Car Thread

[healey36]

Sorry to hear that the wrist lingers. Here the shoulder has never made it back to where it once was...maybe 90%. Tucking my shirt-tail in remains difficult, and a sudden extended reach for something can be painful. My assessment of PT is a mixed bag...definitely motivated me to work on it, but I was disappointed in the result. In all fairness, the doctor had warned me that "a guy my age" should temper his expectations. I was offended...I guess I shouldn't have been.

Hopefully the right combination of rest and exercise will get you back to a place that's satisfactory.

Healey

[MurphOnMillerAve]

At 71+, I'm learning that I have limitations, and that one of those limitations is that some parts do not work so smoothly as when I was in my 20's, and that I can't quite leap up from a prone or squatting position on the floor by the layout (nor crawl beneath it so well) like I'd like to and had done for decades. Blah blah blah...

..and mounting the layout is just about history, nowadays.

[rogruth]

I am concerned about addiction to pain medicine. My doctor says the amount that I take is not a problem.
B UT I almost cant make it through a day without some. When I start to hurt I still wait awhle before I take anything.
I have known too many that have become true addicts and were always looking for stronger stuff.
I have been taking the same type and amount for @25 years now. I usually take one pill a day. Sometimes none.
Recently it is more like two. Rarely I go to three.

Now my only reason to tell this on our forum is to point out several things.
If you hurt now, it probably will get worse.
If you need to take medicine take it.
If you have to alter your way of life do it but don't give up.
I am not at all happy about some things that I have given up.
But I am still alive [not sure that is a good thing] and most of my friends from my younger days are dead.
Fourteen years ago my wife suggested we go north for my high school class 50th reunion. I told her that
there was not much point because my friends from that class were dead. I might have known some that
would be there but they were not my friends.

I had PT for leg problems. Didn't help me. I do know others that have benefited greatly from PT.
As long as I can get the pain medicine I'm pretty good. If somebody decides I can't get it anymore I think
I'll visit our dog doctor and get a shot.
In the mean time I will keep trying to have fun and hope that all of you on the forum do also.
I don't mean for this to be morbid but more as an encouragement.
Oh, I'm ten years older than Murph.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Sorry to hear that the wrist lingers.

It's actually the base of the tendon anchored back at the elbow that runs through the wrist where the damage was done. Immobilize the wrist to keep stress off the tendon.

It is improving but very slowly which is to be expected. The hours with the snow blower and shovel did not contribute positively to the recover process. Yet, it does improve and has, but as with all tendon/ligament injuries - slow.....and given age, slower. Of course, now there's plantar fasciitis to content with that has joined the fun. A month ago I could not lift the coffee pot to pour water into the machine......now I can. Things improve. It gets rest - I'm close to ambidextrous in just about everything. Fair warning here though - brushing one's teeth left handed for the 1st time in your life can be hazardous!

I avoid any and all pain medicine to the best of my abilities - if my wife catches me taking an Advil (or 3), she knows there is something seriously wrong.

But, back to the matter at hand - we are plagued with turnips for brains neighbors that make the clearance of snow a near impossibility. My apologies to any and all turnips that may be reading this....

[mickeydee]

I'm glad you posted that Roger. Not that I'm happy you are suffering but because I've had exactly the same problem for at least the last 20 years and I recently learned that my reliance on ibuprofen may have been responsible for the kidney damage the doc recently informed me about.

Tylenol never worked for me, thank God, or I might have suffered even more detrimental effects. In England you used to be able to buy codeine over the counter (maybe still can) and that stuff worked great and I don't believe you can get addicted to it unless you have a very low tolerance or are extremely incautious. I took it for years but saved my use of it for when the arthritis was really painful.

I had to stop using aspirin thanks to ulcers. Anyway the long and short of all this is that I discovered the best solution is to switch pain killers around, dont stay too long with any one and as always try not to use them at all if you can hold out because the pain I put up with now is what once would have had me reaching for the NSAID's.

However as Roger said, don't suffer, its not going to get better and it won't go away. Aches and pains are a natural corollary to aging which is a dirty little secret nobody wants to admit to and in my opinion thats bullshit! Theres nothing noble or manly about putting up with pain if it can be avoided, it affects your personality makes you less likeable and is also surprisingly tiring since blocking the pain uses energy. Last but not least if you suffer a chronic source of pain the things you do to minimise it such as not taking exercise, spending a lot of time in a chair, will cause even more problems some of them very serious like blood clots in the leg veins from constriction and reduced blood flow.

Well thats enough of that. Well said Roger, it needed saying. Now I suppose we can await the expositions of those 'heroes' who never take anything.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

....... my reliance on ibuprofen may have been responsible for the kidney damage the doc recently informed me about.

Just how much were you taking?

Now I suppose we can await the expositions of those 'heroes' who never take anything.

I'm not against taking what's needed; too much, too often almost always leads to problems.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

... not taking exercise, spending a lot of time in a chair, will cause even more problems some of them very serious like blood clots in the leg veins from constriction and reduced blood flow....

One other small but significant point I'd add to your advice concerns our legs and trouble. When I was in hospital recently, for several surgical procedures, from Sept. - Nov. 2015, as I lie in bed, usually on my back, I noticed that every nurse who came into the room uncrossed my ankles as soon as they spotted them. I have that habit, whether abed or sitting in a chair, of crossing my legs or ankles.

Not any more. They told me that such positioning of my legs or feet can cause/pave the way for strokes or worse.

I have so thoroughly re-trained myself not to continue that ankle-crossing or leg-crossing habit that even when sleeping I seem to sense my error and uncross my ankles or legs, even if lying in fetal positions. (I just crossed and immediately uncrossed them, now, while sitting at the computer typing this.)

A word to the wise.

Murph, still peeing, thinking, cogitating, ambulating, crafting, digesting, and sleeping well, and in one piece (though a few are missing, now.)

[Rufus T. Firefly]

......and sleeping well.....

Not one that I do at all............

[MurphOnMillerAve]

......and sleeping well.....

Not one that I do at all............

I'm sorry to hear that, esp. since my understanding is that such a situation is hard on your heart, no?
Murph

[Rufus T. Firefly]

......and sleeping well.....

Not one that I do at all............

I'm sorry to hear that, esp. since my understanding is that such a situation is hard on your heart, no?
Murph

If I get 4 hours straight, it's a good night.

[rogruth]

It may have been T.A.Edison who said something like eight hours sleep a night was not needed at one time. he got his two hours at a time.

I also think he wrote about talking to the little people to get his ideas.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

It may have been T.A.Edison who said something like eight hours sleep a night was not needed at one time. he got his two hours at a time.

Years ago, to get tenure (and survive in my current position), sleep was what might have been termed, "optional". Why that has returned to afflict me has become troublesome.

I also think he wrote about talking to the little people to get his ideas.

That would explain much...........................about Edison.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Rufus, I would say the "why" is important to discover. Soon.
Frank

[mickeydee]

Thanks Murph for that timely and useful information. I'm an ankle/leg crosser too but my hip joints don't like it so I can't do it for more than about ten minutes. It also makes my leg bones ache. Ditto in bed I keep trying to cross legs but cant find a comfortable spot like it used to be when young. So now I'm glad to learn theres a good reason not to and I wont do it any more.

RUFUS - you asked how much ibuprofen I took? On average about two pills twice a day since age 50 and sometimes double that in cold damp weather. What makes me angry at my own stupidity is often it was back pains I took it for and after the doc had that chat with me and wanted a description of where the pain was and what it felt like, he said "I'm afraid you have been making the problem in the first place and then worsening it by taking more"

Never self medicate when you dont know what you're trying to treat is the motto here. Too late for me. Fool that I am I thought that ibuprofen was safe because it was invented by Boots the Chemists which is a pharmacy thats in every English town and has always had a rep for selling safe products.

[rex desilets]

Years ago I heard that ibuprofin in excess would be bad for your kidneys. So, I avoid it in favor of Tylenol. Hope that has no bad effects?? I have daughter who has aches and pains from injuries sustained because of horseback riding & jumping. She takes a ton of that crap, despite my fatherly warnings.
For us aging folks (78 next month) it helps to remember what Bette Davis once said: "Gettin' old ain't for sissies." I find that comforting.
My wife once worked in a rehab center that catered to the geriatric set. The chief doctor said that anyone who made it into their seventies was a survivor. So, welcome fellow survivors. Which reminds me: aches and pains are the price you pay for surviving into old age. You live with them and are grateful for more time to work on models and enjoy life.
Rufus-I seldom have trouble falling asleep; it's awakening after 4 hours or so that irritates me. I've found that a shot of decent Scotch helps bring sleep back. Plus a nap during the day...