Bad back

*Snorts.. he he he. Sorry. You will be doing some lifting. That landing gear sunk in mud because your boss is too cheap to spread a 1000 dollar cement landing below them in the back of his precious paved lot... while shes loaded. Raising that a foot enough to get a angle frame and a bit of 5th wheel under there to slam hook it... That will kick you like a mule when she finally clanks shut.

You are going to run into a 5th wheel that has not been greased since the days of Moses and his Exodus out of Egypt. Pull on that handle until your spines burning and develop a hernia or two. If the ground is gravel again your foot goes out under the drives and punches you onto the hip joint at the fall with the impact going right up that spine.

Open a door at a dock, happy there are 4 lumpers waiting to unload your precious eggs. a 30 dozen box falls from the ceiling of the reefer from the top of the door to your head. That travels down your spine. You will be catching it too. And falling down to keep from breaking any of it. That will hammer you in the spine upwards.

Pick up a older truck, hammer onto a bad bridge and find that the fire extinguiser has escaped from the side box between the cabinets and then under that airride seat. You upsie daisy along with everything loose in the cab until you slam down onto the first bridge plate and find that spine burns with the impact right up with no downtravel in your seat.

Feeling good after breakfast, good night's rest and out of the tractor you hop. You completely bypass all of the steps and all of the handholds on the way out to a -20 ice surface from the overnight winter blast while you slept like a squirrel in a tree. Whoo that spine hurts now does it not? I hope God gave you enough ### to absorb that impact.

he he he...

//TEASING.

Here is my personal favorite. Tug on a long hood Mack. Finally get the #### thing up, bend deep over your steer tire to wrestle with that stupid dadgum starter while the wind gently slams the hood back onto your spine. Whump. That awful wind really makes things tough today.

And finally but not last.

DOT man in Louisana says slide that trailer. Shes rusted out pins so so, handle bent (Gee I wonder why,...) that last tug you apply with anger because they are fixing to write you for defective trailer on top of a out of weight problem angers you enough to pull and haul on that handle. Pins slip out quick and you go the other way. Onto your back. If you are lucky you will bounce a little bit off grass. Those scale houses are built pretty spartan and don't invest in landscaping too much.

Reevaluate what you are fixing to get into with that spine of yours. If you have to ask yourself twice why you are doing this with a bad back.. I strongly suggest finding something nicer to do.

 

No,there will be Lifting! I had the Same Delusions..What Happened? I showed up in Sacramento...With a Load of Ceramic Sinks.What Happenened? A Big "Pantera Hippie Unliader",Didn't Care To Do his Job? Ya,Too Stoned on High THC Pot to Work? Started Bitc..ing,Ya You're Gonna Have to Help to unload these Ceramic Sinks.In other Words"You're gonna do all the work..I'll be by on a Forklift Every ten minutes!!103° out that Day.

 

Or cute little gennies that have been broken down for transport. 250 little pounds each without the wheel kits installed. Tug each one off the van trailer. End to end all the gennies. Be careful, they are 2000 dollar each too. Don't hurt them.

Or my tops. Stick a 5 foot lead pipe two inches thick into a old style binder against a 30000 pound coil to get that last half link tight so she is secured. Unfortunately coil settles that last few inches and off that deck you go. Pipe goes the other way. You land on your spine next to the flatbed. Mind the head. Maybe a little bit starry rest of the day, but you will get it done.

he he he...

 

That's ..Some "Good Stuff".!

 

Make sure company knows. Neurosurgeon gave my company letter with a 40lb lift limit on me
Company has no problem with it and it’s never been a isssue
Dont want to hurt yourself doing something silly like working

 

You've got that right and it's something I don't see mentioned much. I love flat-bedding and I've had my fair share of broken bones, pulled and torn muscles, bad joints, several surgeries etc all at the young age of 30. Most of the injuries are from being heavy into sports when I was younger, as well as heavy barbell training due to competing in power lifting, as well as 2 car wrecks and a motorcycle accident, and there's nothing that I do crawling up and down on the deck, up and off the load, throwing tarps etc that irritates my back as much as a long day of just sitting in the seat. The long hours of sitting at times is the worst for me. You can attempt to keep good posture all day, but after a certain amount of hours, it's easy to regress to a more "relaxed" posture when trying to get comfortable, ultimately slouching etc. Stretching before and after your day has done wonders.

 

I can't really add anything that has not already been said in regard to how taxing simply driving can be. However keep one thing in mind. There is NO NONE ZERO company out there that can guarantee you will not at some point be forced to do something physical. Yes so called no touch freight is out there. No argument. However this is for those times all goes normal. Sometimes though things can go ooopsy and bump in the night. Just keep this in mind. No touch? Yes. 100% guarantees, Nope!

 

I don't think I'd try truck driving with a bad back, especially if it's structurally damaged.

I broke mine, L2,L3, but have very good discs.

I walk a lot, and do other exercises. I regularly take loads that require finger printing the entire trailer, for the exercise aspect of it.

I think if you have some chronic nerve problem or bad disks, you're gonna pay the devil.

 

Just wondering, how does one lift a hood up when you can not pull on it with a bad back?

For the most part bad backs only get worse in this business and only ends up limiting the person more,

 

I was a idiot that day, wind was coming front to back. SO I stood on that bumper and made a angle out of the legs and used it to crow bar that hood open. After another worker got it off me with a side lift I was taught how to get it open from the side. What you do is stand behind the steer on the back corner and up she goes. Just mind that wind direction and strength. That starter motor got on my last nerve that day and I was not thinking well.

I do alot of walking. Some days I walk miles if I have to, that seems to help. We did some medical work with experimental nerve cutting and blocking and found that yes it works but found the body too high of a risk of increasing temps within the spinal fluid which is really really dangerous afterwards. So we abandoned any further thoughts of surgery in which those nerves are burned destructively in that part of the back. They only grow back in 8 to 11 months and do it again on all 8 of them? nope. These are nerves that combine all pain signals away from all the other motor and automatic systems present everywhere else in the body. So burning those 8 would not impact the ability to walk, feel things and function normal reflex etc.

Ultimately between the old iron being empty on bad roads back then compared to the seriously plushy nice airride everything today there should be no back problems over time.

There is one thing I worry about compared to my mid 30's I had a panel of 15 xrays taken of my bones, all of them at that age and the surgeon said he has a worst system than I do. There isnt a thing wrong with them other than obvious signs of trauma etc.

Fast forward to two xrays which confirmed a bone density loss enough to cause a problem should i get hit again. There is what is called a pathological failure that becomes possible when bone simply shatters. That means bone cancer is present. If that is the case I already have a advanced directive in place and will be over the river in a couple of weeks without having to get very expensive fighting every little thing in a nursing home.

If I wanted to solve back pain for all truckers instantly in America all they have to do is line up for giant needles with huge amounts of blocking agent. They all would be cheerfully keeping our labor costs down unloading and loading on the floor twice a day without issues. /snark.