Paul B's thread

[Zeefishies]

I went to the pain Mgt Doctor yesterday and she got me up on the table. There were two other people in there, one was the guy who aimed the Death Ray, I mean X Ray thing and the other "female" I wasn't sure what she did but she had a rag which I assumed was to clean up the blood on the floor after the procedure.

The Doc said "little pinch" and stuck the needle in my back, 8 times to numb the area a "little."
(A little to little if you ask me)

Then she studied the X Ray, unless she was watching "Dancing With the Stars" and filled the Turkey Baster, ,I mean needle, using a funnel with the "stuff". I asked for the good stuff not the stuff from Amazon.

"Another little pinch" and she stuck it in my lower back,,,8 times. A few of those times she stuck it in so far she had to climb up on my back to put her foot on my spine so she could pull it out. And she had high heels on.

After the procedure she asked me to sit up which I tried to do. She asked if there was still any pain. I waited until I stopped whimpering screaming and crying and tried to get up. It took me a while and she could tell I was still in pain so I said yes, "Here and there". She asked if I would like more Cortizone, or Coppersafe so I said, Yes, fill me up. Wherever you see skin, stick one of those needles in until I am "full".

When I was a mechanic for Oldsmobile (google it) We had to check the grease in the rear axle. To do that you open this big plug in the thing and stick your pinkie in. If your finger came out with grease on it, it was full. I asked her to stick her finger in my ear and if it has "stuff" on it, I am full.

Then I was almost pain free. (not because of the cortisone, but from the lanacane she mixes with it so she can tell where the stuff is going by the level of your screaming.)

I finally got up and walked a few steps. I didn't fall down and was standing up right.

She said "how do you feel?"
I said "pretty good and would you like to go dancing?

Remember I grew up in the Disco Age, she wasn't born yet as she is somewhere between my Daughter and Grand Daughters age.
Disco dancing is sort of like texting only instead of your thumbs, you use your feet.

We used to go to Disco's to meet girls because thats where everyone was and thats what you did. (When I was not taking care of my fish tank of course but I never mentioned that)

In a disco if you wanted to meet a girl (which was why we were there) you had to walk up to a girl and make intelligible words come out of your mouth, not LOL, or ROTFLMAO or anything like that or she would smack you and call the cops.

You also needed a cool car. "Your" car not your Dads. It helped if it was fast. Muscles also helped because girls didn't like Wimps. Having hair was a big must and believe it or not, I didn't always look like this.

I met a lot of cool girls and actually married one 50 years ago, she is still sleeping now but still looks the same. (I didn't meet her in a disco but thats another story for another day)

So it is the next morning and I am still upright getting ready to go on my 2 mile, cold and dark walk and I feel confident that I can handle any ground hogs, deer, possums or squirrels that want to attack me

i like reading you're stories sir keep them coming,
P.S. i too have a bad back and know the pain all too well of those back shots,
keep on rolling sir

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

I am so excited, I just now received this E Mail from "Reefing with ReefBum" who interviewed me on YouTube. It blew me away and I can't wait to call her.

I remember this letter.

Hi Paul, I hope you are well. I received a very unique email from someone who is trying to contact u. Below is the entire email.

Happy New Year!

Keith

From: Kathleen F_______
Subject: Paul Baldassano

Message Body:
Dear Keith:
My name is Kathleen F______. I wrote to Sargent Paul Baldassano in Vietnam when I was in 4th grade as part of a Junior Amvet program I was in. My Dad was very involved in Veteran organizations so he signed up his children to participate. I have a returned letter from him and just found it again in my attic.
I just did a google search and find your interview with Paul posted to YouTube.
I would very much like to reach out to him. Would it be possible for you to reach out to him and if I could write to him? My address is ------------

I remember that letter and texted her. She said she has Goosebumps and will call me tonight. She sent me the letter that I sent her in 1970.

She texted me the letter I sent her but I can't figure out how to put it on here from my text.

View attachment 201207

Wow Paul that's crazy and awesome at the same time. If you screenshot the text message, you'll be able to post it here as a picture/attachment.

 

[Paul B]

Paul I posted it a few posts up. I can't wait to speak to her tonight. She was 10 when she wrote to me and I was only 20 so I figure now she is 64.

 

[Paul B]

Kathleen called me last night and my wife and I were so excited. She is a very well read and intelligent sounding Lady who is also very accomplished. She is still working as an executive for a huge company that everyone knows. She can speak some Spanish and French and traveled and lived much of the world.

We spoke about 45 minutes and we invited her here as she is in New Jersey so not to far away.
Very nice conversation and I can't wait to meet her.

Recently she visited the Viet Nam Memorial Wall in DC and searched for my name on the there. Of course I wasn't there so she figured I lived through the war. (I am also happy about that)

She was cleaning her attic and came across the letter I wrote to her from Viet Nam. She Googled me and came across my interview with ReefBum on YouTube and in the beginning of that interview Keith (the owner and interviewer) mentioned that I was a Sargent in Viet Nam and lived on Long Island so she figured it had to be me.

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

Kathleen called me last night and my wife and I were so excited. She is a very well read and intelligent sounding Lady who is also very accomplished. She is still working as an executive for a huge company that everyone knows. She can speak some Spanish and French and traveled and lived much of the world.

We spoke about 45 minutes and we invited her here as she is in New Jersey so not to far away.
Very nice conversation and I can't wait to meet her.

Recently she visited the Viet Nam Memorial Wall in DC and searched for my name on the there. Of course I wasn't there so she figured I lived through the war. (I am also happy about that)

She was cleaning her attic and came across the letter I wrote to her from Viet Nam. She Googled me and came across my interview with ReefBum on YouTube and in the beginning of that interview Keith (the owner and interviewer) mentioned that I was a Sargent in Viet Nam and lived on Long Island so she figured it had to be me.

Great story, I was sharing with my Dad as he was also over there. He said he remembers letters from school children vaguely.

 

[Paul B]

Paul, I also remember everything "vaguely" My entire life is Vague.

My wife who is 6 years younger than I am also wrote letters to servicemen in Nam when she was in school.
What unit was he in? I was in the First Cav.

Those 105" shells behind me was for my duck. I took him all over the place and when I flew in a helicopter as most days I had to hold his wings down because he thought he was flying.

I spent the year in the bush and never came out until I came home.
Oh Yeah, one week in Australia for R&R which was fantastic but I can't talk about it here.

(I made that 30 round magazine in my M-16. The army supplied an 18 round magazine but that was just stupid)

 

[Paul B]

I was looking at my Hippo tang just now and I don't think I ever saw a better looking or healthier fish. His skin looks like velvet.
(No, he doesn't have velvet. Thats something only quarantined fish would get) My fish can't even spell "velvit".

This picture is right out of my camera, no fooling around with colors or anything like that even if I knew how to do that. Those "spots" are bubbles. He has also never seen Nori. I am running my new small diatom filter just because I think it is so cool and I am trying to clog it so I can see how easy it is to clean. This one uses no powder.

 

[Paul B]

This is going to be a useless post about nothing but being it is my thread and very few people read It, I put it here.

About getting Old-er. I looked into the mirror this morning and thought to myself, Wow, I got old. I don't remember getting old, but I am there. My Mom died at 99 and never even took an aspirin or shot of Prizapro. She didn't need glasses or a cane. I can only hope to stay in that state of health for that long. My fish seem to be able to manage it and I smell better than them.

I don't remember going from this. (I am the good looking one on the back with the hair)



To this


I know a lot of things happened in between those pictures (Including a war) but I can't remember the vast majority of them. My wife may ask me to go downstairs to get paper towels and I will go there and try to remember what I came for. I may bring up, toilet paper, news papers, paper mache, paper clips, carbon paper, (google it) paper cups, paper plates etc. and If I think to much I may gather things that sound like paper. Things like black pepper, white pepper, red pepper lemon pepper etc.

Upstairs my wife will see me with a box full of these things and will ask, Wheres the paper towels?

It's weird because my mind seems clearer about things like fish keeping, which I see as a no brainer, building things or fixing things. I walk by myself every morning for an hour long before the sun comes up with a flashlight just so I don't get hit by a farm tractor or deer looking for love in all the wrong places.

As I walk, if I see a piece of farm machinery, airplane, car or almost anything mechanical, my mind will turn to images all sorts of gears, chains and pulleys.

I will get visions of the pistons going up and down in those engines, how the fuel swirls around the combustion chamber, how the transmission works or how the thing is cooled and I can't get these images out of my mind so I will start envisioning how I would build them better, nicer looking, cheaper, more economical or make a Steam Punk Sculpture thing similar to it. My mind wants to build so If I see a bare wall, I go crazy thinking of what I should build to make it really cool. Not a painting but something that actually moves and works. I often go to antique stores looking for anything interesting that I can turn into something useless but more interesting.

This is one of the useless things I built just because I feel it is cool.

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Sleeping eludes me and if I don't take something to make me sleep I am wasting my time closing my eyes because I will go into "inventing mode". I get ideas at night and can't wait to get up to draw it and go get the parts. Of course these things hit me in the middle of the night so no stores are open.

I use these linear actuators now all the time. This was a simple thing I installed the day before my shoulder surgery to open the front of my tank

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Since then I built a few other things using these actuators including a huge cabinet that disappears into the wall. I am now building another one just because I can. I need to stop.

In the last 4 years I lost 4 of my closest friends. We are all in our 70s and I can't think of one of us (and I have many close friends some from high school) who doesn't have some sort of ailment, many life threatening.

I am one of the only ones who is still pretty healthy except for ligament and bone things. (I can't find a piece of wood to knock on so I am hitting a tooth pick)

When the phone used to ring I was excited to answer up because it was usually about a party, boating trip, vacation, SCUBA diving or something fun. Now I dread when the phone rings because it is invariably someone is sick, hurt or dying.

All my doctors are much younger than me and some are my Grand Daughters age.



I just went to the dentist and as we were talking I mentioned a Disco. As she was using that sucky thing to eliminate the gunk in my mouth from all the drilling she looked at me like I had two heads and had to Google it.

Many things bother me now, especially traffic that I have no patience for, waiting in lines, so I never return anything and I can't think about politics or like Elvis Presley, (Google him) I would shoot my TV and I can't afford a new TV every time I turn it on. Sometimes I scream so loud my wife gets scared and has to calm me down.

When I drive to our Daughters house in Manhattan, I am so stressed by the traffic that when I get there she greets me at the door with a big glass of Vodka and some chocolate to calm me down.

The VA tells me this is all from PTSD even though I haven't fought in a war in 55 years.

I am married for 50 years and our marriage, although always great gets better with time. Now my wife has MS so I have to do many things for her. Things you wouldn't dream of doing for your girlfriend but thats what people who care for each other do.

It's all about helping other people now as I have everything I want and went to every place I wanted to go and did everything I wanted to do. (Kind of.)

We had a full life and I think we did more than our share of fun things. I look at our Daughter and wonder what they do for fun because it seems fun things are lost on the younger generation as it seems to us that they do nothing we would call fun. They do travel a lot but that isn't what I mean. Having lifelong friends at our age who we grew up with and are still better friends than family means everything.. That seems lost on many Millenniums as texting is their "fun" thing. Normally they text how bored they are even though there is an entire world out there.

As we get older, many things that used to seem important seem trivial now. Now it's all about health but it used to be about money, working, paying for a car, house, vacation, copperband butterfly etc.
Raising kids, fretting about the Prom helping them pick a college, get their drivers license, watching them get married then have kids and more kids. Eventually their kids will have kids and we wonder where the time went.

All in all I had a great life and still have a great wife. We have to many friends to spend the time with all of them as we would like. Our social calendar is booked up for many months which is a good thing.

So, so far, I think I did pretty good.

 

[Paul B]

I like walking early in the morning when it's pitch dark. My wife thinks I am nuts and is scared for me.



Not to many things scare me in the dark. OK a couple of things scare me a little such as maybe Nancy Pelosi's big sister "Helga-Bro" Thats her given name.



But the thing that frightens me the most are "Vampire Deer". Of course there is such a thing, Google them.

Being "Vampires" they only come out at night and only on Tuesdays. (Except during Lent, Good Friday or in a Leap Year.)

Vampire Deer subsist on a diet of Bullhead Catfish but I often see them eating those Wardleys sinking Goldfish pellets. If a deer accidently eats a bullfrog, it (the deer, not the fish) would go into severe convulsions where you would think it is possessed or is just learning how to do the "Freddie" Google it. Then it would violently spit out the frog where it (the frog, not the deer) would abandon it's tadpole Progeny and go on to give Jehovah's Witnesses warts.

Besides those things, I am perfectly capable and robust enough to handle any situation that may occur at night even those frightening grey squirrels or Carpenter ants.

I got back from my walk safe and sound, but that's because it's not Tuesday.

 

[mrjantzen]

This is going to be a useless post about nothing but being it is my thread and very few people read It, I put it here.

About getting Old-er. I looked into the mirror this morning and thought to myself, Wow, I got old. I don't remember getting old, but I am there. My Mom died at 99 and never even took an aspirin or shot of Prizapro. She didn't need glasses or a cane. I can only hope to stay in that state of health for that long. My fish seem to be able to manage it and I smell better than them.

I don't remember going from this. (I am the good looking one on the back with the hair)



To this


I know a lot of things happened in between those pictures (Including a war) but I can't remember the vast majority of them. My wife may ask me to go downstairs to get paper towels and I will go there and try to remember what I came for. I may bring up, toilet paper, news papers, paper mache, paper clips, carbon paper, (google it) paper cups, paper plates etc. and If I think to much I may gather things that sound like paper. Things like black pepper, white pepper, red pepper lemon pepper etc.

Upstairs my wife will see me with a box full of these things and will ask, Wheres the paper towels?

It's weird because my mind seems clearer about things like fish keeping, which I see as a no brainer, building things or fixing things. I walk by myself every morning for an hour long before the sun comes up with a flashlight just so I don't get hit by a farm tractor or deer looking for love in all the wrong places.

As I walk, if I see a piece of farm machinery, airplane, car or almost anything mechanical, my mind will turn to images all sorts of gears, chains and pulleys.

I will get visions of the pistons going up and down in those engines, how the fuel swirls around the combustion chamber, how the transmission works or how the thing is cooled and I can't get these images out of my mind so I will start envisioning how I would build them better, nicer looking, cheaper, more economical or make a Steam Punk Sculpture thing similar to it. My mind wants to build so If I see a bare wall, I go crazy thinking of what I should build to make it really cool. Not a painting but something that actually moves and works. I often go to antique stores looking for anything interesting that I can turn into something useless but more interesting.

This is one of the useless things I built just because I feel it is cool.

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Sleeping eludes me and if I don't take something to make me sleep I am wasting my time closing my eyes because I will go into "inventing mode". I get ideas at night and can't wait to get up to draw it and go get the parts. Of course these things hit me in the middle of the night so no stores are open.

I use these linear actuators now all the time. This was a simple thing I installed the day before my shoulder surgery to open the front of my tank

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Since then I built a few other things using these actuators including a huge cabinet that disappears into the wall. I am now building another one just because I can. I need to stop.

In the last 4 years I lost 4 of my closest friends. We are all in our 70s and I can't think of one of us (and I have many close friends some from high school) who doesn't have some sort of ailment, many life threatening.

I am one of the only ones who is still pretty healthy except for ligament and bone things. (I can't find a piece of wood to knock on so I am hitting a tooth pick)

When the phone used to ring I was excited to answer up because it was usually about a party, boating trip, vacation, SCUBA diving or something fun. Now I dread when the phone rings because it is invariably someone is sick, hurt or dying.

All my doctors are much younger than me and some are my Grand Daughters age.



I just went to the dentist and as we were talking I mentioned a Disco. As she was using that sucky thing to eliminate the gunk in my mouth from all the drilling she looked at me like I had two heads and had to Google it.

Many things bother me now, especially traffic that I have no patience for, waiting in lines, so I never return anything and I can't think about politics or like Elvis Presley, (Google him) I would shoot my TV and I can't afford a new TV every time I turn it on. Sometimes I scream so loud my wife gets scared and has to calm me down.

When I drive to our Daughters house in Manhattan, I am so stressed by the traffic that when I get there she greets me at the door with a big glass of Vodka and some chocolate to calm me down.

The VA tells me this is all from PTSD even though I haven't fought in a war in 55 years.

I am married for 50 years and our marriage, although always great gets better with time. Now my wife has MS so I have to do many things for her. Things you wouldn't dream of doing for your girlfriend but thats what people who care for each other do.

It's all about helping other people now as I have everything I want and went to every place I wanted to go and did everything I wanted to do. (Kind of.)

We had a full life and I think we did more than our share of fun things. I look at our Daughter and wonder what they do for fun because it seems fun things are lost on the younger generation as it seems to us that they do nothing we would call fun. They do travel a lot but that isn't what I mean. Having lifelong friends at our age who we grew up with and are still better friends than family means everything.. That seems lost on many Millenniums as texting is their "fun" thing. Normally they text how bored they are even though there is an entire world out there.

As we get older, many things that used to seem important seem trivial now. Now it's all about health but it used to be about money, working, paying for a car, house, vacation, copperband butterfly etc.
Raising kids, fretting about the Prom helping them pick a college, get their drivers license, watching them get married then have kids and more kids. Eventually their kids will have kids and we wonder where the time went.

All in all I had a great life and still have a great wife. We have to many friends to spend the time with all of them as we would like. Our social calendar is booked up for many months which is a good thing.

So, so far, I think I did pretty good.

Paul, thank you for your ongoing posts. I find them therapeutic, informative, and funny as heck. I am not as old as you, merely 69, but I can relate to most of your musings. Those of us that do read your thread, greatly appreciate your effort and skill with words.

 

[Paul B]

I have a 3D printer but it takes me so long to design something on it that I rarely use it.
My printer is a Resin printer and it makes beautiful and useful things (I don't make stupid dragons, Vikings or little Chinese guys carrying ducks) But I do make things I need like pot handles, knife handles or Steam Punk useless stuff.

I can draw what I want but making the CAD program do what I want eludes me. My computer is made of wood and is a Windows 7. I love the thing and won't get a new one because I am already 75 and it would take me 10 years to figure out how to turn it on so I would most likely throw it through my sliding glass door and those are rather expensive so my wife would divorce me and I would have to pay alimony and fish support.

I am not willing to go through that. Also my computer doesn't want to work with the Elegoo Mars 3D printer because it doesn't have the memory and neither do I. I did add a "Memory or RAM" card. I don't know what it was but I added something. The computer company tells me I can't boost the thing up any more and need a new computer.

My wife has a new er computer and both of us can't hardly figure it out so we use it as a typewriter. I don't even know how to store a picture on it or print from it so I get frustrated and start yelling at it forcing my wife to stand in front of the sliding glass door so I don't throw the thing through it.

If I were to design a computer it would be very user friendly. When I walked near it it would say "Hello Paul, what would you like to do?"

I would say I would like to post on Reef2Reef and it would automatically bring up this forum without me doing anything. Then It would bring up this thread where the cursor would be blinking at the start of a sentence.

I would type something and I would say "POST" and the thing would automatically appear on the forum.

If I wanted to print something I would say "Print" and it would just print. It wouldn't ask me to input the password, or ask what is my Wi-Fi name or the "WPS" or WIPS, or whatever it is printed in minuscule letters along with 79 other numbers on my router.

It also wouldn't ask if I wanted it printed in landscape, or color, or if I wanted to save it in Google, Facebook , Twitter or Instagram because I have no idea what those things are.

I also want it printed on whatever paper I loaded into the thing so if I loaded a piece of cardboard from the back of a box of Cheeze Whizzes from Amazon, I want it printed on that.

If I say PRINT, I want to see exactly what I wrote in the same color and orientation I wrote it in and I want to see it on the printer in my house and I don't care about Facebook and all those stupid things. Just PRINT the thing I wrote as I wrote it.



I already have 2 Alexa's and they argue with each other so I had to put one in a room far away so they can't hear each other. Those "HELP" menu's are totally useless. It's like trying to call a Government agency like Social Security, Unemployment or the Veterans Administration.

The last time I called the VA, I waited on hold for 45 minutes, then a recording came on to tell me to call back another day because there is no one in the VA to answer the phone. Now, shouldn't thy have led with that.

When I got drafted in 1969 I showed up. Could I have waited a few days and told them, I'm sorry, I don't feel like showing up today. I wonder how would that have turned out for me.

 

[Paul B]

I just found this. I always built my Daughter Halloween costumes and she normally won whatever contest she was in. Virtually all her costumes were weird and most were mechanized or at least lit up.

Once right after she was married she wanted to walk in the Halloween Day Parade in Manhattan and she wanted something unusual.

I built her and her husband a Brooklyn Bridge since they live near it.
It was all lit up, about 12' long and had cars and trucks. There was also an accident that was smoking and a helicopter hovering above. Road flares surrounded the wreck.

I would have built it larger but it had to be able to be folded up to fit in their elevator.

They were interviewed on the news a few times. It was very cool.

 

[Paul B]

it's not easy to get all 3 of these in the same shot.

 

[Paul B]

Cold walk

this morning. 22 degrees and windy.



People here now feel this is cold, especially the young people. In the 70s it never got warmer than 25 degrees in January. I used to walk to school, up hill both ways in 3' snow drifts. (My school was on the side of a volcano so the ground used to shift every few hours so it was always uphill whichever way I walked. )

Anyway, like I said, I met my friend yesterday morning and he had the day off because it was raining and snowing. And he is an "ICE" Agent! Really! My taxes are paying Federal Agents to stay home because it is cold and raining.

He was waiting for the school bus with his 12 year old Son. After my walk I noticed that he was still waiting so I asked him what happened to the bus. He said he just found out the school opening is 2 hours late because it's "cold".

We are now really raising a generation of "Girly Snowflakes". People get off from work because it's raining and kids don't have to go to school because it's cold. Really!!. This drives me crazy. Do the people living in Alaska have all the days off because it's below freezing? No, they don't. Then jump on their dog sled, go 15 or 20 miles through the tundra while evading Polar Bears and maybe harpoon a walrus on the way for lunch.

I worked as a construction electrician in Manhattan for almost 50 years and much of that was outside because "Construction" means you are "Constructing" something because the building someone wants isn't there yet so you have to build it. Most of the skyscrapers in Manhattan were not built inside a heated building so you had to build them outside, yes in the cold.
We could legally work outside if it was above 4 degrees or (I think) up to 96 degrees.



The top picture I am hanging off the roof of the Plaza Hotel and it was 17 degrees that day. That is frozen Central Park below me.

The bottom picture I am the foreman CAD welding (in the white hat) on a New York City garbage incinerator.

In the decades I worked I never I ever took off for weather, even 2' of snow and I can count on one hand how many times I took a day off sick and those times I was in the hospital for a broken bone or to have a cro bar removed from sticking out of some place on my body.

Now in the Army, the drill Sargent's are not allowed to curse at you or hit you and if it is raining, to hot or cold, they train you indoors.
Are we training people for combat or "Dancing With the Stars"?

When I was in the Army in 1969 the Drill Sargent's could probably run you over with a tank if they wanted to and hitting or punching you was considered mandatory. I was scared to death of Drill Sargent's while I was in basic . But after that, while I lived in the jungle for a year covered in mud, especially in Monsoon season, I was very grateful for that training and "toughening up. A Man really should get punched in the face a few times so he knows what it feels like. It makes you tougher and if the scariest thing that ever happened to you was a big accountant texted you a mean looking Emoji, then you are probably not that tough and may need some street smarts.
Just my opinion of course and I am very opinionated.

 

[Paul B]

Beautiful walk this morning.

 

[Paul B]

It could be worse I think this guy needs one of those little cans of lock de-icer.

 

[FishieBusiness]

It could be worse I think this guy needs one of those little cans of lock de-icer.

Dam My ice scraper is in the glove bx.

 

[Paul B]

So this morning, like all mornings I went for a walk. Normally I walk for about an hour and I go early, way before the sun comes up because I am walking for exercise and I think exercise is a waste of time so I want to get it over with before the world gets up so I don't waste any time. I am very impatient so my wife, and many people call me the Energizer Bunny although I rather think of myself more like Brad Pitt.

Some people call me McGuiver while others just don't call me.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I had some back work done where the pain Mgt Dr. did an ablation on the nerves in my back.

They go in there with some kind of torch or toaster and burn whatever they can find. After that she gave me 16 shots of cortisone and maybe hydrogen peroxide but it could have been Coppersafe.

Those procedures made me feel about 74% better and I no longer scream or walk like a blue legged hermit crab. But the Dr. told me the procedure doesn't actually fix the pain. My disks and ligaments are still torn to shreds, I just don't feel it as much because the pain signals don't make it to my brain. They probably get stuck somewhere in between. Maybe my elbow or someplace that you don't need as much as your back.

But this morning during my walk, right under this light, the pain signals found a new route to my brain. My brain doesn't have much free space because it is filled with fish stuff, steam punk stuff, Pumpkin pie and supermodels.

All of a sudden, I hit the ground. I looked around to see if maybe my wife stuck a cro bar in between the ribs as it doubled me over and made me go down on one knee. (good thing it was my right knee because my left knee is titanium and it may have made a spark) Anyone driving past would have thought I was making a novena or praying for hair. But I wasn't.

It was just pain. I was thinking of who I could call if I couldn't get up and screaming wouldn't help because at 6:30 everyone is sleeping and if I woke them up, they would be screaming at me which would have made the pain worse. I didn't want to call my wife because she has MS and I normally help her. I imagine she could have brought me some chicken soup and I never saw a chicken with a back ache so maybe it would have worked.

I stood there, or rather knelt there for about 5 minutes and tried to get up. Nope, I couldn't move. I didn't want to stay there too long because it was very cold and icicles started to form on my nose. I slooooly made it up to a standing position and gradually put one foot in front of the other. I was only about 100 yards from my house so I stuffed my Very Manly looking red scarf into my mouth to muffle my screams.



It started to get light out and I gradually, but painfully made it to my house. I stood in the doorway for a time while I figured out how I was going to take off my boots, jacket, gloves etc. I couldn't stand there with all these winter clothes on because now I was sweating profusely partly because it is hot in my house and partly because of the pain.

I made it in and tried to lay on the bed. I couldn't figure out how to get on the bed so I called my wife who immediately knew something was wrong and started to make chicken soup. I said, no, just try to bend me slowly so I can lay down.

I was in the bed in a sort of pretzel fetal position and didn't dare to move. I asked her to bring me a tens pack. If you never had that it is a small device with wires and pads sticking out of it. You stick the pads on you near the pain and it shocks you. I don't know how it works and I doubt anyone else does but I imagine the shocks this thing gives you fools your brain into thinking that these shocks are worse than your other pain but I am not sure. I am an electrician so probably don't feel the shocks like everyone else does.

I had her stick these sticky pads on my back and I turned it on and tried to move. No, not yet so I turned it up and tried again. Nope, not yet. So I turned it all the way up until smoke started to come out of my eyes like those old western movies where the Indians used to make smoke signals to tell other Indians things like their internet was out or Lidel is selling brussel sprouts for 39 cents a pound.

I took some pain medication that I had left over from my last surgery and was going to rub that slimy stuff on that makes you smell like a Christmas tree. I didn't have any of that so I asked my wife to get one of those Christmas tree air fresheners that I had hanging on the rear view mirror of my car and hung it around my neck. That did the trick.

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

So this morning, like all mornings I went for a walk. Normally I walk for about an hour and I go early, way before the sun comes up because I am walking for exercise and I think exercise is a waste of time so I want to get it over with before the world gets up so I don't waste any time. I am very impatient so my wife, and many people call me the Energizer Bunny although I rather think of myself more like Brad Pitt.

Some people call me McGuiver while others just don't call me.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I had some back work done where the pain Mgt Dr. did an ablation on the nerves in my back.

They go in there with some kind of torch or toaster and burn whatever they can find. After that she gave me 16 shots of cortisone and maybe hydrogen peroxide but it could have been Coppersafe.

Those procedures made me feel about 74% better and I no longer scream or walk like a blue legged hermit crab. But the Dr. told me the procedure doesn't actually fix the pain. My disks and ligaments are still torn to shreds, I just don't feel it as much because the pain signals don't make it to my brain. They probably get stuck somewhere in between. Maybe my elbow or someplace that you don't need as much as your back.

But this morning during my walk, right under this light, the pain signals found a new route to my brain. My brain doesn't have much free space because it is filled with fish stuff, steam punk stuff, Pumpkin pie and supermodels.

View attachment 201543

All of a sudden, I hit the ground. I looked around to see if maybe my wife stuck a cro bar in between the ribs as it doubled me over and made me go down on one knee. (good thing it was my right knee because my left knee is titanium and it may have made a spark) Anyone driving past would have thought I was making a novena or praying for hair. But I wasn't.

It was just pain. I was thinking of who I could call if I couldn't get up and screaming wouldn't help because at 6:30 everyone is sleeping and if I woke them up, they would be screaming at me which would have made the pain worse. I didn't want to call my wife because she has MS and I normally help her. I imagine she could have brought me some chicken soup and I never saw a chicken with a back ache so maybe it would have worked.

I stood there, or rather knelt there for about 5 minutes and tried to get up. Nope, I couldn't move. I didn't want to stay there too long because it was very cold and icicles started to form on my nose. I slooooly made it up to a standing position and gradually put one foot in front of the other. I was only about 100 yards from my house so I stuffed my Very Manly looking red scarf into my mouth to muffle my screams.



It started to get light out and I gradually, but painfully made it to my house. I stood in the doorway for a time while I figured out how I was going to take off my boots, jacket, gloves etc. I couldn't stand there with all these winter clothes on because now I was sweating profusely partly because it is hot in my house and partly because of the pain.

I made it in and tried to lay on the bed. I couldn't figure out how to get on the bed so I called my wife who immediately knew something was wrong and started to make chicken soup. I said, no, just try to bend me slowly so I can lay down.

I was in the bed in a sort of pretzel fetal position and didn't dare to move. I asked her to bring me a tens pack. If you never had that it is a small device with wires and pads sticking out of it. You stick the pads on you near the pain and it shocks you. I don't know how it works and I doubt anyone else does but I imagine the shocks this thing gives you fools your brain into thinking that these shocks are worse than your other pain but I am not sure. I am an electrician so probably don't feel the shocks like everyone else does.

I had her stick these sticky pads on my back and I turned it on and tried to move. No, not yet so I turned it up and tried again. Nope, not yet. So I turned it all the way up until smoke started to come out of my eyes like those old western movies where the Indians used to make smoke signals to tell other Indians things like their internet was out or Lidel is selling brussel sprouts for 39 cents a pound.

I took some pain medication that I had left over from my last surgery and was going to rub that slimy stuff on that makes you smell like a Christmas tree. I didn't have any of that so I asked my wife to get one of those Christmas tree air fresheners that I had hanging on the rear view mirror of my car and hung it around my neck. That did the trick.

Damn Paul, I definitely feel your pain. Not trying to push anything but medical Mary Jane does offer some help. I have a balm that I run on my back area from time to time, like you say, smells like Christmas trees, gets cold as hell and kind of burns at the same time but definitely does help the issue at hand. I'll try and gat a pic of what it is and pm you more info.

 

[Paul B]

Thanks Paulie. I have a prescription "goop" the Pain Doc gave me as well as prescription patches. (the ones that smell like Christmas trees) along with a Rx narcotic and some other type of Rx pain med so I'm good.

(I'm also walking around with that Tens Pack)

She did the ablation a few weeks ago and 16 shots of cortisone. Actually 8 of those was just lidocaine so you don't scream to much during the ablation where they burn the nerves. I got a new shoulder and knee and soon will get another shoulder. I am trying to see how much titanium I can squeeze into my body before I become magnetic.

I am actually in much better shape than most people my age and all my internal stuff runs like well oiled machinery. American machinery, not that cheap stuff from Home Depot.

Bones, tendons, disks and ligaments won't kill you, they just cause pain and if you didn't have 34 surgeries by the time you reach my age, you didn't do enough or have enough fun.