I turned 40 a few weeks back. About two months ago I pulled a tendon in my right elbow cutting and chucking firewood. It's slowly getting better, but it still not right. It hurts when I try to grip and lift things, and my grip strength is severely compromised.

Then last week I did something to my neck/left shoulder. I don't know what I did (probably related to cutting and loading firewood again, or the woodshed I built in the back yard last week), but it feels like I have a pinched nerve. Shooting pain from the area of my collar bone. Its finally to the point where it alone isn't waking me up at night, but it still hurts when I move it wrong.

Then Thursday at work I rolled up on a kid stalled in the middle of a busy intersection, so I got out and pushed his car a hundred yards down the road to a driveway so it would be out of traffic. Another guy even got out and helped me so I wasn't doing it alone. Apparently I tweaked my back, because there's shooting pain everytime I bend over, stand up, move, lie down...pretty much constantly.

I spent the last two days wiring lights and ceiling fans at the in-laws house. Do you know how much stuff you drop on the floor when you're installing a ceiling fan? And how far it is to the ground when you're 6'5", up on a ladder, and your back hurts? And now you're getting down there again to chase the hundredth screw that's rolled under the table or the refrigerator.

Remember how the pinched nerve in my neck/shoulder isn't waking me up anymore? Yeah, that's because my back is now...5 or 6 times last night, and the last two nights before. So it's 6:30 in the morning, everybody else is asleep, and I finally gave up and am out on the couch icing my back.

This aging stuff is bullshit. I don't have time for this.

"Old"? You are nowhere even close to old, my friend.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
"Old"? You are nowhere even close to old, my friend.

My mind knows that, but my body sure doesn't right now!

Spring 2024 something happened while getting dressed one morning to my left shoulder, severe pain. Within a week it was time for a visit to the orthopedic surgeon that repaired my right shoulder years ago.

He asked me about prior injuries, I told him “Well in my twenties I laid a motorcycle down trying to avoid a truck that pulled in front of me.” To his question of “How long ago was this?” the reply was “Just about fifty years ago 1974”

Oh, to be 40 again!

quote:

I don't have time for this.

You need to start daily doing old man stretching and core exercises. Buy a treadmill and walk. Stretching exercises with resistance. (Not bodybuilding. Entirely different.)

You'll thank me later.

quote:

Getting old

Hmmm ... When you were born, I was four years older than you are now.

Aka, if two trains left Chicago an hour apart ...

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Originally posted by Biker_dude:

quote:

I don't have time for this.

You need to start daily doing old man stretching and core exercises. Buy a treadmill and walk. Stretching exercises with resistance. (Not bodybuilding. Entirely different.)

You'll thank me later.

I run a mile and a half every morning, and walk 3-6 miles a day with the dog. A lack of walking it ain't!

Youngin


Buckle up for the real old man part

Pain's nothing. I'm worried about things falling off.

I remember when I thought 30 was over the hill.

quote:

Originally posted by Schmelby:
Oh, to be 40 again!

Yeah, high performance mountain biking, recreational skiing and snowboarding, two hours of tennis. Better eyesight and hearing, less aches and pain. Yard work was much easier, same with lifting and carrying heavy items. Etc. Etc. Hell, even to be 50 again...

Yep. Getting old isn't for pussies.


Welcome to your 40s, the first steps in being officially old.

When you were young, it took something moderately serious to injure yourself.

But now, you can look forward to injuring yourself from mundane things like "sleeping wrong", "bending over too fast", or "washing the car too hard". I've experienced all three of those in the last year, and I'm also in my early 40s. (I also have "old man knee", where I can now tell when a strong stormfront is coming ~24 hours ahead of time by the ache in my knee.)

It certainly doesn't help that LE work ages your body in dog years.

Have you tried gummies, vapes or dabs?

Its the weight of your gunbelt, armor, boots and all the other crap you have strapped to your body catching up to you! I remember what it took to heave all that shit into action to chase down people who bailed after a car chase. And if you have crashed a patrol car or two that might factor in too. Everyone I worked with had hip, knee, neck and back issues that worsened the longer they stayed in harness. And I cant help but think that the newer, more cramped and less comfortable patrol cars factor into ruining your joints, too. All part of the fun. My joints survived but my hearing did not!

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
I run a mile and a half every morning, and walk 3-6 miles a day with the dog. A lack of walking it ain't!

In that case, all I can say is..

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
And I cant help but think that the newer, more cramped and less comfortable patrol cars factor into ruining your joints, too.

As opposed to the older, more spacious, more comfortable, much lower to the ground patrol cars that blew out every third veteran cops' left knee from repeatedly clambering up out of and down into?

.
Don’t let the Old Man in

How old would you be if you didn't know the day you were born?

As I understand it, Toby wrote this song for Clint Eastwood, now age 94, in the movie The Mule, released in Dec 2018. Quite an interesting movie. Toby came down with cancer in 2022 and passed in Feb 2024. What a story this is.



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This message has been edited. Last edited by: OKCGene,

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
And I cant help but think that the newer, more cramped and less comfortable patrol cars factor into ruining your joints, too.

As opposed to the older, more spacious, more comfortable, much lower to the ground patrol cars that blew out every third veteran cops' left knee from repeatedly clambering up out of and down into?

My work ride is a Tahoe, so I don't think we can blame the car. I've had it for about six months now, and after 6 years in a Durango I've been loving every minute of it! The Durango was a good driving squad, but everything broke constantly so it spent half its time in the shop. Dodge also didn't know shit in 2018 about designing seats for a duty belt. We just got a 2024 in and it looks like they at least figured that out. Only took them six years .

My duty belt was about killing me by the end of shift on Thursday, though. I'm dreading putting it back on tomorrow morning. I even went through a weight-shedding phase a few years back and went to smaller flashlights, ultralight cuffs, and moved a few things off the belt and onto the vest. It still sucks to wear that thing for 12-15 hours.

The belt can probably be blamed for my back. I still don't have an answer for why my arms and neck have gone to shit, though.

quote:

Then last week I did something to my neck/left shoulder. I don't know what I did (probably related to cutting and loading firewood again, or the woodshed I built in the back yard last week), but it feels like I have a pinched nerve. Shooting pain from the area of my collar bone.

Nerve compression?

I had nerve compression issues a few years back from the weight of my external vest compressing my collarbone into a brachial nerve cluster that lies just underneath, which was exacerbated by poor posture. Ended up with intermittent aches and shooting pains from my neck/trap area to my shoulder and sometimes as far down as my elbow.

Took some rounds of PT to correct, along with lightening the load on my shoulders, but it still flares up a little from time to time.

Could be. That's honestly what it feels like. I've been wearing that vest for 5 or 6 years, though, so I'm not sure why it would start now.