A trucker’s health, inflamed disk, how do you manages pain OTR?

But it is true,
There are people with bad backs that can go out and cut wood all day long and their back doesn't hurt until they sit down at the end of the day,
Once the work is done they have time to let the stress in their life create back or other phantom pain.

 

Stress can aggravate an existing back problem due to tense muscles. The theory that all back pain is only in ones mind is rediculous, there is a theory that ignores pinched nerves or other real problems

 

Hey... like others said here.... educate yourself.... besides doctors, learn more about your condition and find therapies and treatments for it.... Youtube has helped me a lot.... I read different opinions and studies... I prefer non-conventional alternative medicine. I live with A LOT of pain and several problems that I will not describe in a public forum but I manage my pain without any pain killer and most of the time, just live with it.... Fortunately, my back doesn't hurt when I drive... and I drive for 11 hrs... at least 10 every day.... Exercise, moving the body is always good... but being OTR, it's difficult... To be honest, OTR is not good quality of life and not good for the health.... Difficult to maintain a long term medical treatment when I am constantly on the road.... Try to rest as much as you can... don't eat junk, don't eat faked food, eat real fruits and veggies instead of man made food. If you can, try to meditate and take some time off for yourself, to enjoy yourself out of the truck and the responsibilities... One more thing... don't know if you have heard about this exam for bone and back problems among other things... it's done with a Digital Motion X-ray (DMX) which is in many cases, more helpful than MRI or regular X-rays because it shows images of the bones while the body is moving, which gives doctors a much clearer idea of what the problem is and helps with the diagnostic and finding the best treatment. Last thing you want is to be misdiagnosed. Take care. Wish you all the best.

 

For the record, I STRONGLY recommend making an appointment with a medical Doctor if you have back pain. Here is why. I have a rather bad case of osteoarthritis. It affects both shoulders as well as my hips. It also affects BOTH my SI Joints. SI Joint pain can mimic generalized back pain.

Once you have eliminated a real physical reason for the pain then you can look at other treatments. In my case, I am forced to take Prednisone and Toradol shots in my back about every 3 weeks. I can't function without them and have tried most everything else. My SI joint pain can be so bad I can't stand up fully erect at times.

 

Take care of your back and believe me when I say this, stay away from opiates. I've had 4 low back surgeries. Those drivers that say the back pain is all in your head have never had back problems. MRI's don't lie, I needed those surgeries. The first was just a herniation repair and I was good to go for two years. On the job hauling gasoline with no problems. Then I came to work and the first load of day I went to load the truck and the loading head was pulled off the rack during the night shift. The pipeline repair the loading head by replacing it with the wrong arm. I went to lift the loading head and to my surprise it weighed also 80 some pounds when it should be counter balanced to lift maybe 5 to 10 pounds. The lift crashed my lower back and I was out. The first surgery was not W/C. The three after was. I ended up with a fusion with hardware. The doctors could not turn me back to driving and the company put me on LTD. That's where I got lucky. But anyway I had to go on opiates for 20 some years. It was OK back then but now it almost impossible to get opiates for pain. Thanks to the drug users. If you do go that way make sure your doctor knows what you do and if I were you I'd try the company too just to CMA.

 

No, by that time I was in the office running the terminal then after 3years I went out on LTD

 

I just started this book and this is the best advice you could possibly give to a chronic pain sufferer.

I just started getting into it along with quitting alcohol and caffeine and I'm way better.

I've been driving for 30 years and I feel young again.

 

Core exercises and walking.

Stress reduction helps a lot.

I finally quit my massive caffeine habit of 35+ years also.

 

I wish I would've started doing stretches sooner. Chiropractor said I got lower cross syndrome from sitting too much.



With pain that bad I thought it was a compressed disc from bad posture. I couldn't sit up in bed and would start squirming in the truck after sitting for a couple hours. I'm grateful it is going away with stretches and core exercises.