I don't recommend it. I tried with just a kitchen sink and ended up a near invalid for almost a month. Five bulging disks and two vertebral compression fractures. Not the way I wanted to spend any part of my summer this year.

 

Geesh, Dean. It's time to hire someone for those projects! Hope you are feeling better.

 

Thanks. I hired someone to install the backsplash. And that about finishes the kitchen. I'm about to start on the new office, so I've put the number for the local EMTs on speed-dial. I'm not quite back to what passes for normal for me, but I'm a whole lot better than I was back in July.

 

I agree, Dave. I don't talk about pain very much, because it has been a constant for me for the last several years following a major accident. Not dwelling on it, ignoring it, not focusing on it is the best remedy for me, But nothing really works. I don't like to take pain medications, because for chronic suffering they are always a dead end. Unfortunately pain cannot always be ignored, and pain often causes you NOT to do things that you would otherwise like very much to do. Still, life is good, and being around is infinitely better than the painless alternative.
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Between the bike accident and the latest surgery you know as I do that you can never block it all out - especially late at night in bed (at least for me) - but I figure if things really get bad I'll get up and become a monitor.... Like you, I don't take pain meds unless I am totally on my back, as I was with a bunch of broken ribs. I am from the school of thought if you take a lot of stuff when you have minor pains it won't work when you have major pains. If that makes any sense.

 

You aren't related to my brother-in-law are you? This guy had all sorts of medical problems most of his adult life. Wasn't able to work BUT he knew how to save a buck so when his mother-in-law died he decided he could load some of his new found treasure by himself. Like taking her piano from MI to TN. It only took him about 6 months to be able to stand up straight again.

 

I'm not a pill popper either and have learned to deal with chronic pain by trying to distract myself. Sometimes the back pain is very difficult to overcome and I simply HAVE to stop whatever I'm doing and rest the back. Fortunately most of the time it is at a low enough level I can do what I want to do. I often need to use my massage chair and a heating pad. I seldom take meds and find that vicodin just puts me on a planet where I'd rather not be and ibuprofen brings digestive issues that I hate. I just try not to dwell on my aches/pains and not give in to them unless they inhibit my ability to do things. At that point I seek relief. I take a few minutes a day to meditate and make certain I stay active. I cannot say I'm up for lifting volkswagens or sinks, so I guess I'm not as fit as some of you.

 

No VW for me either, though I did use 2 pound weights last night at class. I'm working up to a VW.

 

No, most of my medical issues are usually self-inflicted, transitory, and caused by my forgetting that I'm no longer thirty years old. The vertebral compression fractures were old ones - probably brought about by some barroom brawl back in the late 70s to early 80s - which I managed to aggravate in trying to lift a cast iron sink. Until this past July, I was totally unaware that I had them.

 

Dean, are you still having issues with the aggravated fractures? I realllllly feel for you if you've been experiencing spasms. They're the most god-awful things I've ever had. My neurologist told me to drink a glass or two of tonic water every day. Apparently the quinine in tonic water is a good muscle relaxer. I find it reallllly helps with calming down the spasms. I no longer walk like chimpanzee thanks to a year of pt and lots of tonic water.

 

Second update: I showed up at the right time today and the (young) surgeon recommended that I have the cyst removed (he was amused when I told him that I had been driving "aggressively" on the twisties in Colorado) . I will get a third opinion from my family doctor, but it looks like I will be undergoing the knife to remove the growth in day-surgery sometime in October. The surgeon is 99% sure it is non-cancerous, since I have had the cyst for 30+ years, but it will be worth it to ease my mind to get it biopsied and removed.