I was in a 45ft lift some years ago at work.
We were up about as high as we could go, doing some electrical work. The guy driving drove into an uncovered slushway.
We were thrown backward as the rear wheel went into the slushway.
We hit a steel beam with the bucket so we did not completely go over backwards.
I hurt my lower back, herniated 3 discs and pinched nerves. I felt ok the rest of that day, it did not show up until after I got home.

Well I have healed up pretty good, but today I sat down and swiveled at the waist and it tightened up and I could not stand.

I guess there are worse things some others here have had to go through. But just a bad day today.

Twisting motions (like vacuuming or golf swing - or even the chair motion like you mention) almost always make my back pain flair up. I avoid that motion as best possible - always.

Chiropractic and massage therapy fix mine when I do something silly to throw it out.

Physical Therapy is yer friend.

The loss of muscle strength and tone as well as "splinting" that results from injury and the shift/change of muscle groups "tension" can create long term issues like fatigue, pain, strains and such.

You need to get the muscles back into their "normalized" working for your core/balance.

Muscle, tendon and ligament strength and proper function keep you centered, balanced and maintain a low strain to keep you that way while you are in motion or rest.

When unbalanced, those components become overused to support your off centered and out of balance condition and that "fight" results in weakening, or incorrect "adaptation" strengthening that "pull" you out of whack.

Over time, the bone and connective cartilage is damaged and then you have long term and hard to correct issues.

Finding all this out 30 years too late is not where you want to be.

What is a slushway? Google was not much help. Thanks

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
What is a slushway? Google was not much help. Thanks

Our slushways were for Coolant, used for cooling tooling while drilling and milling parts.

The coolant flows down into the slushway and then it is filtered to get out the foundry material and reused. The foundry material is then taken back to the foundry to recast.

The slushways normally have covers, either a fully enclosed or a grate type. They had been removed because we were tearing out our Piston lines as we were going to buy pistons after that. Ford now buys all their pistons.

I have been using moist heat on my back and am going for a massage later today.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. Good luck with your back.

Talk to your MD but after I broke some ribs and a vertebral process in my back, the spasms were just insane!

He wrote me an order for Valium and it was a great relief. I tried to only take it at bedtime though as the sedation can be fairly significant.
There are other muscle relaxants also (i.e. Flexeril). Best of luck in your recovery!

I have been dealing with this shit for two years now and it's gotten to my head. I am not a nice person anymore. What Sigmonkey wrote explains something that I had not understood before -- specifically why I feel so fatigued just trying to hold my torso upright. Good luck with yours. In addition to PT and drugs (naproxen and flexiril), warm epsom salt baths help sometimes.
EDIT: after doing some research I think the hot bath (or heating pad) is helpful, but the Epsom salts add no value.

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