I've been in significant pain for 6 days straight.. anything from a stiff and sore back to having trouble breathing because my ribs hurt so much.. but it's been constant for near a week now.
The disease I've mentioned here a few times is "ankylosing spondylitis".. an inherited (overactive) auto-immune disease similar to rheumatoid arthritis. It has a variety of ways it attacks the body, the main being that the spinal column can and usually does slowly fuse. It's what my father had, and it's what helped kill him just before 50. (the equivalent of 4 Advil every 4 hours for the pain, plus heavy drinking and chain-smoking of some really horrid brands of cigs.. like Pall Mall, Camel unfiltered, and Lucky Strike) And, now that I've finally stopped denying it and started researching it, it appears I've had the symptoms for years (it tends to start between 20 and 25 years of age, but I've seen some people say they were diagnosed as young as 14) and it's getting worse. I haven't been formally diagnosed yet, but when I can afford to go to a doctor I am going to ask specifically to be checked out for it. The flare-ups of AS can last up to a few months at a time. (like around 3 months)
Anyway, I'm not going to bore anyone to death with further gory details.. what I want to know is, if some of you out there have physical problems that affect how you work with your cars, how do you deal with them? My main concern in all this is that I will become too limited in my mobility to keep working on these.
I have back problems from a car accident more than seven years ago that prevent me from doing any heavy sort of work to my car, so I make up for it by doing electrical stuff. This is why I have a tripminder, overhead console, sequencers, wigwags, full tilt stereo and custom led tail lights (coming soon) but still have stock SO engine, AOD tranny and 7.5" open rear.
As some of you already know I was in a motor vehicle accident 22 years ago. I washiznitchiking and got a ride in the back of a pickup (dodge ram). It slipped going around a turn, flipped and landed on me.
I suffered a Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) and I've been in a wheelchair eversince. My SCI was rather low (T12-L1 physical injury with L2-L3 sensation level - for those of you who know what that means) I had an opperation and had my back fused and two metal rods implanted. I still have good upperbody physical strenght and I can move my legs a bit.
I'm lucky that I don't have any pain caused directly from the accident but 22 years in the wheelchair is starting to take it's toll. I occasionally have pain in my shoulders from repetitive motion injuries.
I can still do a lot of my own work; I've changes ball joints, break jobs, sed the old cougar, mustang, and camry I had, etc.
As for dealing, I find the right tools help a lot. I just bought a compressor and impact wrench. Off course, the buddy system has it's benifits as well. I have the tools; impact wrench, chain saws, utility trailer. I loan them out in turn for help when I need it. You know what they say "what goes around comes around".
my dad about 20 years ago fell 20+ feet from a crane elevator on a job site. he landed on his hands and knees theirby destroying his kneecaps, cartledg in knees, hips and messing up his back. then on top of that he's been hit by 3 drunk drivers causing neck and further back injuries, and he was thrown from a horse. none of it stopped him untill about 15years ago, after that it got consistantly worse. he's been on every type of perscribed pain killers, includeing takeing about 5-15 asprin a day. his doctor was shocked he still had a stomach left, let alone that it was in such good condition.
needless to say, now he realy cant do anything. thats what im hear for lol. have some kids. basicaly he goes out and supervises and tells me what to do. thats how i learnt most of what i know now. he show'd me how to do brakes when i was about 5-8 years old. started simple, but now i know a assload of stuff includeing electrical, structural, mechanical. he'll help or assist. but i do most of the work sence i can still move good.
also, my uncle was a masin for a long time untill a spinal injurie got him to. now he's got a metal rod in his back, and a couple vertabrie fused together. he's on some kind of pain killer but it only takes the edge off. basicaly he just goes out and does a little at a time. then goes and relaxes inside or in the pool. he just got done his fish pond that took about 6 months to do. but its nice.
Having kids really isn't an option to me until there's a swing away from current attitudes and such that allow kids to do things like get their parents in legal trouble if the kids object to *any* attempt at discipline, etc. That's about all I can say on that issue at present.
So that just leaves me, and a few people around me. My one friend who does most of the helping on my car stuff has mostly ruined his knees doing concrete work for a living. (oh you can bet I have no end of fun teasing him about bad knees) He's not even 30 yet and probably needs both knees replaced. The other friend only has one fully functional shoulder joint, the other shoulder's ball joint was shattered in an accident. Then there's me with my spine slowly fusing.. and if I'm not careful with my posture from here on out, I could end up staring at the ground.. permanently hunched over unless I opted for spinal surgery. (no thanks) So there's maybe the equivalent of one and a half full healthy people between the three of us.. heh.
One of the first things we're doing once my fiance starts temping in a week or so is paying for a doctor visit. I'm going to go in specifically to get checked out for AS.. see how far it's progressed.. (like I said, I think I've had it for years, but just thought some of the symptoms were other things.. that's partially a denial thing since all this time I thought it helped kill my father at 49) maybe get some painkillers prescribed for the bad flare-ups like right now. (yep, today makes day 7)
Fun fun fun.. not all of the problems with AS are physical.
Some of the AS patients I've seen talking on AS support forums talk about a "brain fog", or severe lack of concentration/focus that sometimes attacks. Some of them get it from reactions to their medication, others get it due to starchy or sugary foods in their diet. It's believed that the disease is messing with their livers and causing chemical imbalances significant enough to impair normal mental function.
Well, I'm having one of those attacks today, big time. Feels like someone hit me in the head with a brick. I made the big mistake of having some cookies with my coffee this morning, since I was really hungry (and a little bit lazy) when I woke up.
Going to have to alter my diet, among other things, if I am going to get anywhere close to normal functioning again. Cutting down on things like the sugar in my coffee isn't enough if I keep doing stupid shiznit like I did this morning.
Well, if I say anything really stupid today, at least this time I'll have an excuse. :p
My grandpa almost died of cancer when he was 40ish(about 30 years ago). He started working overtime and got another job at the kennocot copper mine(yes that is the big one). He was one of the first patients to go through kemo. He was dying for almost 10 years going through kemo. After the kemo, his double time at the mine gave him lung problems. He almost died from breathing in coal dust. Then he swore off doctors for the rest of his life. He had a really bad cold. He wouldnt go to the doctor. He seemed to get better. A few months later he had a heart attack. The cold moved onto his heart. It killed 75% of his hearts ability to move blood. While he was getting treated for that, they found cancer in his spinal cord. They say that he had so much pain all the time that it destroyed his nerves. He never mentioned the pain until he almost died from getting a shot in his spinal cord. He stood over 6'6" and over 350lbs(built not fat, but this according to my dad that likes to tell stories). He now, at age 82, is around 5'6" (his whole body shrunk from loss of blood) and weighs around 50 lbs. you can see the bones in his fingers. He has been bed ridden since I was 4 or 5. He used to race chevy's at rocky moutain raceway(formerly known as the bonivle salt flat track) until he almost died from a car accident where he was trapped inside the car while it caught fire. There was a recall on the car and it was covered up before he got the car. After that he has driver nothing but fords, and that is why I have a cougar. My advice, from both my grandpa and my dad, if you are sick go to the doctor. I dont mean to tell a stupid story about some guy, I just think that it is a shame the kinda of things that people have to go through. My granpa is in his 5th year of the 6 months to live classification.
Nothing wrong with stories. There'll probably be a ton of them in this thread by the time we're done.
I plan on going to the doctor.. but mainly I want a doctor as assistance to my own efforts to fight this. I want the official diagnosis of AS if I do indeed have it.. and it appears I do. I want to be able to get pain medication prescriptions to get me through the heavier parts of the attacks.. but not have a blank check for meds to get hooked on. If the spinal fusion is getting serious, I will look into the possibility of disability proceedings. I don't want to be labelled as disabled (if anything, it would be partially disabled.. I doubt I would be labelled 100% disabled by any stretch of the imagination) so I can collect a check every month. I still want to do something significant with my life. There are some advantages that open up to someone in that condition.. and I'm not ashamed to try to get an advantage if I'm playing well within the rules.
I am so fed up of being in pain and confused and bitchy from this. I'm to the point today where I'm starting to stutter when I talk, because the "brain fog" hashiznit me so hard.. and I was typing something on another website, and after I finished a sentence I literally zoned out and just started staring at the blinking cursor for like half a minute. (by my guess) I feel so stupid for having done something this morning that caused this attack, but I'm getting horrible in the mornings now. Problem is, the longer I sleep, the more pain I wake up in.. but if I get less sleep, then I wake up in.. well, in the same condition any of you wake up in if you've only had a few hours' sleep. ed if I do, ed if I don't. I just want it to end. I just want to wake up to one normal morning after maybe 6 or 7 solid hours of sleep. I just want one day where I don't have to think about whether or not I'm gonna rip someone's head off over a stupid comment. (and I've been rippin' heads off today, just not around here)
Guess this is the night for reviving threads.
Looks like my back isn't the only problem, although that has been messed up since I started this thread. My left knee started to give out while I was swapping fans between the two T-birds. Looked like I was an employee of the Ministry of Silly Walks. (Monty Python thing) Good thing the project was a success, or I'd be pissed right now.
I'm concerned that, if my body gets much worse, I may have to give this up for awhile.. or permanently. Ugh.
Doncha just wish that our bodies were like cars? Sore back? Take it in for a servicing, adjustment or replacement. Knees worn out? Have 'em replaced, or even upgraded with high performance offerings. Looking old? A trip to the local paint & body shop would fix that right up (of course a lot of famous people already do this one)...
I thought that most if not all was already possible???
A new spine, in my case, is not possible.
Having another attack of iritis now.. you can see a big ol' red mark next to the iris of my left eye. Lovely. This shiznit can make me blind, eventually.
The only condition I have is tenitus (sp?). Havn't really even went to the doctor for it, but they think its just allergies. My ears ring all the time. It gets worse every year. Sometimes I can't sleep at night unless the radio is on or my computer is running. If you want to know what it is like stand next to a tv when you turn it on. That high pitched sqeal it makes is what I hear all the time. Sucky thing is I'm only 20 years old. Most people that have this are over 50.......
Tinnitus.
Allergies, loud music, ear infections, a hundred more theories.
Sounds familiar, unfortunately. Only the left ear, though. Mom has it too, but hers sounds like a dump truck shifting gears.
I can't sleep in a silent room. I have a room A/C running and two PCs running. (and the room A/C is running because the two PCs are running..) :wtf: Silent room = ears ringin' = getting even worse sleep (if any) than I get now.
I have it too - sometimes it's so loud it keeps the cat awake :D
The docs think it's allergies that cause mine too (I've had sinus problems since I was a kid), and it's more pr0nounced in my right ear. Sometimes, when the ringing gets very loud I know a headache is on the way as well...
Oh man, I am COOKED. Two days out in the sun. Knee gave out yesterday, (which I already mentioned.. it's better today but I can't stand for long periods of time) so fortunately today's work was mostly laying on my back. Swapped the already-hammered-out Y-pipe from the '88 into the '86. Fortunately it all seems like a noticeable improvement, or I'd be annoyed that I went through all that for nothing.
Time to polish off a couple more beers (cheap pain killer, don't wanna use up our vicodin supply) and crash early, I think. I'll be glowin' all night from the sun.
You need some percoset, man - it kills pain reel good. And it's only $9 for 60 pills (a 30 day supply for me, not bad considering I've been taking it for seven years). To think people that use it illegally pay over $5 a pill!
Percocet makes me dizzy and a little bit sick to my stomach. Percodan is more suited to me, but is a bit more addictive. Vicodin also works decently for me.. but we only have about two weeks' supply left, if I have one a day.
The only difference between Percoset and Percodan is that 'set uses Acetaminophen (Tylenol) while 'dan uses ASA (Aspirin) as its anti-inflamatory agent. The real active (and addictive) ingredient, oxycodone, is the same in both pills (5 mg each), so the addictiveness is the same. Apparently Oxycontin is the same thing again (oxycodone) without the ASA or Tylenol component. Oxycontin is actually less potent but delivered in larger doses (30mg compared to 5mg in 'set or 'dan). One 30mg Oxycontin tablet has the same effect as two 5mg Percoset/dan tablets, but it lasts longer.
Oxycodone is a synthetic version of codeine and is far more effective and addictive (I've got no doubt I'm addicted, seven years will do that, but I'm very determined to never go over two/day. My doctor is very pleased that I've managed to maintain this relatively low dosage for so long). Percoset is essentially Tylenol 3 on steroids.
Dilautid is a synthetic version of morphine (called "hydromorphone"). I was given that once, when I had a kidney stone. Now THAT is some sick shiznit! They gave it to me because I had a reaction to Demerol. I swelled up to twice my size, so they gave me an antihystamine to counter the reaction and a shot of dilauted for the pain. So I ended up with Demerol, Gravol, an antihystamine and dilauted in my bloodstream. I was floating about 8" above the gurney that day. Kidney stone? What kidney stone?
I have my sister's "Big book o' drugs" left over from her university program. Very informative :D
Well, I had a couple bottles of Percodan once.. and then they switched me to Percocet, and I started getting dizzy and sick to my stomach and all that.. but was fine on the Percodans. Go fig.
Before the Percodans was a bottle Tylenol 3. Didn't really help all that much at the time, I think.
Immediately after my accident I tried Tylenol 3 but all it did was bind me up. I was still in pain AND couldn't shiznit. Lovely. The doctor gave me percoset instead, and it's worked ever since.
I hate pills..... really