alan1
Gold Member
Getting older and having your body parts start wearing out sure does suck.
About six weeks ago I'm sitting at my computer on a Saturday morning enjoying my coffee and reading the news. Suddenly I cough and HOLYSONOFGUN, that hurt. I threw my back out. 600mg ibuprofen did almost nothing to ease the pain. Lower back was in constant pain, standing or walking further aggravated the pain in my back and walking in particular felt like somebody was ramming a red hod poker down the back of my left leg from the hip to the knee. I suffered through the weekend and visited my primary care physician first thing Monday morning. He prescribed flexeril (muscle relaxant), hydrocodone for pain and 600mg ibuprofen for anti-inflammatory. It got better fairly quickly and within 2 weeks and I stopped taking meds, having only used about half the flexeril and hydrocone.
About 3 weeks ago I started getting some intermittent pain in my left hip, mostly just when changing position from sitting to standing or from standing to sitting. Once vertical or seated there wasn't any pain. I self-medicated 600mg ibuprofen a day and that seemed to help. some days it was better, some days it was worse. Thanksgiving day I was pain free until about 9:00 that night. Friday, after work, the hip pain gradually returned and by 7:00 it was a constant dull ache but with sharp stabbing pain when going from sitting to standing. By 9:00, no position was comfortable, it wasn't unbearable though. That night, I barely slept as i could not get comfortable and the pain got worse and worse throughout the night. Saturday morning I attempted to get out bed at about 7:30 and every movement caused excruciating pain in my left hip. Also, I had some numbness on the skin of my upper left leg. I laid in bed for another hour. By 8:30 the call of nature forced me to attempt to get out of bed. The pain in my hip was unbearable and I was unable to put any weight on my left leg. I hobbled to the bathroom using my arms to support my weight by leaning on the dresser, clutching doorjambs and using doorknobs for support. I then struggled to my living room, the leftover hydrocodone was at my computer desk. Fortunately my house is fairly small and no stairs. On a scale of 1 - 10, the pain was a good solid 9. Dang it, I didn't have any liquid to swallow the pill with. It hurt so bad I didn't think there was anyway I could make it to the kitchen to get water. I swallowed the hydrocodone dry.
Even just sitting, the pain was intense. After about 30 minutes I took a flexeril. My plan was to knock back the pain and visit my doctor first thing Monday morning when the office opened. By 9:30 the pain had been reduced from a 9 to a 7.5. I didn't think there was any way I could suffer like this through the entire weekend. Since the doctors office is closed for the weekend, I decided to go to the hospital emergency room. This would be my first ever visit to an ER for treatment for myself. It took me a half an hour to get dressed. I could barely put any weight on my left leg, so walking consisted of 3 to 6 inch steps at a time and using whatever stable piece of furniture within grasp to lean on. It was 10:00 by the time I made it to my car. Fortunately, there was parking close to the ER entrance. I hobbled in using 3 to 6 inch steps. At the front door was a man appearing to be in his late 60's being removed from his car and put into a wheelchair, he looked bad. The lady at the front desk asked me what was wrong and I told her I was in extreme pain, but maybe they should work on the guy in the wheelchair first. I'm glad I did that. The quick analysis done on the other man indicated that he'd had a stroke, a real emergency unlike me, and they rushed him to examination.
Good fortune smiles upon me, the ER isn't busy and I'm in an exam room within 15 minutes, a doctor and nurse arrived in the room the same time I did. The nurse takes my vitals and the doctor asks me some questions to asses my condition. I feel a bit foolish being in an ER, it's not like I'm having a heart attack, stroke, bleeding profusely or an obvious broken bone or some other trauma. They tell me to disrobe and to put on a hospital gown, then leave so I can do that in private. Undressing takes me almost as long as it took me to get dressed, I'm barely finished and the doctor is back in the room. More questions from the doctor, and I make sure that I inform her that I had already taken some hydrocodone and flexeril or I wouldn't have been able to make it to the hospital under my own power. I tell it was left over drugs from a back injury 6 weeks ago. She performs her physical exam and is bothered by the numbness and horrible reflexes in my left leg. She doesn't think it is a hip problem. And off to x-rays I go.
The x-rays show my hip to fine. My lower back is another story. Significant degeneration of some of the disks in my lower back are obvious in the x-ray. Nerves in my spinal cord are being aggravated with the pain being manifested in my hip. She prescribes oxycodone (stronger than hydrocodone) for pain relief, a higher dosage of flexeril and prednisone (a steroid) to round out my drug cocktail. She can tell I can't walk worth a damn, so crutches are issued to me for mobility. A referral to an orthopedic is also given but according to my insurance, that really needs to come from my primary care physician. My primary care physician can just pass on her referral without examining me, so I will be visiting them come Monday morning.
By 4:00pm yesterday I'd become a lot more mobile, still not pain free, but a lot less pain. I got a good nights sleep. First thing this morning was a little rough, I had to wait for the medical cocktail to kick in before I could abandon the crutches long enough take a shower. Yesterday I was in such bad shape that I couldn't even make coffee before leaving the house. Probably the first time in over 25 years that I didn't have a morning cup of coffee.
But as always, there is good news. Many of you know that I collect fossils, skulls and tribal artifacts. On Friday I received the latest addition to my collection. An intersection of tribal artifact and skull. I acquired a Borneo Dayak tribe headhunted skull. Head hunted trophy skulls from the Dayak typically run $3-6k depending upon age, preservation and adornments. I paid less than half the lower figure for a Dayak trophy skull originally collected by an anthropologist doing field study of the Dayak's in the 60's. It was likely taken as a trophy during the early 1900's, possibly late 1800's.
About six weeks ago I'm sitting at my computer on a Saturday morning enjoying my coffee and reading the news. Suddenly I cough and HOLYSONOFGUN, that hurt. I threw my back out. 600mg ibuprofen did almost nothing to ease the pain. Lower back was in constant pain, standing or walking further aggravated the pain in my back and walking in particular felt like somebody was ramming a red hod poker down the back of my left leg from the hip to the knee. I suffered through the weekend and visited my primary care physician first thing Monday morning. He prescribed flexeril (muscle relaxant), hydrocodone for pain and 600mg ibuprofen for anti-inflammatory. It got better fairly quickly and within 2 weeks and I stopped taking meds, having only used about half the flexeril and hydrocone.
About 3 weeks ago I started getting some intermittent pain in my left hip, mostly just when changing position from sitting to standing or from standing to sitting. Once vertical or seated there wasn't any pain. I self-medicated 600mg ibuprofen a day and that seemed to help. some days it was better, some days it was worse. Thanksgiving day I was pain free until about 9:00 that night. Friday, after work, the hip pain gradually returned and by 7:00 it was a constant dull ache but with sharp stabbing pain when going from sitting to standing. By 9:00, no position was comfortable, it wasn't unbearable though. That night, I barely slept as i could not get comfortable and the pain got worse and worse throughout the night. Saturday morning I attempted to get out bed at about 7:30 and every movement caused excruciating pain in my left hip. Also, I had some numbness on the skin of my upper left leg. I laid in bed for another hour. By 8:30 the call of nature forced me to attempt to get out of bed. The pain in my hip was unbearable and I was unable to put any weight on my left leg. I hobbled to the bathroom using my arms to support my weight by leaning on the dresser, clutching doorjambs and using doorknobs for support. I then struggled to my living room, the leftover hydrocodone was at my computer desk. Fortunately my house is fairly small and no stairs. On a scale of 1 - 10, the pain was a good solid 9. Dang it, I didn't have any liquid to swallow the pill with. It hurt so bad I didn't think there was anyway I could make it to the kitchen to get water. I swallowed the hydrocodone dry.
Even just sitting, the pain was intense. After about 30 minutes I took a flexeril. My plan was to knock back the pain and visit my doctor first thing Monday morning when the office opened. By 9:30 the pain had been reduced from a 9 to a 7.5. I didn't think there was any way I could suffer like this through the entire weekend. Since the doctors office is closed for the weekend, I decided to go to the hospital emergency room. This would be my first ever visit to an ER for treatment for myself. It took me a half an hour to get dressed. I could barely put any weight on my left leg, so walking consisted of 3 to 6 inch steps at a time and using whatever stable piece of furniture within grasp to lean on. It was 10:00 by the time I made it to my car. Fortunately, there was parking close to the ER entrance. I hobbled in using 3 to 6 inch steps. At the front door was a man appearing to be in his late 60's being removed from his car and put into a wheelchair, he looked bad. The lady at the front desk asked me what was wrong and I told her I was in extreme pain, but maybe they should work on the guy in the wheelchair first. I'm glad I did that. The quick analysis done on the other man indicated that he'd had a stroke, a real emergency unlike me, and they rushed him to examination.
Good fortune smiles upon me, the ER isn't busy and I'm in an exam room within 15 minutes, a doctor and nurse arrived in the room the same time I did. The nurse takes my vitals and the doctor asks me some questions to asses my condition. I feel a bit foolish being in an ER, it's not like I'm having a heart attack, stroke, bleeding profusely or an obvious broken bone or some other trauma. They tell me to disrobe and to put on a hospital gown, then leave so I can do that in private. Undressing takes me almost as long as it took me to get dressed, I'm barely finished and the doctor is back in the room. More questions from the doctor, and I make sure that I inform her that I had already taken some hydrocodone and flexeril or I wouldn't have been able to make it to the hospital under my own power. I tell it was left over drugs from a back injury 6 weeks ago. She performs her physical exam and is bothered by the numbness and horrible reflexes in my left leg. She doesn't think it is a hip problem. And off to x-rays I go.
The x-rays show my hip to fine. My lower back is another story. Significant degeneration of some of the disks in my lower back are obvious in the x-ray. Nerves in my spinal cord are being aggravated with the pain being manifested in my hip. She prescribes oxycodone (stronger than hydrocodone) for pain relief, a higher dosage of flexeril and prednisone (a steroid) to round out my drug cocktail. She can tell I can't walk worth a damn, so crutches are issued to me for mobility. A referral to an orthopedic is also given but according to my insurance, that really needs to come from my primary care physician. My primary care physician can just pass on her referral without examining me, so I will be visiting them come Monday morning.
By 4:00pm yesterday I'd become a lot more mobile, still not pain free, but a lot less pain. I got a good nights sleep. First thing this morning was a little rough, I had to wait for the medical cocktail to kick in before I could abandon the crutches long enough take a shower. Yesterday I was in such bad shape that I couldn't even make coffee before leaving the house. Probably the first time in over 25 years that I didn't have a morning cup of coffee.
But as always, there is good news. Many of you know that I collect fossils, skulls and tribal artifacts. On Friday I received the latest addition to my collection. An intersection of tribal artifact and skull. I acquired a Borneo Dayak tribe headhunted skull. Head hunted trophy skulls from the Dayak typically run $3-6k depending upon age, preservation and adornments. I paid less than half the lower figure for a Dayak trophy skull originally collected by an anthropologist doing field study of the Dayak's in the 60's. It was likely taken as a trophy during the early 1900's, possibly late 1800's.
Perfect.
