Off the Disabled List

As I said a couple posts ago I have had to deal with a herniated disk in my neck since the last couple days of November. I am feeling much better now. I went to a chiropractor and amazingly after two visits I feel 90% better. In the next paragraphs I will explain what the pinched nerve felt like, so if you don’t want to read about someone’s medical issues skip down to the fishing.

The symptoms are pain in my shoulder and upper arm. I can be tough for a while but being in constant pain is mentally exhausting. I had to sleep sitting up for about a week and even then I’d sleep about twenty minutes at a time. You have no idea how long a night is when you wake up twenty to thirty times.  Sometimes it felt as though a match was burning my bicep muscle from the inside. No word of a lie, the muscle felt it was like it was on fire. Other times it felt as though I had a nail being wedges into my shoulder. The pain moved and I could fall asleep with pain in one spot and wake up fifteen minutes later with it shooting in another. It is impossible to enjoy watching tv. To read a book isn’t even an option because it is impossible to concentrate for more than a line or two without going back to the pain. Honestly, I can’t imagine Hell being any worse. For those of you that have had your sciatic nerve pinched and giving you great pain, I can relate and you have my full sympathy.
Luckily, this chiropractor is amazing. Last time I had this happen I tried to work through it for six weeks. Then I told my boss I needed time off to heal. I went to physical therapy three times a week along with doctor’s visits. After almost another month of this rehab I was finally pain free and ready to go back to work. My job had been eliminated.

As you can imagine, when this happened again, my biggest fear was that I would be jobless again. So I was honest with my boss about the pain. Luckily for me I got to spend most of the last week training a new manager so I did not have to do much manual labor.
I was told to try a chiropractor that had done wonders for a customer at work. After a really painful day I made an appointment. Unfortunately, I called on Tuesday but he didn’t have any openings until Thursday so I sucked it up another two nights.

On Friday morning I explained to him my previous injury, how this was exactly the same and hoped he could help. He worked on me and the total visit was only 30 minutes. That night I was in a lot of pain. I had to sleep sitting up. The next morning about 10 am, the pain went away. In about a five minute period I went from a lot of pain to it being gone.  I still felt some numbness and if I sneezed I felt a quick shooting pain but for the most part it was gone. All day Friday and Saturday I did everything I could to not jar loose my disk. I walked down stairs on my tip toes. I walked on uneven ground slowly. I even got in my car slowly instead of bounding in like normal.

I had another appointment Monday. I asked him a bunch of questions and he was great answering them about how a herniated disk works. He explained what he did and what I could expect. He worked on me less than the first time and I left my upper arm felt a little pulverized like it had been hit by a meat tenderizer but it wasn’t too bad. Other than the pain being almost gone, the best news was he told me the act of casting a fishing pole would not hurt the disk!!! Bo-yah!!!!!

I didn’t go fishing last night because my arm was a bit tender, but you can bet your ass I went tonight. Fishing was great. Between Dave and myself, we caught over forty stripers. Apparently if I would have gone last night fishing was just as good. We caught them all on Zoom Flukes. I didn’t whip out the bucktail jig, I was happy just catching fish. Experimenting to see what they would or wouldn’t hit could wait for another night. Tonight it was just nice to get out and catch some fish. Honestly it was just nice to get out, fish, and be pain free. Catching fish made it all the more sweeter.
Hopefully, I can keep healing. I took a couple Advil tonight as preventive maintenance in case there is any swelling. A couple is fine. For the last month I was eating Advil like it is a food group. So if all goes well (meaning I wake up pain free in the morning) I should have more fishing posts in the near future. I have Friday and Saturday off this weekend, I do not plan to waste it

Sorry no pictures, we both left the camera at home

Post script: I wrote this last night about 11 pm. I woke up with a little tiny pain. I took some Advil and had some soda ( caffeine is a pain reliever for me, weird, huh?). I went fishing again tonight. Did not get a hit. Go figure.

I want to thank Angela Huestis for getting me the phone number for the doctor. I would also like to thank him, however I dod not have his name on me at the moment. I probably owe him my sanity and my the fact I still have a
job.