip is absolutely killing me. At first I thought it was the chair I sit in at work because its not comfortable, but I changed chairs and it still didn't help. It hurts so bad right now that I can't stand to sit at my computer desk. I don't know what I've done to it. Could it be from sitting too long at work? Does anyone know anything to do to help? I don't think I'll be able to sit tomorrow at work. I don't know what to do.

sorry to hear about your injury ewker!”

“I got a second opinion on my low-back pain this week. I went to the Leatherman Spine Institute in Louisville.

They confirmed that I have Sponylolisthesis, which is a gradual shifting of one of the vertebrae in my spine. Because the little "Tabs" that hold it in place are broken, there's no way to stop the movement without surgery.

I have the option of doing nothing, but it will only get worse. The pain is definitley manageable right now, but the scary thing is that my right leg and foot have started to go numb frequently from the nerves getting pinched. I also have a lot of hip pain.

The Doctor says if I let it go, I could possibly lose the use of one or both legs if the spinal cord is pinched off.

The surgery puts screws and pins in to hold the vertebrae back in place until it heals with the help of a synthetic disc replacement.

A very scary thing to have happen to you before you're 30. The good thing is that the success rate at teh spine institute is very high, like 95-98%

Anyone familiar with a procedure like this or know any reason I shouldn't have it done?

The doctor said that if it were his body at my age, he would definitley have it done, but then again he's the doctor and he's getting paid to cut me open.

Any thoughts?”

“Back surgery is a scarey thing. I don't know too much about it, but regardless of your decision, good luck.”

“IJ, if you haven't already gotten one, it's time for a second opinion. Even if the doctor who've talked to is correct in his diagnosis, you'll feel better about having it done if another doc says the same thing.

I hope everything works out. It's probably better to get this surgery when you're younger as opposed to waiting, because your body will heal faster and build back bone mass quicker than if you wait.

If it were me, I'd probably get a second opinion, and go for the surgery if that doc concurred. Heck, I might get it anyway.

Does the surgery have a specific name that you can use in a webs search? You might find some info that way, although like with everything else you read on the web, it must be taken with a shaker or two of salt.”

“Thanks bit,

This was my second opinion. My first one was from a surgeon in Owensboro, KY. He wanted to do the same thing but with an older procedure and a lot more risk. He gave me a 60% chance of being 80% better with a 20% chance of coming out worse than I went in. Those are scary numbers!!

I felt a whole lot more at ease about it after going to the specialist.”

“I'd get a second and third opinion.

A friend who had screws put in his back cussed out the doctor who did it, said he would never have allowed it had he known the pain it would put him through. He was worse off after the surgery than before.

The more you find out before the surgery the better. Perhaps you could seek out people who have had it done and get their opinions.

It may sound simple, but it is radical enough to need sound information before making a decision.

Doing nothing does sound risky, but a second or third opinion would help guide you through this.”

“Damn John! I hope you go through with the surgery. Your situation makes mine look pitiful. I have a pinched nerve in the lower back, possibly more (Doc goes over xrays with me tomorrow). This minor back injury has put my a$$ out of commission, I can only imagine what IJ is going through.

Get well all.”

“man bowlder...better be glad you dont have a normal sized GA yard...yours seems pretty small...”

“No kidding, shep! Yet another benefit of living in CA....”

“BM, but do the pros out weigh the cons on living in Ca”

“When I discover a con I'll let ya know!”

“News not so good. I saw the xrays today - lower vertabrea are curved, pinching a nerve. The vertabrae right before the lil' tail is somehow missing its disk. Doc thinks it's either ruptured or slipped. He's going to treat me for a few weeks, try to align things, take xrays, and if the vertabrae are still rubbing, hook me up with an MRI, and we take it from there.

It sucked crawling out of bed this morning. This just sucks all together.”

“Damn, Buddha, that's not good news at all. Hope you can work something out. Having your back go bad is scary #&%!$e, is it not?”

“That's terrible Buddha Bear and crawling out of bed in pain sounds even worse. I hope they can get you fixed up somehow.”

“BB - don't know how good your doc is, but it might be worth getting an MRI sooner rather than later becuase it can show things that don't appear on an xray. I had what I thought might be a severe muscle strain in my glute/hip area. Got an xray which looked normal. I knew something was not right so pushed to get an MRI.

The MRI showed I have a stress fracture in my sacrum (spine feeds into the top of it, pelvis at the sides and narrows to form your tailbone), plus my lowest two discs are mildly and moderately degenerated whcih explains other mild pain that I've had for some time.

I've been relegated to minimal physical activity since the end of Feb. I'm lucky in that my pain is now minimal and I don't require surgery.

Back pain/injury is very debilitating. I hope everyone suffering improves very soon.”

“OUch!!

Three years ago I was ready to throw in the towel and see about surgery.

I went for an MRI and all or most of the lumbar discs were bulging, desiccated to similar degree and narrowed.

Between the MRI and the consult(two months......and who says the Canadians have to wait?) I did a 35 mile canoe trip on the Delaware River.

My #3 son was 10.5 at the time and about 130# of dead weight in addition to another 100+ # of inanimate weight.

We had a stiff head wind for each of the four days and I worked my ass off, cussin' every stroke.

The 3.5 days of upper body work fixed my lower back so well that I decided against surgery.

I also lost ten pounds.

The neurosurgeon told me that the fix would be laproscopic(?) and I would go home the same day.

It would amount to shaving the bulges from the offending discs.

My current self-therapy(self-medication) is literally climbing the walls.

I have been hitting the climbing wall at the campus gym....no weight-lifting, please.”

“....and the canoe must have weighed 75#, too!”

“Thanks for the advice Aussie & Mark O. I haven't felt any pain since I've been on the Limbaugh drug, and I seem to have more mobility when I wake up every morning.

I'll run the MRI by the doc on Tuesday, I hope it's not worse...”

“Ok trial days 2004... Drunk lady falls in ditch and I try to get her out.. I fall in too with rocks all around twisted up the ankle pretty bad and think I will be pulling out splinters from the thorns for weeks!

Is this a hiking related accident..or just a hiker accident?”

“Will TrailTalk Insurance pay off for a scratch obtained while shucking oysters for thruhikers?”

“I had lower back surgery on March 11 this year. I went under at 8"00 am and I was back at home by 12:30 the same day. I still have some numbness and some pain in the lower back that I treat with Advil, and occasionally Percoset. There are good days, and there are not so good days. I expect to full recover in a few more weeks. The worst thing for me is sitting too long. The best thing is playing golf and walking, lots of walking.

I have degenerative disks and bulging disks throughout the lower disks. I herniated the L-5/S-1, which is why I had the surgery.

I suggest you have the surgery now and be done with it. 95% is pretty damned good results.”

“Add Tony Randall to the list!”

“he's waaaaay beyond injured reserve i think.”

“I suppose I should be reporting to this thread...

Minor injury, nothing compared to some of your back pain/surgery dilemmas. But, enough to keep me from getting around comfortably and from hiking and running for several days.

Went backpacking this past weekend in Michigan's northern lower peninsula. We hiked an approximate 18 mile section of the High Country Pathway. Within the first mile of day two, we were walking a boardwalk across a pretty wet section of trail. The boardwalk was a couple hundred feet long and made of two 10x2s, side by side, nailed to large logs. At one point, there was a step down. Two side by side planks (loose, not nailed to any logs) had been placed face up, at a sort of angle, presumably to help you step down. Cow Patty warned me it wasn't stable, yet somehow I managed to get it under one of my feet and as I fell, it flipped over. I landed with my backpack on the board, and my arse on the 6" landscape timber spikes, used to hold the boards to the logs. Initially, I only thought I had twisted my back and was feeling some good pain from that. It wasn't until I stood up and Chewy (now known as "First Responder") looked down, that we realized I had landed on the dirty, rusty spikes and two had punctured my rear end. One puncture, the one that was sorta off to the side of my right cheek, was pretty minor looking, but the other, up high, just a bit below the lower back, was bleeding pretty good.

At first, I felt pretty lightheaded and shaky, so I just sat for a while. Then, using contact Saline solution, antibiotic ointment and some bandanges, Cow Patty (thank you, again and again and again!!!) kindly helped me clean up and got me bandaged. She said the one puncture was about 1/2" deep and that it appeared that the spike had gone in at an angle. I believe the diameter of the spikes are about 1/4" inch, but I'm not positive about it. Anyway, along the way and at camp, the wound had to be re-dressed a couple more times cause it didn't wanna stop bleeding. Mainly, I assume, because I was still moving (had 8 more miles to hike that day) and the backpack's hipbelt rode just about where the wound was.

There were a couple reasons I felt it would be OK to go on instead of turning around to get back to a vehicle. First, I had just had a tetanus shot about two months earlier, for no other reason except that my doc felt that since I spent so much time in the backcountry, it would be a good idea "just in case." And, the morning just before this, I had taken 4 large doses of anti-biotics for a minor heart condition that requires anti-biotics before dental cleanings and the like.

When we got home Sunday evening, I went to the Urgent Care to get them cleaned up and to get on a course of anti-biotics. The wounds don't look any better today, but they don't look any worse (except the bruising). They were both pretty infected by the time I got to the Doc on Sunday. I have a follow up appt w/ my regular doc today.

While the puncture wounds are a little bit sore, they really aren't the primary source of pain for me. My back is what's hurting. It's pretty tight from whatever I did to it as I fell. Staying in any one position for any lenght of time is killer. And, the fact that I can't sleep on my back cause of the wounds, isn't helping.

All in all, pretty minor when I consider what would have happened if I didn't have a backpack on when I landed on my back (I can't imagine how far the spikes might have gone in, yuc!). And, I assume my back pain will go away after a few more days of resting it and visiting the chiropractor.

Oh, and I have pics of the wounds, tho I don't plan to share them, lol.
I will eventually get around to posting pics of the spikes, tho.”

“ouch!!

i find it amusing that you thought to take pics of the spikes after being injured! always thinking, aren't ya?”

“You'll prolly find it even more amusing to know that it was Papabull who wanted me to get the pics. He gotta big kick out of the "extra holes in my butt". lol”

“ouch! Tara, what a pain in the a$$ (he he get it, hahaha)”

“Girl, ya gotta take care of dat as$! Hope ya feel better.... need some oxycontin?”

“that's not a hiking related incident, it's a drinking related incident. please report to The Drinking Thread.”

“OUCH, that sucks, tarabull!! good thing you'd gotten that tetanus shot.”