Secondary Injuries are the worse
Posted: Mon May 20, 2013 1:25 pm
It's been awhile since I have posted, all though I check the forums frequently. As most of us older adult BPI injured can tell you, the worse thing about having a BPI is chance of secondary injuries. Well, my bull headiness of "I can do it myself" finally caught up with me.
I started having lower back pain August 2012. Yes sent to physical therapy by my doctor, which did not seem to help a lot. After failure with PT, I pleaded with the doctor to have an MRI done. Sure enough I had bilateral fractures on my L5 vertebra, which was allowing which the top half of my spine to slip 5mm forward and a destroyed disc at L5-S1 joint. Primary care doctor told it was no big deal, extra PT, and pain injections was all I needed. Um NO! I work in healthcare and new better than that. I went ahead and got the opinion of a orthopedic spinal specialist. He took additional xrays and found that my spine would flex to a 50% slip, thus putting pressure on my sciatic nerve. Needless to say I was scheduled for surgery in April 2013 for a spinal fusion of L4-S1 (6 screws and 4 rods), laminectomy, discectomy, artificial disc placement, and bone grafts. I am doing amazing now.
Believe it or not 1 in 10 people walk around with a fracture on a vertebra. According to my doctor fractures on the vertebra do not heal like a regular arm fracture, instead they fill with a fibrous tissue that will eventually give way. Here is the kicker for us BPIers, You can fracture you vertebra by hyper-extending your back. Kids can do this when playing sports or gymnastics. My doctor is not a 100% positive, but due to lack of strength and arm motion in my BPI arm, he believes this was a huge contributing factor to my back injury. I more than likely lifted or lowered something high above my head that was to heavy for my arms, therefore hyper-extending my back. For more information look up Spondylosis and Spondylothesis.
Word of Advice: If something is to heavy to lift with your arm, don't strain to lift using your back. If something is too high and has some decent weight to it, don't try and get it down yourself. Many people compensate using their backs and risk hyper -extending the back.
I started having lower back pain August 2012. Yes sent to physical therapy by my doctor, which did not seem to help a lot. After failure with PT, I pleaded with the doctor to have an MRI done. Sure enough I had bilateral fractures on my L5 vertebra, which was allowing which the top half of my spine to slip 5mm forward and a destroyed disc at L5-S1 joint. Primary care doctor told it was no big deal, extra PT, and pain injections was all I needed. Um NO! I work in healthcare and new better than that. I went ahead and got the opinion of a orthopedic spinal specialist. He took additional xrays and found that my spine would flex to a 50% slip, thus putting pressure on my sciatic nerve. Needless to say I was scheduled for surgery in April 2013 for a spinal fusion of L4-S1 (6 screws and 4 rods), laminectomy, discectomy, artificial disc placement, and bone grafts. I am doing amazing now.
Believe it or not 1 in 10 people walk around with a fracture on a vertebra. According to my doctor fractures on the vertebra do not heal like a regular arm fracture, instead they fill with a fibrous tissue that will eventually give way. Here is the kicker for us BPIers, You can fracture you vertebra by hyper-extending your back. Kids can do this when playing sports or gymnastics. My doctor is not a 100% positive, but due to lack of strength and arm motion in my BPI arm, he believes this was a huge contributing factor to my back injury. I more than likely lifted or lowered something high above my head that was to heavy for my arms, therefore hyper-extending my back. For more information look up Spondylosis and Spondylothesis.
Word of Advice: If something is to heavy to lift with your arm, don't strain to lift using your back. If something is too high and has some decent weight to it, don't try and get it down yourself. Many people compensate using their backs and risk hyper -extending the back.
Finding a safe area in adapting to what you want to try is Very hard for us 
Courage and secondary injuries happen, But because we fine ways to adapt in life , Trying and further injuries and pain will happen, But by post so many here, just learn to deal with it the best we can 
It is a acquired thing over a life time, I try to remember it to ??