Sept 12...My back popped into place today. First time since July!
The muscle spasms finally died down to nothing while I was asleep and I tried my stretching exercises when I woke up because I've been feeling some frightening warning signs in several places. Five pops from the middle of my back down.

Being completely off work for 3 days usually allows me to get most of my parts to relax enough to fall back into place. This time it took 6 weeks of semi-fatal boredom and inactivity, plus a Baclofen pill to get my muscle tone low enough to do the job.

Whew! This is a big improvement!

 

Sept 12...My back popped into place today. First time since July!
The muscle spasms finally died down to nothing while I was asleep and I tried my stretching exercises when I woke up because I've been feeling some frightening warning signs in several places. Five pops from the middle of my back down.

Being completely off work for 3 days usually allows me to get most of my parts to relax enough to fall back into place. This time it took 6 weeks of semi-fatal boredom and inactivity, plus a Baclofen pill to get my muscle tone low enough to do the job.

Whew! This is a big improvement!

Great! I am happy for you; take care of yourself.

 

Wow! That sounds remarkable. Stay in good shape. We cannot have both #12 and WBahn on the sideline at the same time.

 

We cannot have both #12 and WBahn on the sideline at the same time.

I don't know...that guy strikes sparks off me every time I get near him.
Still, having several voices is the primary strength of this community. I'll just keep staying out of his territory.

Public opinion poll: How many people know the stretching exercises to pop your own back?
I don't mean, "all of them". I can't do my upper back or my neck, but I can do everything from half way down.

 

I do an exercise just to pop my back when it gets cramped. It's similar to "touch your toes", but my twist is to grab my toes and pull my back into an arch. I can hear and feel the vertebrae popping all along the length of my back. Feels so good.

 

Mine goes like this: Lay on your side near the edge of a firm bed or a table. Stretch out like you are trying to make your spine longer. Hang your top leg off the side of the table and rotate your top shoulder away from your knee. Wait until the muscles relax. Keep adjusting for a longer spine and a more comfortable rotation as the muscles relax and elongate.

For some people, that is enough. Just relax into the position and your vertebrae pop back into place. Some people need to use the lower hand to bounce the upper thigh down to get things to pop into place. Sometimes it doesn't work. I have to be not working for 2 or 3 days to get my muscle tone low enough to pop my own back.

Reverse so the other leg is on top and repeat.

Doctors call this, "hip rolls". They are best done before you get out of bed in the morning.

 

Mr.Chips ,is this a constant head ache in a certain place ,did you fall.

 

Mr.Chips ,is this a constant head ache in a certain place ,did you fall.

No, I didn't. But it has gotten better. I have a CT scan coming up.

 

#12, that reminds me, I also found that just hanging from an elevated rod, say at a playground, just hanging and letting my weight pull on my spine for a few seconds really feels good. The older I get, the more tricks I need to ease the pain.

 

I'm going to try that because it is easier and faster than buying or building an inversion table.

 

Couldn't tolerate the inversion table, so I got one of these.

Actually I was going to build something. Then found this.............

 

Keep your back in good shape or you gonna suffer a lot later! I was diagnosed with scoliosis(mild) and I had terrible experiences with back pain. Sometimes if I sit incorrectly the ribs will go in my lung and cause pulmonary edema(lung fills with liquid) and I'll be in pain for 4 days,every heartbeat hurts and it gets very hard to breath and sleep.If I lift something heavy I get terrible pain on one side of the back since only one side carries the load and it lasts for 3h. If I crouch for more then 30min pain starts again but generally it passes quickly but since I started doing stretching exercises its less common.

 

so many remedies covered in this thread. your best option is to try and see what works best for you (and naturally under your doctors advice)

best remedy for me was a motorised (<-correct spelling here) traction bench machine. had a pulling force of 50-100k (~120-240lbs). had to be put into a certain position, secured and the machine did about 20 reps of pull on 1 minute, off 1 minute. walked in with pain, walked out with nothing. the physio changed hands 8 years ago and the machine disappeared :/ very tempted to build my own.

 

Something like this?

 

Gee, the Spanish were really just the first traveling chiropractors in history. And all along I thought they were trying to force feed Christianity on everyone. Who would have thought it. https://www.google.com/maps/search/...1?sa=X&ei=Id4ZVIv7Nc_7oQSGyYHYCg&ved=0CFcQtwM

 

Sept 26:

On Sept 8th I reported a pain in the rear that kept changing sides. It seems to have settled on the right side. Minor but chronic. I will eventually try a Chiropractor on that. I have gone up a ladder to change a couple of light bulbs, installed a clothes dryer vent cap (4 screws into concrete), and that's about all unless you count taking out the trash and running the clothes washer. I did buy new tennies and a smaller belt. Shopping...men hate it...but it doesn't require much in the muscle department so I did that to keep from getting bored to death.

20 minutes here, 40 minutes there...it always provokes that little PIB, but nothing awful happens. So...I'm starting to do some minor activities. I feel like I could do a lot more, but I'm really cautious right now! It's going to be a long time before I grow the callouses back on my hands.

 

I have three friends with severe back pain. All of them do not know how to relax. I have seen all three with pain so great it incapacitated them, yet they think they are supermen.

#12 stay off the freaked latter! You seem to be pretty smart. Now prove it. With your kindly spirit you must be shoulder deep in kids, grand-kids or friends more than willing to assist you in your adventures. Let them!!!

 

Refusing to quit is how I got this to, "go critical" in the first place. Lesson learned. I did absolutely nothing more difficult than taking a shower for 50 days. Now I've done about 60 minutes of real work in a week. I don't think that's pushing the envelope. If my life gets down to, "Don't even change a light bulb" I think I'd rather die. I've decided it's time to do 20 minutes here and 40 minutes there lest I go stir crazy.

Really. The hospital had me doing a lot more than change a light bulb in "physical therapy" the day after I was able to stand up. Twenty minutes on a stationary bike when anybody with good sense would be screaming, "Do not slouch down like that and force your lower back to work while it is 100% spasms from the waist down!" I'm being a lot more conservative than the, "professionals".

However, thanks for calling me a kindly spirit. I have repeatedly found that I have more friends than I thought I had, but I really need to do something constructive before I sink into a depression. My mental health is in danger.

ps, Nice to see you, happyganl

 

/me personally thinks its too early to 'stand on two legs' your still in recovery mode. personally do enjoy manual labour, requires little thought provided - the hammers not close to the thumb / not knocking down structural support beams / scissors are sharp enough the cut the grass...

sadly also tend to ignore my own limits. had a minor reshuffle of office staff at clients from ground floor to 1st floor (3 women and boss no.1). got the warehouse guys to move the desks upstairs, i moved everything else. was doing fine until 3 off us were moving (read as struggling) the konica multifunction up the stairs (~140kg) to the 1st floor. needless to say have been punished for such foolishness.

what i'm trying to type, you need to watch your limits, if i'm lucky, no issues on the day the excess has been done but do suffer for a few days after. you need to think twice about putting on the cape, Clark Kent

 

/personally do enjoy manual labour,

I like manual labor. I like to get the big muscles warmed up. It feels healthy!
Besides, all the skills in the world are useless if you don't build something with them!
Unfortunately, I broke something.
Now, I plan on vacuuming the carpet instead of replacing the water heater, or cleaning the air conditioner filters instead of doing an oil change and lube on my van. Don't worry. I have to try to do something, even if I only find out I'm going to need surgery. Quality of life is a factor for me. Like I said, if my life comes down to, "Don't even change a light bulb" I think I'd rather be dead. I'm going to do some very conservative stuff for a while and eventually test my abilities. If the worst I get is sore until the next morning, I will call that good enough. If my life has actually come down to, "Don't even change a light bulb" I call that a candidate for surgery. You can't find out unless you actually try to change a light bulb.