My story after all these years/ update/02/03/18 back surgery yesterday

[hammer]

Walt,

I lost a son in 1988 at the age of 6, I will keep your daughter and the two of you in my prays as well!


Bob

[hammer]

In all the excitement of a new grandson I have not even thought of the fact that my wife did start a new job!

My friend John ( gotgyne ) our fellow member here on the forum sent me a PM and had asked if Debbie had found a new job and she had! She was only out of work for two months which was great timing as she was able to be there to help out with the new grandson before starting the new job!

Our fear was her age was going to work against her, ya, I know they are not suppose to discriminate but we all know better, however, she was hired at a place that everyone was around the same age! She is not only the accountant but also the business manager. Some things better, some not compared to the old job, but less stress and she has a job and that is what is important.


There is a country song that has a saying that I really like and find is very true the older I get. This may or may not be the place that it fits in but I have wanted to add it for a long time for you who do not enjoy country music!

GOD IS GREAT, BEER IS GOOD AND PEOPLE ARE CRAZY!

God is great

Bob

[hammer]

Yes, once again the old hands of the clock keep turning and the days on the calendar continue to fly by day after day, and it seems that the older I get get those days go by even faster! Our little grandson gets bigger and bigger and it seems to be harder and harder for these old arms to hold him. On the first of the year I will Baptize him.

The other big change in our life is our youngest daughter graduated from collage on the 14th of December! She get her 4 year degree and a double major in by the age of 20, and graduated with honors as well! Of course her mother and father are very proud of her! This is my daughter that also is the writer. I have posted a link to her song on YouTube in the Lounge Area a long time ago. She also goes into the Navy in March. Her schooling will be mass communications (media), so she is very excited for that! She said she wants to see the world like dad did, but mom and dad will miss her of coarse!

As for my gynecomastia, there is no change except that I get more accepting of it each year that goes by! I don't think I could ever like having breast like some guys do, however, I have had them so long I do think I would darn near miss them in a way if they weren't here all of a sudden!

Now that it is winter and cold here in Minne-snow-ta I do wear a bra again everyday except just after a bath. during the dog days of summer I have to go without, but in the winter I can't. I have read some time back from a couple other posters that the best bras are the ones that support the best and are the hardest to hid that you are wearing a bra!  Man, is that a fact! I get the most comfort all day wear from a bra that makes my breast stand out in the next block, the back hooks can be seen from a foot ball field away, but boy, I can wear those bras all day long! The minimizer bra is much to tight to wear much more then ten to twelve hours.

I hope that everyone one has a great year in 2013!


Bob aka Hammer

[hammer]

I had requested a new primary care doctor at the VA. Because as I had stated in another post the first one that I had met was a real jerk, and that is being gentle!

Two weeks ago tomorrow I met my new primary care doctor! She first apologized for running about 1.5 hours late. The reason way is she has another new patient besides me and likes to take the time to get to know them. I told her there was no need to apologize as that was a sign of a great doctor.

After an hour of getting to know each other, she did her examination. This was the first time that I had a breast exam included that I didn't feel the doctor was uncomfortable nor was I uncomfortable about the size of my breast or the exam!

During the get to know each other, I was asked if I monitor things like my blood pressure like I do my blood sugar, and I do daily! She sent a new top of the line auto blood pressure monitor home with me. As well as diabetic socks and a new manual wheel chair. All I have for a wheel chair is a power chair, so it limits us on which vihicle we can use.

Now to the old doctor. I have been continuing to have chronic back pain. I had 9 hours of back surgery in 2009 that  was a great help, but once again I am having new problems and I think that the doctor that I had at the U OF M was great! Well I always say that God is great! That doctor only worked two days at the U OF M because he works the rest of the week at the VA!

Next week I will be having the neuro injection and CT scan to take a look at the back! I hope that it will show something that can be done! My tolerance is getting low and I don't like it when I let the pain start to control me!  This is when I need to focus and work harder on faith and prayer, this has always got me through in the past.


Bob

[jay adams]

Yo, Hammer! After reading your kind reply on my photo I read your story here. "Read again" I must add. I read your thread about 6 months ago when I first started preparing for surgery.
I just wanted you to know your story really struck a nerve and my heart goes out to you and your family. The world is a richer place because of people with heart like yours.
Just wanted to drop a few lines to let you know you're still making an impact on people.
All the best to you. Jay

[Paa_Paw]

So how did the CT scan Go? Time to drop the other shoe.

[hammer]

No, the scan did not show anything! My doctor thinks that it is, 1. Arthritis build up again, 2. Still thinks my SI joint could be the problem. As for arthritis, when I hear people say, "oh, it just arthritis" they have no idea what it does to a person that has it all over there body, and how crippling and painful it is.

I had a cortisone injection last Tuesday for the SI joint. The doctor doing that said it could take 3-5 days to work, and it hasn't done much yet! Maybe a very little releaf of pain.

What is interesting about it, as a diabetic the cortisone normally makes my sugars go crazy! I mean very high and I have to increase my insulin use. This time it has not done that at all! I wonder if they used a placebo. LOL


Thanks for asking Paa_Paw
Bob

[Shyguy31]

Hammer, thanks for sharing your story, it really is encouraging to have people live with gynecomastia and still be confident and not afraid to talk about it.  My heart goes out to you man!!  And like you said we're all brothers here!

To all the other members stay strong too.

[hammer]

Hammer, thanks for sharing your story, it really is encouraging to have people live with gynecomastia and still be confident and not afraid to talk about it.  My heart goes out to you man!!  And like you said we're all brothers here!

To all the other members stay strong too.

Thank you!

I hope that I help others with what I have learned in life! My biggest help was my faith, and the support of family!

[hammer]

My old back doctor from the university of Minnesota is also my back doctor at the VA medical center, and this I am very pleased as he is a very respected back surgeon. He has felt for a very long time that the problem that I still have is in my SI joint. This is the joint that connects your tall bone to your butt! At least this is the best way that I can explain it! Anyway, in the physical test not everything points to that being the problem and the injection that I had on the 9th of April provided no releaf from the pain!

Nothing is showing on the CT scans or exrays, and I'm not sure if they can do MRIs anymore with the metal that has been put in my back already!

He retuned my called today as he asked me to call him three weeks after the injection to let him know how I was doing, and I did of course. So now his suggestion is going to "skeletal, muscular" clinic to get more eyes on my case and try another injection in a couple months to see if we can hit a different area. I'm all for it. He knows the "hell" I have gone through with my health and that I am atypical when it comes to health issues!

I thank God that he believes in me and he was the one who has spent 9 hours in my back before! If I had to start all over with all new doctors, I think I could have .............. Well, anyway when he suggested his ideas, I told him, " Jonhathan, I think your a great doctor, I have great respect for you and your opinion, and not only that, I hate cronic pain, so if you think we should try something, lets do it" I think I could see him blush over the phone, but I meant what I said! When you find a great doctor, do what ever you can to keep him/her if you have to change clinics, it's a blessing to find that same doctor there as well!

In closing I would like to focus on the positive and not the negative of this update! I know that most of my updates deal with my health issues , but I guess that has dominated my life in so many ways, but I'm want you to know that I still enjoy life very much, so even though I do post these updates life is good! Having the love of a tight family, a personal relastionship with The Lord really makes everything right! And I even enjoy communicating with you guys as well here on this forum!


God bless
Bob

[Alchemist]

Hi Bob,

My partner has had unending Si joint problems and pain since the dump truck hit her car.  She had a 2 level cervical fusion for the damage done to her neck from the same crash.  Nothing has helped so far.

I know all about how health situations dominate a life.  That has certainly been my situation.  The health of my nervous system is a delicate balance.  This past month I found that too much vitamin B2 can damage me.  I take doses of meds or nutritional items a dozen times a day to manage my situation.  It's not how I wanted to live my life but it is how things went. 


At this point I wouldn't get breast surgery even if healthy enough and could afford it.  It makes no difference to my life.  The life, health  and deaths of my children and friends is important.  Prayer is good.  May you all be in good health. 

[hammer]

I hear my friend! Having breast is less of a problem then having a hang nail! The hang nail hurts to, the breast can, also but it helps sometimes to bag them up, others times I go free just let them hang! I have had them so long I've learned to deal!

I'm sorry to hear about your partner! I know about what you have been dealing with all these years, but I also understand the neck problems too! I have C4,5 and6 that have issues that need work but I don't want to mess with them for fear of creating more trouble! In the year 2000 I had paralyzes down my left arm from the neck, but was able to regain use throu therapy, so I've been able to avoid surgery. Every now and then I start to have trouble with it so I do more therapy.

[hammer]

Yesterday I had another appointment at the VA with a doctor in Muscle/skeleton clinic. Both Debbie and I like this doctor right from the get go! He put me throu the ringer, at least that is what I felt like when we were done after a get to know you meeting. In the end he confirmed the the back trouble that I am still having is in fact the SI joint.

I know that I'm dealing with a multitude of other issues along with this that have a big affect on my health, but it is amazing how this one joint can knock you down so bad!

So the plan of action is still another injection that was scheduled before I saw this doctor. I'm going to try a tens unit to see if the will help, and if nothing else that can be used on the neck as C3,4 and 5 are damaged there too, but I've been doing my best to avoid surgery. I'm going to also try acupuncture on the SI joint and if that all fails then it may be fuzzed!

If in the end it needs to be fuzzed, that will mean more metal in the back, both knees are metal, one day I won't be able to go even near a airport scanner without setting it off! LOL

My advice to you young guys! Just because your strong enough to lift it, don't! I used to lift things that  took two men to lift, just to prove I could or show off, don't do it!

I also had fun as a young man as a diver in the service. Jumping from things, and doing things when I was young and strong, but one day that can catch up to you, and your body feels the price that you paid for all the fun that you had. I found out that I was not invincible like most of us think when we are 20.

[Alchemist]

I hear my friend! Having breast is less of a problem then having a hang nail! The hang nail hurts to, the breast can, also but it helps sometimes to bag them up, others times I go free just let them hang! I have had them so long I've learned to deal!

I'm sorry to hear about your partner! I know about what you have been dealing with all these years, but I also understand the neck problems too! I have C4,5 and6 that have issues that need work but I don't want to mess with them for fear of creating more trouble! In the year 2000 I had paralyzes down my left arm from the neck, but was able to regain use throu therapy, so I've been able to avoid surgery. Every now and then I start to have trouble with it so I do more therapy.

Hi Bob,

Now cervical fusions are where one needs to get the best surgeon possible.  My partner had a surgeon here in SLC that does the trials for artificial disks.  He has about the best outcome rate in the country which is why he was invited by the company to do the trials for the artificial disk approval.  That outcome was as best as could be expected and there has been no problem with her neck since then, even when she had the fall she had been warned about that would have left her paralyzed before the surgery.


My advice to you young guys! Just because your strong enough to lift it, don't! I used to lift things that  took two men to lift, just to prove I could or show off, don't do it!

I also had fun as a young man as a diver in the service. Jumping from things, and doing things when I was young and strong, but one day that can catch up to you, and your body feels the price that you paid for all the fun that you had. I found out that I was not invincible like most of us think when we are 20.
 

I agree fully.  When I was in my early 20s I was super skier.  I was a pro patrolman at a major mountain and took two lift attendants on a toboggan  at the same time over a pair of jumps built into the racing trail.  I got pretty banged up doing some spectacular falls.  Now I feel every injury.  It does all catch up with a body.

You young guys are not nearly as invulnerable as it is popular to think.  I'd rather be a healthy godzilla than in pain and poor health as an aged disabled ex-hunk.  However, as I was never a hunk I don't know that by experience.

[hammer]

With having the last two or three years of cronic back pain finally confirm to be caused by my SI joint we did try another injection on July 2 2013, which is I beleive number six. Within a short time I lost all feelings in my left leg! You could have cut the leg off without doing any other type of numbing at all! This had never happen before and we had no idea if it was a good sign or not.

On to our way home. Debbie has to drive when I get these injections, so we had to use the manual wheel chair and the car versus the power wheel chair and the truck or van as she doesn't like to drive the bigger vihicles in the parking lots. Well, anyway she is a small gal weighing in at 115lbs on a day after a big meal, so the chair is to big for her to lift, but she offers being I only have one leg! I put the chair in the car trunk, but I'm very careful balancing only on one leg being I can't feel the other at all.

Once we are home and I very carefully get into the house and in my chair we look online what the fussion of the SI joint is like! Now remember I've had both knees replace, my back has been fussed and I've had several other surgeries so I'm not afraid to go under the knife, but the SI joint fussion does not look like one that I what to go through! Just google it and check it out, not a nice recovery time at all!

I got feeling back in the leg later that night, and full feeling the next day. The injection worked as for helping the pain! It is the first time that it has worked. The next day I had an appointment to see my back doctor but at that point we didn't know if it was helping. He feels at some point we will need to fuss the joint.

So with that in mind, Bobby, (that's me), thinks about what I can do to avoid this surgery. The one thing that comes to mind is to rebuild the muscle mass that I once had to make up for the frame or structure weekness that I now have. Now I understand that I can't be the young man that was trained to jump out of helicopters with full SCUBA gear on like I was in the Navy, and the no walking any farther then the house to the garage is also a problem and that's why weight loss is taking so long, but It won't hurt just to work on muscle rebuilding and some elliptical training right?

We already had a treadmill and the elliptical thing, but what I needed was something for muscle building. We have here in the twin cities a place online called free market that people use to get rid of stuff the no longer need instead of using Craig's list and I got the home gym off that, got a couple friends to help me get it into the house. Now that the kids are grown up and out on their own we are converting one of the rooms into a home gym, and God willing I can do some better health improvement!  

Wish me luck guys, and a few prayers won't hurt either! I've been doing a routine for about a week and a half now and I'm actually feeling better.


Bob

I know the first two pic are the same, I couldn't delete one of them!