051 TIME MARCHES ON

Time marches onward and today is no different as I turn 61.  Hard to believe everything that has gone on in that time, but even more so what has gone on in the last year or so.  A year ago today, I was dealing with a spirit crushing mortgage.  My back and knees were causing me so much trouble that I couldn’t even cut the grass in the back yard.

I mention that because yesterday I underwent my first session of Spinal Decompression Therapy.  I had heard about it before but didn’t think much about it.  I had seen ads in the paper but could not believe that it was a legitimate treatment.  Finally, after hurting my wrist and going into the Maple Ridge Physio-Therapy and Pain Clinic for treatment, I saw that they performed the therapy there.  Better yet, it is covered by my Extended Health program.  Well at least 80% of it is.

I read their pamphlet and some research papers.  I spoke to the physio-therapist, and I even spoke to a patient in the bed next to me who was in the process of having it done.  She told me that she limped into the clinic using a walker and after only 4 treatments she was able to walk without even a cane and was pain free.

During treatment t on my wrist, I grilled my physio-therapist on what the treatment was and its effectiveness.  I outlined my history of back injuries starting way back when I was 25.  I first hurt it when a young boy got stuck in the gravel hopper at Lafarge Cement.  Complicating matters were he was in a tight spot in the hopper.  His foot was stuck in the outlet valve when the auger turned slightly and pinned his foot.  He also needed an insulin injection.

In that hopper were the boy, two paramedics, a fireman, a mechanic, an engineer, a surgeon (in case he had to amputate) and myself.  I was bent at the waist and holding the boy under the arms.  I stood in that position for two hours while everyone else was doing their level best to free him.  They also had to figure out a way to stop the auger from turning even a fraction more or it would take his foot off.  They finally managed to take the auger itself apart and the boy was free.  My back didn’t fare quite so well and bothered me for weeks afterward.

The second major injury came a few years later.  We were responding to a noisy party call and while we were on the porch a teenage miscreant kicked out the tail-lights of our patrol car.  I gave chase on foot and as we ran across a guy’s front lawn, I felt the ground open up under me, just as I grabbed his shirt collar.  I didn’t know how far I was going to fall, but I was determined he was coming with me.

My left leg went straight down; my right was at 90-degree angle on the surface.  I was buried up to the waist and all my equipment was buried too.  Knowing I could not get out and was trapped, if I let this kid go, I was positive he would put the boots to me.  So I held on.  I stuck my finger in his ear and told him “If you move I will blow your head off”.  He laid there quietly.

Finally, after about 15 minutes we were found by a police woman.  She handcuffed the kid and then saw my predicament.  At the time I was 6’3” (still am) and weighed 225 pounds.  I figured it would take several people to pull me out of the hole.  Nope, she grabbed me and with little effort lifted me straight up out of the hole.  She was a former Olympic rower and for the life of me I cannot remember her name.  She is my hero though.

My back did not fare so well and I had ruptured the L4-L5 disk and would spend 9 days flat on my back in hospital awaiting surgery.  The day of surgery came and a final x-ray revealed that the disk issue had resolved itself and so instead of surgery I was discharged from hospital.  Over the years there were several more instances of back injury, but none quite so spectacular.

Anyway, with that history and with the most recent injury 3 years ago playing hockey, I didn’t think there was any hope for correcting my back without surgery.  But yesterday I had my first treatment.  This has been a long winded way of saying that I woke up this morning having just turned 61 and I feel a lot better today than I did last year at this time.

Some of my muscles are slightly stiff and sore but I am way more mobile than I was a couple of days ago.  I go for my second treatment tomorrow and two more next weeks.  The therapist figures it will take about 6 or 7 treatments and I should be a new man.  It would be nice to be more mobile again and better yet pain free.

I have always had a devastating slap shot in hockey which terrorized defensemen and goaltenders alike and allowed me to score goals in bunches.  Last year, I scored two.  That used to be a bad game for me.  It was all because the flexibility in my back was gone and I could not launch the shot.  I am hoping with the new found flexibility that my shot will come back next season and the results are looking positive so far.  Happy Birthday to me.