Tag Archives: Health & Safety

Back in the Game

Posted by on May 12, 2010 No comments

I’ll just toss out a story I have on seating and lumbar support.  Before owning the MX5, I spent 10 years in an Acura TL.  Its lumbar support was pretty pitiful – just a lever that would push a bar forward in the seat.  But still, I used it from day one because I heard that lumbar support was good. 

A few months after owning the car, my back went out while I was standing up in the office.  I had never had back problems before and at that time, I wasn’t really overweight.  That injury put me out of commission for a week and changed my life forever.  Those of you that have had back failures know you are never the same afterwards.  But at the time I never considered why it happened.  It was a mystery.

Almost 10 years later, I had another significant back failure (and blogged it).  Another week of lying in bed, afraid to move at all.  I attribute this failure to poor riding posture on my then-new motorcycle.  The hump for the passenger seat was pushing very hard into my lower back.  Still though, I never wondered why my back failed to begin with.

At this time in my life, I’m doing a 150-mile commute a day and working 9 hours at a desk – nothing but sitting.  This is literally destroying my back.  The pain was constant, I was popping Advil for days straight, and I was hating life.  After a business trip for a few days, I was feeling better but when I got in the car, within 10 minutes my back was killing me.  I was cursing Acura for having such crappy lumbar support, not like some cars like the old Ford Taurus with the inflatable bladder.

I fiddled around with the seat positions for a while and found two things that turned me around completely.  One, sitting with my legs together.  I used to drive more (ahem) spread-eagle and the bolsters on the seat were pushing on my hamstrings and the sciatic nerve.  Two, turn off the lumbar support.  This shocked me.  After ten years of leaving that bar pushed against my back, I found I never needed it.  In fact, I’m inclined to think that it caused my first, life-changing back failure.  It makes sense that the same pushing of the motorcycle seat and the Acura lumbar support have the same result.

When I was planning the purchase of my MX5, I read as much as I could on the seats and it’s kind of a love-it-or-hate-it thing.  I found a store that sells inflatable lumbar support and budgeted to buy one (at around $100).  After a few weeks in the new seat, with proper seating posture, I don’t think I’m going to need it at all.  I have a slight concern about the side bolsters pushing against my hips, but if I flex my glutes, I can push myself up and the pressure is relieved.  This is kind of motivating for me to (re)develop those muscles that have atrophied from years of deskwork.

So, if you have back pain and are constantly searching for better or stronger lumbar support, maybe you don’t need it.  Maybe the lumbar support is what is causing the back pain, as it was for me.

Back for the Attack, or My Back’s Second Attack

Posted by on July 14, 2009 No comments

Somewhere around 10 years ago, I had a back “issue”.  I wasn’t doing anything crazy, all I did was plug my laptop in to a power strip on the floor and stand up.  Well, I didn’t get all the way up, because I was frozen in pain.  The pale white, cold sweat kind of pain.  Off to the hospital and then home for bed rest.  If I remember correctly, it took at least a week to recover.

10 years later, I get an anniversary visit.  Again, not doing anything stressful, but maybe I can identify a little more that contributed to it this time.  The memories are not so pleasant as each one comes back to me.  This time around I don’t have the luxury of higher medication, so I’m getting by on heat, cold, and Advil.  I have a business trip next Wednesday; not sure how that’s going to go.  But I’ve had a couple observations as I attempt to remain as still as humanly possible to reduce the likelihood of pain.

This is more of a restatement of a fact I learned 10 years ago.  Once you have a back failure, you will never be the same.  And that was true.  Every once in a while I’d get a warning that I was doing something wrong or overdoing something else.  I was always careful to take it easy after that.  This time, I think I got the warnings too late.

Next, recovering from a failure is like playing Operation.  You move slowly, carefully, trying to remain as steady and still as possible, then BZZZZT! – you get zapped.  You freak out, nearly collapse from the stabbing pain (or just freeze solid), and you lose the round.  You have to start over.

Typical things become scary as hell.  Coughing, sneezing, going to the bathroom, all might trigger a slight pain or a massive wave of pain.  I am sure it is just like having any abdominal surgery except on the opposite side of the body.  Something simple like getting up to get a drink is not so simple.

Time seems to shift around.  This morning when I sat on the edge of the bed and had a total seize, when I finally got myself lying down again, I looked at the clock.  It was 9:00.  The next time I was able to look at the clock it was 9:12.  I must have passed out from the pain or something, because it only felt like a minute.

I’m not spouting these observations as complaining or whining.  I kind of find them amusing.  It’s like I was one kind of person – healthy, active (both overstatements, BTW) – and now I’m a disabled person.  To me it feels like a test, like “let’s see how you handle this.”  And for the most part, I think I’m doing ok.  I’m still as productive at work as I was when I was at my desk.  I am getting by with lunch delivered to me.  If things get really bad, I might have to have food delivered or drive to a drive-through.  I can’t walk for extended periods right now.

But being in this condition makes one wonder, what if I was like this for the rest of my life?  That’s an answer I’ll not share.

Changing Gears

Posted by on May 10, 2009 No comments

I’ve taken up the hobby of motorcycling in the last couple of months.  My nature is to resist acceptance of anything that seems cliché, so when a lot of oft-heard sayings suddenly became applicable to me, it was annoying.  I tried very hard to find a personal reason for feeling like I did, but for the most part had to accept that I was just like everyone else.

The first observation of my new hobby is that it slows my life down dramatically.  Before, I would hop in the car and go.  Now I have to pull the bike out of the shed, push it over to the driveway (exhausting, at times), safety check the bike, warm the bike up, get the gear on, then go.  This can be a 15-20 minute delay.  Then once arriving at the destination, park the bike safely, de-gear, lock up helmet, then continue.  Another 5 minutes.  Then more when leaving again.  The closest parallel I can come up with is that it’s like travelling with an infant.  And that is something I never was and never will be envious of.  But, it forces me to slow down, which I think has some benefits.

Next observation, my appetite is diminished.  By about half, I’m figuring.  This one I’m still trying to figure out.  Either the stress from the ride (because it’s pretty much high-alert most of the time), the dehydration from the heat and gear, or the natural workout from battling wind forces – another observation – is cutting my food intake.  This doesn’t happen on weekdays when I’m driving the car.

Third observation, riding is kind of a workout.  This is something that reminds me of a previous experience, indoor skydiving.  In both cases, your body is trying to maintain a form against wind forces causing lots of muscle micro-motions that eventually tire you out.  To a lesser degree, you are also shifting your weight fairly often when riding, which could work some muscle groups that don’t see activity otherwise.  It makes me think of someone who had ridden a horse for the first time and said that muscles he’d never known about were sore for days.  I sure don’t expect to get ripped from riding motorcycle, but I did lose almost 5 pounds after a couple of weekends.  It’s probably lost water from dehydration, but I can hope.

Final personal observation, everything is new at first, then it becomes normal.  Wearing gear seemed odd at first, but now feels normal.  I felt weird putting on this and that and the other.  Eventually you become less conscious (or self-conscious) when gearing up.  When I’m in a car, I feel very unsafe without wearing a seat belt.  I wear my seat belt even if I’m the only one in the car that does.  I am sure I would feel so much more unsafe without my gear and I don’t think any peer pressure could keep me from wearing it.  Start good habits from the beginning.  Going over 45 mph was scary at first, now 55 is normal.  You need to get used to the feeling of wind, vibration, and engine noise.  Then it becomes “normal” sound and sensation.

Lastly, all the “I told you so” things that I felt. 

  • You have much greater control with a manual transmission – check.  I’d never driven anything but an automatic.  I’m not convinced I want a stick-shift car, though.
  • You have much greater control on a motorcycle – check.  The braking, acceleration, and cornering are much better than a car.  You give up a lot of safety being on a bike, but it’s mitigated by the ability to get away or get around a dangerous situation.
  • You feel more in touch with nature on a motorcycle – that’s a little over-romanticized for me, but I have to agree that being in the open air is a much greater experience than being in a car. 
  • When you’re riding, you don’t want the trip to end – I guess so.  I have ridden past my planned destination often and purposely missed my turns nearly as much.

Last Saturday and Sunday, I didn’t drive the car at all.  This weekend, I didn’t drive Friday, Saturday or Sunday until dinner.  When I got in the car to get dinner, it felt odd.  I guess that is the first sign that being a rider is what I really want to do.  If I didn’t have such a long and dangerous commute to work, I probably would ride very day.  I regret I did not take up this hobby years earlier.

America the Weak

Posted by on April 10, 2008 No comments

Here’s a rant.  This is a peeve of mine.  I was at Wendy’s and I went back up to the counter for a refill.  I took the lid off the cup and the counter girl asked what I was drinking.  Coke, obviously.  So she grabs a new cup and starts putting ice in it.  I’d seen this many times and it always angered me at the simple waste of a cup.

So I asked, can’t you just use this cup?  She said no, that I might have a cold and not know it, or I might have "done something" to the cup, and that it was a health risk for her to take it; they could get sued.  Ok.  I understand.  She gave me my new drink and I asked "can you throw this one away?"  Sure.  She took it from me and I said, "Now you’re touching my cup.  Why couldn’t you fill it?"  she quickly countered with "but I can wash my hands afterwards."  And you could have washed your hands after filling the dirty, filthy, customer cup, too.

But America doesn’t think like that.  A bunch of germophobic, sue-happy morons.  Here’s a clue: Germs don’t obey the law.  You and your immune system are either stronger than them or you will succumb to them.  You can’t pass laws and policies that will stop them.