FE Power Forums
FE Power Forums => Non-FE Discussion Forum => Topic started by: My427stang on December 24, 2012, 09:46:02 PM
-
Been a strange couple of weeks, quite a bit worse for wear and my wallet got a little beating, but still kicking!
- Left 9 Dec for Massachusetts to finalize dad's estate
- Ice and rain from Nebraska all the way to Mass, the storm was clearly going the same speed as me. I'd drive through it, sleep at night, it'd catch up, same for 3 days
- Stayed in Hampton Inns the whole way because the radio was reporting bed bugs in cheap hotels LOL
- On a good note I got 18.9 mpg average over 1400 miles from Omaha, NE to Springfield MA with an 8200 lb 4x4 crew cab
- Got to Mass, started to load my truck, 1st top box I grabbed to load on the truck, I dislocated my shoulder and tore my bicep tendon from the bone. Maybe 250 lbs, maybe 300, not sure, but not more than I thought I could lift
- Looked around, realized the truck was surrounded with tools and no-one seemed to be running to my rescue LOL
- Finished loading the bed of the truck one handed, in severe pain, but couldn't load the trailer. Had 4 full rollaways and a ton of other stuff that needed two hands
- Found some friends over the next few days, they loaded my trailer, I left for Nebraska on the 15th. One bad wing and a previously dislocated shoulder, but a full bottle of Motrin and two 20 oz travel mugs of Starbucks black coffee!
- Snow and sleet through Buffalo, get to PA, UHaul trailer wheel bearing didn't have a cotter pin in the spindle, I look in the mirror, wheel is flopping around at 70 mph
- UHaul says the best they can do is bring me a trailer and I swap the load (one arm in sling)
- I decide to fix the wheel bearing myself, one armed, had a jack and plenty of tools, used a flattened key chain loop for a cotter pin sitting at a rest area. At this point proud that I can't be stopped LOL
- Just to continue the story, averaged 14.9 mpg for the second 1400 miles with approx 2000 lb in the bed and 6500 lbs of trailer
- I get home, my guys unload as I help, tear my arm more...one Captain, my exec, says "Sir, please sit the F- down, you are slowing us down" LOL (I am 44, not 104!)
- Doc says the tendon I tore is unrepairable, I'll get used to losing that one, but our upper bicep has two, the other will make up for it, just rest
- We get a huge snowstorm that night, I snow blow and shovel, more shoulder and bicep pain, my computer shits the bed, 260.00 to fix.
Wait, there's more :)
- Our baby cat (the one that follows ME around everywhere like I am a superhero) gets a deadly stomach infection, 360.00 in transfusion and meds save her, vet estimated death within 48 hrs if we hadn't brought her in
- Today I get the computer back, cat and computer are well, my wife gets a bill for 696.00 because she filled out insurance paperwork incorrectly (That one should be refunded)
- At the same time I get a second bill, to continue my college age student under my insurance, 175.00 / mo starting in Jan
- Last fun thing, the diesel now has 5000 miles on the oil, I go to drain it, my 4 gallons of oil, drain bucket, and filter is inside a metal cabinet blocked by the SAME top box that ate my shoulder and bicep LOL I drove to NAPA and bought 4 gallon of oil and another filter 8)
Good thing I save my money for rainy days, this was a doozy!
So, I have a messed up right bicep, two sore shoulders, one bruised from dislocation, an empty wallet for the moment, but my computer works, the cat is healthy, the truck has fresh oil and I am finally caught up.
My guess is that the Mayans were right, but the story got exaggerated over the years. End of the world really was just a bunch of little pains in the ass!
I may wrap myself in bubble wrap and just hide in the basement until January 1st .... :o
-
Dang Ross; that sounds like one heck of a trip and quite a run of luck; all bad! Sorta sounds familiar; different PIA to deal with for sure; the wallet and body pains I sure can relate to.
Hang in there; it can't last forever and things will get better.....
-
Sheesh Ross! You gotta start taking it easy on those 250-300 pound lifts! Sorry to hear about all the trouble, and best of luck on the recovery. Merry Christmas!
-
Thanks for the good wishes guys, I will be OK...no brain, no pain 8)
Believe it or not, the pair that hit hard was the cat and the computer. Every AM at 0500 she meets me at my desk as I check the forums, not only was she in rough shape, I couldn't even give her a normal day because the computer was down changing my day. Without a normal day she wouldn't eat, which meant she got sicker
It was almost surreal, as she got sicker, more things were different which made her more troubled. I have never been a cat guy, but this poor 6 lb cat adopted me and I could see that my actions affected her health
Luckily as fast as it got crazy, it got better by throwing money at the problem (both the vet and the computer repair guy) so all is well with some recovery time.
Have a great holiday and thanks for the good words
-
Ross, you went right by my town near the Pa/NY line. If You had known I would have helped you fix that trailer and got you back on the road. As for the cat I have a brother and sister, 9months old, He weighs 10lbs and she maybe 3lbs. The tom wakes me every morning at 5:30 and wants breakfast. Get that shoulder taken care of, I tore a rotor cuff and never had it fixed, took 2 yrs to heal up where I have 90% of motion. Still locks up if I twist wrong and lifting is fun at times. Happy holidays
-
Well the good news is you get to start a whole new year in a few days Ross.... let's hope for your sake next year wraps up a tad less exciting for you! ;)
-
Man, what a bummer! Take time to rest and heal, you have a truck to finish ;-) Let me know if you need a hand, I can head your way and play mule.
-
Sounds awful rough man. Time let your wife baby you just a bit ;)
-
Been a strange couple of weeks, quite a bit worse for wear and my wallet got a little beating, but still kicking!
- Left 9 Dec for Massachusetts to finalize dad's estate
- Ice and rain from Nebraska all the way to Mass, the storm was clearly going the same speed as me. I'd drive through it, sleep at night, it'd catch up, same for 3 days
- Stayed in Hampton Inns the whole way because the radio was reporting bed bugs in cheap hotels LOL
- On a good note I got 18.9 mpg average over 1400 miles from Omaha, NE to Springfield MA with an 8200 lb 4x4 crew cab
- Got to Mass, started to load my truck, 1st top box I grabbed to load on the truck, I dislocated my shoulder and tore my bicep tendon from the bone. Maybe 250 lbs, maybe 300, not sure, but not more than I thought I could lift
- Looked around, realized the truck was surrounded with tools and no-one seemed to be running to my rescue LOL
- Finished loading the bed of the truck one handed, in severe pain, but couldn't load the trailer. Had 4 full rollaways and a ton of other stuff that needed two hands
- Found some friends over the next few days, they loaded my trailer, I left for Nebraska on the 15th. One bad wing and a previously dislocated shoulder, but a full bottle of Motrin and two 20 oz travel mugs of Starbucks black coffee!
- Snow and sleet through Buffalo, get to PA, UHaul trailer wheel bearing didn't have a cotter pin in the spindle, I look in the mirror, wheel is flopping around at 70 mph
- UHaul says the best they can do is bring me a trailer and I swap the load (one arm in sling)
- I decide to fix the wheel bearing myself, one armed, had a jack and plenty of tools, used a flattened key chain loop for a cotter pin sitting at a rest area. At this point proud that I can't be stopped LOL
- Just to continue the story, averaged 14.9 mpg for the second 1400 miles with approx 2000 lb in the bed and 6500 lbs of trailer
- I get home, my guys unload as I help, tear my arm more...one Captain, my exec, says "Sir, please sit the F- down, you are slowing us down" LOL (I am 44, not 104!)
- Doc says the tendon I tore is unrepairable, I'll get used to losing that one, but our upper bicep has two, the other will make up for it, just rest
- We get a huge snowstorm that night, I snow blow and shovel, more shoulder and bicep pain, my computer shits the bed, 260.00 to fix.
Wait, there's more :)
- Our baby cat (the one that follows ME around everywhere like I am a superhero) gets a deadly stomach infection, 360.00 in transfusion and meds save her, vet estimated death within 48 hrs if we hadn't brought her in
- Today I get the computer back, cat and computer are well, my wife gets a bill for 696.00 because she filled out insurance paperwork incorrectly (That one should be refunded)
- At the same time I get a second bill, to continue my college age student under my insurance, 175.00 / mo starting in Jan
- Last fun thing, the diesel now has 5000 miles on the oil, I go to drain it, my 4 gallons of oil, drain bucket, and filter is inside a metal cabinet blocked by the SAME top box that ate my shoulder and bicep LOL I drove to NAPA and bought 4 gallon of oil and another filter 8)
Good thing I save my money for rainy days, this was a doozy!
So, I have a messed up right bicep, two sore shoulders, one bruised from dislocation, an empty wallet for the moment, but my computer works, the cat is healthy, the truck has fresh oil and I am finally caught up.
My guess is that the Mayans were right, but the story got exaggerated over the years. End of the world really was just a bunch of little pains in the ass!
I may wrap myself in bubble wrap and just hide in the basement until January 1st .... :o
.......One eye, recently castrated, nick named Lucky. Sheeesh! Reminds me of an old joke, except this aint no joke! Get well soon Ross.
-
Hi Ross
GOOD FRIGGIN GRIEF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hope you have some of that Whiskey.Rye left after the holidays. I'll bet your troops down at the base are really giving it to you. Sorry to reply so late but just got loggen in to this forum
Get well soon
Larry in Denver
-
Wow thats one hell of a couple of weeks. I hope the recovery is going well. Clifford
-
Wow, you had some really though days there! I'm happy to hear you are feeling better.
I love animals in general and cats especially and I am VERY happy to read that your poor little kitten are doing good ;D
-
Damn,
Naturally, you have no way of knowing this, or any way of contacting me, but I'm a little more than an hour's drive away from Springfield and would have been glad to help out with the loading.
Glad that you made it back and glad that your other issues are resolved as well.
Bill
-
No kidding, where are you from?
I grew up in Ware
-
Northwest CT, the Litchfield/Torrington area.
-
I thought I'd give you an update, especially since its a wild one
Here's timeline
Mid Dec - injury, shoulder separation and bicep tear
Mid Jan - end of Feb - Physical therapy and not getting anywhere
1 Mar - MRI
5 Mar - Doctor's visit saying nothing wrong despite ridiculous shoulder pain, couldn't unzip my own fly, take off my flight suit, etc.
So I spent 2 hours with the doc as he did specific moves and yanks on my shoulder with zero pain
Then he asked me to point to the pain and try to recreate it, I arched my back like stretching when your back hurts and raised my arm and BAM, he finally saw me buckle in pain
Believe it or not, a good thing, because it was so bad, but using normal "shoulder" tests he couldn't find anything, because it wasn't really the shoulder
Back to the MRI pics, the bicep IS torn (as we knew) and for the most part the tendon is gone, except for a little strand that is trying hard to do its job. In the right position, it grabs and tries to tear itself apart. We can see the strand on the MRI but its so faint its hard to see
So he goes at me again, digging in with his fingers to to the slot into the bone where this strand should be and WHAM, I am down to my knees again. Its not my shoulder, but that strand where it enters the shoulder
So he takes the cortisone, which usually is a painless shot stuck into my rotator cuff, and we stick the needle right into the painful area expecting a standard shot with a little discomfort, well it was certainly NOT a little pain. If this 230 pounder was going to cry, it was then, it hurt so bad I thought I was going out. Matter of fact, I tensed up and he said, if you don't relax we are going to lose this needle!
So in the end here are the options, the bottom line is, I need to get this strand unhooked, a common fix for a long head bicep rupture. However almost always its a clean tear so its not a big deal.
1 - Tear it completely off myself, by just overusing my bicep
2 - Scope it and cut it, which may be hard to find using the scope because its such a small strand
3 - Cut it open old school and cut the strand
Well, I decided yesterday to try curtain number 1 for a week and see what it does. LOL
Last night the man's man (maybe dumb-ass, you call it) started my own healing. Negative curls with a 55 lb dumbbell, sets of isolation curls with a 45 pounder, swinging arm throws with a 75 lb kettle weight, and to top it off I had a full cooler with ice last night and swung it around in the driveway before I brought it in like some crazy shot putter LOL
Today I feel real GOOD! Now I am loaded with Cortisone, but screw it, the doc said that my shoulder itself is strong and worst case it wont tear, but I cant do any damage. If I can get it to let loose, I don't have to go under the knife :)
A little crazy, but on the offense now which feels much better than sitting around in pain
-
Lifting weights to finish off a torn muscle sounds crazy. It makes sense after knowing the details, but it sounds crazy without them. Keep at it man, and best of luck. Later, Travis
-
Hey Ross, I was wondering how the arm is doing.
Hope it turned out alright.
-
So far so good, I have one little area that is tender to the touch but everything is working as originally delivered LOL
The cortisone is probably still helping, we'll see in a week or so, hopefully we got it
-
Sounds like you're givin it hell, ought to finish it off in no time. But I'm with Travis, sounds crazy!