It was a long flight (4 hours) from Burbank to Chicago, though the trip was made easier by the tiny size of the Burbank Airport, aka Bob Hope airport. It’s infinitely better than LAX and security scanning with PreCheck took about two minutes. Still, My back was on fire the whole time from my flooding-induced back pull, and on top of that I was sporadically nauseous and thought, for the first time in my life, I would have to use the convenient vomit bag in the seat back. But I am tough and controlled it all. The nausea is now gone but my back—well, if you’ve pulled your back you’ll know how it feels. And there is no cure but time.
I see I am kvetching, but I had a great time in LA despite the nearby fires (I saw no sign of them save a slight haze in the air and a whiff of wood smoke). The weather was sunny and warm, the conference talks were good, and I enjoyed catching up with three pairs of friends after the meeting. Now it is back to the same ol’/same ol’, but in the next week or so I should have three novel things to announce.
In the meantime, Hili dialogues and their usual contents will begin tomorrow, and don’t forget to send any wildlife photos you’d like to contribute.
I still have back issues at times even though I have had 3 back operations (discectomy and laminectomies). Still take a few nerve pain tablets. Recommend using Rocktape (orsimilar brand) on your back; really helps when I have flareups. Tricky to apply on your own but not impossible.
OMG. I hope you feel better at home. There’s no place like home.
That’s what Dorothy says, anyway!
You have my sympathies. I’ve put my back out several times in recent years, often doing nothing more than reaching down to pick something up. Wishing you a speedy recovery!
Great to hear – I mean, the positive outlook.
Not the wildfire, misery, and such.
Welcome home. As, it appears, with many readers, and you may even recall, that I suffered back issues – mine likely brought about from competitive weightlifting in my teens and twenties. You are correct that rest is a treatment, as is simple relaxation…even mildly chemical induced..I am pleased if two advil or one scotch masks the discomfort. Stairs, while good training when you are not in discomfort or pain, seemed to exacerbate any attacks of discomfort and led to me using elevators on occasion “for medicinal purposes”…it felt silly taking an elevator up one or two floors, but was always a good ounce of prevention.
I had an L5-S1 laminectomy at age 32 in 1980 for an acute onset that left me basically immobile, but it was magic in allowing me to get back to a normal life until just two years ago after several years of back issues that affected quality of life, but were not debilitating, I had a titanium cage installed in what is termed an L3-4-5 fusion. It has given me about 90% normal activity…which is great. First surgery in 1980 was absolutely required and gave me a normal life back for forty years. Second surgery was elective after a couple of years of attempts at conservative physical therapy were just not successful.
But bottom line is just try to rest now that you are home and as you have pointed out, let time heal you. I know that being cramped up sitting on the plane for four hours yesterday was not a good thing. I did find that putting a board under my mattress on top of the boxspring was helpful for many years.
So you fly into fire and come out damaged by flood. There’s something a little ironic there.
The conference, however, appears to have been a great success, your own panel was splendid, and you met nice people and ate good food afterwards. Sounds like a net positive.
I’m hoping that you recover soon.
Thank you for your contributions to the conference!
Good to hear you are back home safe and sound.
Back pain comes in a wide variety of flavours, and what works for one person may not work for another. For what it’s worth, the minor back twinges I have had from time to time have not been improved simply by sitting and resting, but by getting out for a walk. There is a former railway track not far away, which has been converted into a public footpath, and is virtually flat. A few miles out and return each day usually clears my back up in a couple of days.
Get well soon boss, no complicated acrobatics.
Your trip sounded excellent and your talk/youtube was top notch.
I bet you’ll miss that CA sunshine. 🙂
D.A.
NYC
(but in Florida for the moment, enjoying said sunshine without fires even!)
Keep on kvetching, we don’t mind! Glad you’re back safe and sound. Looking forward to the three novel things! I’m not sure how you and others feel about this, PCC(E) but I count on this blog for quality news excerpts and opinion. It’s one of the few places on the Internet I’ve seen that even has quality comments!
Nearly every day for the last month I have been out felling trees with handsaws and axe, clearing brush, pulling down vines, and manually piling the debris. Twisting, turning, tugging, pushing, bending, squatting, lifting, throwing in every conceivable way. And the back has been fine. One thing is certain: next time it does go out, it will be under some great strain—like when I’m shaving or brushing my teeth.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
You were probably joking, but I’m here to tell you that you should beware of brushing your teeth! I lift weights, so you’d think that someone who can deadlift mucho pounds without injury could brush her teeth in safety. But oh no. A couple of months ago when I was at the sink and bent over to spit out the toothpaste, I felt a sudden sharp pain in my lower back. I could barely straighten up again and was hobbling around for a couple of weeks after that.
I can understand when I throw out my back doing something stupid, but to injure my back when I was just brushing my teeth was a low blow.
I can relate. I started bodybuilding at 18, and trained very heavy on certain lifts into my mid-40’s. For the most part, I remained injury free all over. That said, some of the worst back problems I’ve experienced occured after waking up – went to bed fine, woke up the next morning with my back screwed up. What’s that about?
I can sympathise with the above comments. The first and worst time I put my back out was getting out of my car! There was a sudden twinge, and that was that. It took six weeks to get better, although the only treatment I had was daily long walks on the flat, plus regular applications of ibuprofen gel. I think the former was more efficacious than the latter.
Bob Hope airport? Okay — I’ve only been to southern California once, so I don’t know much about these locations, but I do remember being amused that we were flying back from John Wayne airport.