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"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him!"


Ekona

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i sympathise buddy. i had lumber spinal surgery last dec . and after 5 months of sleeping on the lounge floor, 6 months of morphine, the operation was finally done. my discs had erupted and the gel had trapped my sciatic nerves to both legs had pins and needles in my feet. best feeling ever afterwards. i too was sick of looking at the cracks in the ceiling... hope you will soon be back to normal bud :)

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does this mean you're not coming to Marks le mans weekend?

 

did you want me to come pick you up in the luxo barge? don't know what you are allowed to do etc?

 

hope you mend quick :thumbs:

Was hoping I might be able to make it, but it's just going to be too painful to travel that far even in the Jag, cheers anyway though fella. Will have to sort some FaceTime action out I reckon, will be just like being there! :lol:

 

i sympathise buddy. i had lumber spinal surgery last dec . after 5 months of sleeping on the lounge floor, 6 months of morphine it was finally done. discs had erupted and the gel had trapped my siatic nerve to both legs and pins and needles in feet. best feeling ever. was too sick of looking at the cracks in the ceiling... hope you will soon be back to normal :)

:scare: That sounds awful, at least I've been able to move when my back's been bad! :scare:

 

Feeling much more mobile today, been up and down stairs and everything. Still haven't been for a pony yet though, not looking forward to that as I suspect it'll be a bit awkward/painful :headhurt:

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Jesus, I didnt realise there were so many crocks on here :lol:

 

Im still recovering from a sprained ankle (done by falling into a flooded river while drunk, also lost half a tooth and ended up smashing two back windows out of my house to get back in), I definitely dont fancy yours much. :blackeye:

 

Get well soon, and Ive recently found that Two and a Half Men and Storage Wars/Auction Hunters can kill hours of time in one hit if you have enough recorded ;)

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Quick update with good and bad news.

 

Start with the bad, which involved me reading a thread on PH earlier and laughing so hard I twinged my back something chronic, which hurt more than a little :( Was trying to go a whole day without painkillers, so that screwed that up nicely.

 

On the upside, I managed my first poo today, which wasn't too painful although I was very careful not to strain! Still stuck in bed too, although my infrequent walks are getting easier which I'm very glad for, certainly feels like an improvement on before the op :)

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Quick update with good and bad news.

 

Start with the bad, which involved me reading a thread on PH earlier and laughing so hard I twinged my back something chronic, which hurt more than a little :( Was trying to go a whole day without painkillers, so that screwed that up nicely.

 

On the upside, I managed my first poo today, which wasn't too painful although I was very careful not to strain! Still stuck in bed too, although my infrequent walks are getting easier which I'm very glad for, certainly feels like an improvement on before the op :)

 

Heh heh... i remember that feeling!

 

I was lucky when i had my surgery... the day i got out of hospital Grand Theft Auto 4 was released so i played that for 2 weeks solid :D

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So in a nutshell you've sh*t the bed and now your stuck there :shrug:;):lol:

 

Quick update with good and bad news.

 

Start with the bad, which involved me reading a thread on PH earlier and laughing so hard I twinged my back something chronic, which hurt more than a little :( Was trying to go a whole day without painkillers, so that screwed that up nicely.

 

On the upside, I managed my first poo today, which wasn't too painful although I was very careful not to strain! Still stuck in bed too, although my infrequent walks are getting easier which I'm very glad for, certainly feels like an improvement on before the op :)

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So in a nutshell you've sh*t the bed and now your stuck there :shrug:;):lol:

 

Quick update with good and bad news.

 

Start with the bad, which involved me reading a thread on PH earlier and laughing so hard I twinged my back something chronic, which hurt more than a little :( Was trying to go a whole day without painkillers, so that screwed that up nicely.

 

On the upside, I managed my first poo today, which wasn't too painful although I was very careful not to strain! Still stuck in bed too, although my infrequent walks are getting easier which I'm very glad for, certainly feels like an improvement on before the op :)

 

:lol:

 

Less of the poop updates please, a little too much info :lol:

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I had to have the same operation in 1986 at 19 years old (after a fall carrying a generator). 50/50 chance of walking after the op I was told. Fortunately through sheer determination I did walk again but was still in a lot of pain when moving certain ways e.g. stepping off a pavement. I had physio but it did no good! One of the excercises I was told to do was to try to touch my toes!.... I could never do it in the 1st place :lol: I told my surgeon on a follow up visit about that and he was not amused as he said it could have undone all his work!!! Fortunately I never done that excercise. Anyway I returned to work (a bit too soon!) and spoke to one of the guys there who had on/off back pain. He advised me to go see an osteopath which I did and after two very agonising visits the pain which was left was cured :) Hurrah lol. I still have the odd little niggle but just when I have overdone it which anybody would get.... but in general no pain now. :)

 

Get better soon!

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Get well soon man!

 

Take care and definitely don't overdo it. I've had my fair share of muscular pain in my back and thats bad when overdoing things.

 

One thing I have learnt after my many many injuries is to take things slow.

 

Hope it all goes well and you can get back in the motor asap! :drive1

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  • 1 month later...

Woo almost fixed! Well, almost anyway. Got some physio booked for next week so hopefully after that I should start to gain some mobility back. Also planning my first sneaky drive next week too... :D

 

 

Anyhoo, I had some spare time so decided to try and write a little bit about how the last few weeks have been for me. Couldn't really decide where to post it so figured it might as well go in here, would love to hear peoples thoughts on it. Apologies for the wall of text, it wasn't written with a forum in mind. It was quite a tough thing to write really, but also quite relaxing getting it off my chest. :)

 

 

***********************************************************

Living Without Cars

 

 

First, a confession. I’m not living without cars at all: In fact, I’ve got four vehicles sat outside the house right now. Therein lies the problem, in that they’re just sat there. It’s been just over 8 weeks since I had an operation on my back that has meant that I was no longer medically fit to drive, and for those that have ever had an L5/S1 discectomy then you’ll know it’s not something you’d particularly want to do straight after anyway.

 

It’s meant that I’ve had essentially the entire summer off work, which if you’re 11 is the most amazing thing in the world. When you’re a 32 year old chap who adores engines of all kinds, it’s possibly the biggest punishment in the world ever.

 

To be perfectly honest, which after my initial falsehood I will endeavour to be from now on, it’s not been that bad. Three weeks pretty much confined to bed in pain means you don’t really want to go for a quick blat anywhere, much less snick the ‘box down two gears in a tight hairpin. It’s after that when the mental pain takes over. When you can walk around relatively freely, when you’re no longer restricted in bending over to pick the car keys up from the table, that’s when the anguish sets in.

 

We haven’t exactly had a summer that’s conducive to epic drives so far (although it is blazing sunshine outside as I write this), and in a way that has helped pass the time. Truth be told though I don’t see driving as something that you’d only choose to do when there’s nary a cloud in the sky, as some of my more memorable drives have been in atrocious weather. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve been out in a convertible with the roof down when it’s been snowing, or trying not to get blown off course by near-hurricane strength winds. That’s partly the reason it’s been so hard I guess, as I see opportunity in everything. To be frank, unless it’s bucketing down then I’ll happily grab the keys and head for the garage.

 

So how have I survived? One word: Forza. Using a convoluted method involving many pillows and cushions, I managed to set up my wireless steering wheel and pedals attached to a Wheel Stand Pro and arrange myself in a position where I could play the game on the good TV downstairs and not be in aching discomfort all the time. It pulled me through, it really did, and I’m grateful now I got a bit bored of the game when it first came out and left a load of races to do. I’ve blasted through the season in everything from a sheddy old Fiesta via my beloved 355 and finally onto the good stuff like the Gulf-liveried Aston Martin LMP1 car. I’ve perfected my lines around Italian villages (and discovered a Murcielago is completely unsuited to the task), held it flat out through Copse and wondered how the hell those guys who do the LM24 every year manage to drive those cars at that speed that consistently on Circuit de la Sarthe. Without hitting the rewind button of course, as I’m not sure that even Audi are quite that far advanced on their technology for that race yet.

 

And still, it’s not been enough. Car forums have been both the best and worst thing around in my time of need. Best in that I’ve felt like I’m still out there, driving, in a mass group of fellow petrolheads whose garage is as varied as the options on a new 911, and who are doing the work on cars that I cannot. Worst for almost the exact same reasons: I should be doing all that! I should be the one breaking bolts whilst changing exhausts! I should be the one begging forgiveness from a stern TrafPol officer! I should be the one out there searching for my next car purchase! Actually, scratch that last one, because that’s all I’ve done.

 

Bloody PH Classifieds eats up enough of my time when I’m fit and healthy, so having unsupervised access to the entire database 24/7 has meant that I have a knowledge unsurpassed amongst my peers when it comes to second-hand car values. Glass’s and Parkers have nothing on me right now, I can assure you. I’ve spent many an hour not only working out the ideal 3-car lottery win garage, but just which cars I could buy and run for set budgets and not lose money on. At £10K an E46 M3 or 996 911 are the picks, get to £20K and you’re into Esprit territory, and then further up a 360 can’t lose that much more. Can it? Could I afford to run the damn thing? Will it fit into the garage? I wonder if I can do a straight swap with someone…

 

It’s not been a cheap few weeks, either. I’ve got plans for my little MX-5, and those plans don’t stand still simply because I can’t move. Again, I blame the interweb completely for my ability to still be able to purchase things without leaving the house. New seat, brackets, steering wheel, gearknob, decat, diff oil, gaskets: All these things are now residing in my front room, ready to be installed with great gusto once I’m up and about. The seat, wheel and knob were the first things I bought, despite the car having perfectly usable ones as it stands. I hadn’t thought about it that much until now, but I suspect that I’m missing the tactility of driving as much as the actual act of it.

 

I’ve got about another three weeks until I’m completely fit and able to drive again (and go back to work, natch), so it’s not really that long any more. Certainly I can see headlights at the end of the tunnel, and planning of my first drive has begun in earnest. Sometimes I think an early morning hoon in the Mazda would be a great start, or maybe a more gentle cruise on some dual-carriageways would be better. Or I could go mental and just do a trackday and be done with it. Truth is though, at this point even sitting in traffic on the M25 in the work pick-up would be fine. Fiddling with the radio or glancing idly around looking at fellow drivers also killing time, all wondering what the hold-up is, and winding the window down just enough to hear the V8 of the Aston next to you idle away.

 

When you can’t drive, it really is the smallest pleasures you miss most.

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  • 4 months later...

Nothing at all, maybe a bit more gym work but nothing that should aggravate the lower back. I'll have a rest over Xmas and see how it goes, but the symptoms are identical.

 

I guess I'm not really that surprised. The surgeon did say that about 1 in 10 people have problems again and will require further surgery, so there was always a chance. It's a tad annoying, but then I guess I can look forward to another 3 months off next summer too now :lol: I dunno, at least I had 4 months of no pain which seems like a lifetime after the last 5 years.

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