and today i have mostly been...

[steve_earwig]

...stuffed head first inside a mahoosive washing machine

seeing as how my back isn't really improving, this morning i went for an MRI (which i chose to pay for rather than wait until November ). Apparently this company has two machines - the nice one where just the relevant section of you is inside it resides elsewhere in the country so the one i was in earlier is the sort where your right inside the machine

so there i am, ear plugs in and up to my knees in a tube not much wider than my shoulders, under instructions not to move as this contraption whirrs, clicks, clunks and buzzes around me for 15 minutes... on the plus side it piped cool air along me and i got a panic button but... go to your happy place? it's just too damn loud! and then my nose started itching...

my advice to anyone else doing this would be: keep your eyes shut and wait for the spin cycle

so another batch of pictures and (ta-dah!) a cd! i asked the guy the format but it wasn't anything i'd ever heard of. however, nosey bugger that i am, the moment i got home it was straight in my pc and it actually contains the display program, so i have "Steve's Back - The Movie" anyone want a screen shot?

i also have the now traditional bit of paper with two foreign languages - one ancient, one modern - which basically says consult a neurosurgeon. oh goody, more scars

[waue1978]

so i have "Steve's Back - The Movie" anyone want a screen shot?

I reckon you should make it your new avatar...

[Doggy]

so i have "Steve's Back - The Movie" anyone want a screen shot?

I reckon you should make it your new avatar...

Great minds......

I was actually thinking you've had nowt but grief since you adopted the current one - chop it in for something cheerful?

Hope you get sorted soon, Steve.

[steve_earwig]

cheers dood

that one is a bit crap but i've not really been up to making a new one - holding the keyboard up so i can see it makes everything difficult. if i could just sit in a damn chair for a few minutes...

16 frames of "ow me back" coming along rather slowly. should i leave it grey scale or colour it red?

[steve_earwig]

thar ya go - any good? it looks like total crap from here but the magnifier doesn't do animations very well

[Doggy]

My that's impressive.

If anyone asks, I recommend you tell them it's Hurricane Katia, currently 'stroming' across the atlantic & headed for mainland Britain, via FarmerPug's shed and Dai's window boxes......

[Bailes1992]

My that's impressive.

If anyone asks, I recommend you tell them it's Hurricane Katia, currently 'stroming' across the atlantic & headed for mainland Britain, via FarmerPug's Freezer!!! and Dai's window boxes......

Edited for accuracy


At least someone remembered Dai's window boxes

[puggy]

Oooooohh Strange !! but worringly facinating as it pumps up and down up and
down mmmm .... I digress , hope you feel a little better soon steve and that it
is not too long before things are put right .

[steve_earwig]

cheers bud, me too - i've been just about useless for almost 2 months now and i'm getting pretty pissed off with it. i'm supposed to keep moving but all i can see is jobs i need to get done before winter arrives

btw i've been exploring and there seem to be 5 "runs" on the cd, i think (it was so much clearer on the massive monitors at the clinic) that's my problem disk - L5/S1, also featured is the one above it and two sections sideways. the first run just seems to be when they were lining me up with the scanner, so it's general cross sections of my entire torso - hmmm, those fuzzy things must be my lungs, that's my liver so that blobby thing on the other side must be my... oh, i have one after all

[Welly]

Reminds me of my back in 1998, slipped disc @ L2 causing severe sciatica had 6-months off works (they'd get you up on your feet quicker these days).

I had the same MRi followed by an Epidural injection (never sweated so much since) and then a Root-block injection with a needle similar to something you'd use to kill a Rhinoceros

You will improve but you need to know your limitations and work within them until that area gets stronger - plenty of walking is good, twisting your body in a big no-no. I was treated by my Family to a Tempur Mattress which helped loads but these cost around £1.5K now - still have it 13 years on and it's still the same as new

When your back's off EVERYTHING hurts and your mood is affected, look after yourself mate and you have my every sympathy

[DaiRees]

Sounds nasty fella , get well soon!

[sirwiggum]

My that's impressive.

If anyone asks, I recommend you tell them it's Hurricane Katia, currently 'stroming' across the atlantic & headed for mainland Britain, via FarmerPug's Freezer!!! and Dai's window boxes......

Edited for accuracy


At least someone remembered Dai's window boxes

It hit Farmerpug's Freezer in the early hours of this morning. A frozen 406 and a defrosted Suzuki hurtling through the air.

steve_earwig, hope they fix yer back. It can be annoying having a constant pain.
Only seen those MRI machines on the likes of House where they talk to the patient through a microphone.
Your avatar though looks like something like a killer Moth.

[steve_earwig]

i hope they fix my back too! it's not just the big stuff, like not being able to drive for more than a few minutes that p"ss me off: it's also stupid, unbelievably banal stuff like struggling just putting a pair of boxers on. And then realising they're back to front

likewise, up until Saturday my only idea of an MRI machine was the one house keeps breaking but I'm pretty sure that's all bollocks - it only made the right noises in the first series, and even then it was fairly quiet - the real thing is SO UNBELIEVABLY LOUD there's no way you could talk to someone inside it. as for a camera, well, i guess it might be possible using fibre optics but as far as i know, the only way the guys doing me knew how i was doing was via the (pneumatic bulb) panic button i was clutching in my sweaty fist.

then again i could be wrong - I've got no real idea because right from the moment i saw how narrow it was i decided that it would be a very bad idea indeed to look right inside & kept my eyes shut from the moment i got on the "drawer" - i didn't want to waste 200 quid on a set of fuzzy images

Reminds me of my back in 1998, slipped disc @ L2 causing severe sciatica had 6-months off works (they'd get you up on your feet quicker these days).

i wouldn't wish this on anyone, i've had a broken leg & it comes pretty close. apparently at L5/S1 mine is reassuringly common (as in the sawbones will have plenty of practice ) we did meet a lady at the psychopath's today who had a disk go further up but hers had gone straight back into her spinal cord - extreme pain, loss of bowel & bladder control, paralysis... things could be worse i guess.

i have got an orthopaedic mattress, it cost enough anyway. i've been on it for about a year. before that i was sleeping on a semi-collapsed sofa bed so i thought i should do something good for my back not that i can actually sleep on my back now - it feels like my foot's falling off...

[Welly]

I'd forgotten about the Toilet effects It took me a good couple of months before I could 'stand up' for a piss and having to take liquid-form laxatives for about 6 weeks because it was just too painful and impossible to do these things naturally.

Putting socks on your feet is also challenging and a rather sorry-looking affair.....

Oddly, my back is currently reminding me of its trouble - as it seems to at least 2 or 3 times a year ever since in fact I've never been the same since then and my skeletal structure is not right......dread to think what kind of shape I'll be in when I'm 70.

One bit of advice given to me by a very nice Doctor (reporting for an Insurance Company) was to keep the old weight down - something I don't naturally suffer but very mindful of either way - over weight/bad back is not good.

The Human body is still not correct, it wasn't designed for sitting/standing rather it still loosely follows the Ape-on-all-fours principle maybe in another 1000 years evolution will fix this.

[steve_earwig]

fortunately i don't have any problems having a slash but... how low are those things? yep, lower than my knee so it's already on my hate list. still, i seem to be managing ok - i already worked out the longer i leave it the more painful it'll be... i'd hate to be on laxatives, i can see the advantage but by the time i'd got myself vertical and stood there while the cramps subside it'd probably be too late

i saw a documentary a while back that was about how human beings were still evolving and it said that we were but only in subtle ways. they cited Tibetans whose blood had better oxygen carrying abilities and some Indians (I think they were) who were better at seeing under water. the trouble is survival of the fittest only means being able to take advantage of your immediate environment long enough to reproduce and presumably be around for a while after to take care of your kids until they can take care of themselves. stuff that happens later in life - e.g. bad backs - doesn't really come into it because as far as evolution is concerned, we are obsolete and should be back in the nitrogen cycle by now.