Work Safely to not Tear your body up

[63bkpkr]

Hi All 63kbpkr here and fresh out of the operating room on the 18th of March 2013.

The MRI indicated I had a completely torn rotary cuff, that's a tendon and muscle combo and is a part of the miracle of our bodies. In addition the MRI hinted at other damage in there.

When my surgeon got in there he found the rotary cuff tendon/muscle so damaged it was not useable. He used a portion of some similar tendon/muscle nearby to perform the surgery.

How did I manage to do this over time to myself. I work very hard and thereby get lots accomplished including really messing up my shoulder. In 2010 I found a fun paystreak along a river bank. I went at it with shovel and 5' long pry bar. With the pry bar I found I could move very large boulders but as the bar was a relatively short lever arm I needed to exert a great deal of energy to lift the boulders. This high stress spread out over a month or more of this type of work likely caused some damage. After I'd finished doing the dig and pry bar routine I had quite a trench started and to keep the bank from eroding I filled the trench with a lot of boulders and this likely added to the damage.


I've also done a fair amount of chain saw work cutting up firewood, tossing the logs and doing typical firewood duty and this could have added to my shoulder damage.

My hope here in sharing this with you is to alert you to the damage we can create to our own bodies by doing the things we like to do. We can still do them but we need to work our bodies less by using cable pullers and longer pry bars. Will I still do this type of work, Yes! But I will be smarter about it.

So I've one shoulder repaired and one more shoulder to be repaired as well as a knee to be repaired and I hope this does not sound like fun to any of you as it is not and it will be costly.

Caution to all to take care of yourselves out there...............63bkpkr

 

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[tridge800]

Wishing u a speedy recovery!!

 

[calnatv]

Glad it went O.K.Great advice. Unfortunately you'll be out for a while. I'm sure mine wore out from years of dredging and rock chucking. 8 months later and I'm still doing therapy. I don't have 100% motion, but my strength is back.
Do your therapy and don't get hooked on those pain pills. They are no fun getting off of.

 

[63bkpkr]

Right on folks on all accounts! Thank you for the well wishes.............63bkpkr

 

[Oakview2]

Herb

Hope you have a speedy and complete recovery...

 

[NeoTokyo]

Someone has to say it, could you show us some of that gold that you found in the paystreak?

Its good to hear that your doing better though, wise words for the young and dumb for sure (I am in that range! lol)

 

[LinkHylian]

Thank you for the advice, heal up quick!!!! Hope you get something cool and bionic implanted btw.

 

[Hoser John]

Like a dog after a juicy bone,the fever sets in and the boulders fly and the elbows and shoulders die. Kaka hapens as much better to have flown like a eagle for a hour than waddled through life like a fat duck and never done nuttn' cool. Heal up Herb and come on up as in the gold again bud,then aches and pains frozen in frigid waters but the dwts. a oro puro sure making it feel much better,that and my new vibrating heating pad John

 

[russau]

well 63, welcome to the club! i also just had rotator cuff surgury on my right shoulder and had it done on my left shoulder 4 years ago..................and herniated 3 vertabras in my lower back. PT is where its at right now and the heck with them pills!trying to get my streangth up for dredgeing this year. OR itll all go up for sale!

 

[calisdad]

Wishing you a speedy recovery....... and a longer prybar.

 

[DesertNuggets]

Get well man! Gold awaits.

 

[robgwv]

Get well,Hunt hard... Just had mine checked out.Thought I tore something. Xrays say degenerative and arthritic changes.Not good news....Cortizone and have a nice day...Till next shot...

 

[63bkpkr]

Well, I'm trying to post a reply with pictures and it is not happening easily, maybe its the surgery. Sierra river

Opening the vault

First signs

A little deeper

Lead, magnetic rocks and gold

More effort

See next page, I hope

 

[63bkpkr]

So far so good, here's the second group to answer Neo's request:

More signs

New Equipment w/A52

More effort

A 52 cleanout

Diminishing signs

Site back filled

More of the river

All the adventure on top of a 50 cent piece

So Neo, that's what it looked like..........63bkpkr

 

[B H Prospector]

Heal quick 63 so you can get back diggin. Take care.

B H Prospector

 

[Fabrication Specialists]

Good evening 63bkpkr,
Best wishes on a speedy recovery. I am still recovering from a spinal surgery some months ago (L5-S1 fusion). People just need to slow down, think about what you're doing and always wear your ppe (personal protective equipment). I was a professional firefighter for 15 years before my broken back, and I can't begin to tell you how many injuries I've seen prevented over the years by the simple things like gloves and eye protection. Some times you're in a hurry to do something, left your gloves at the truck, forgot your boots at home or whatever but it's that little bit of carelessness and complacency when you get hurt. The old "I've done this a thousand times and it's no big deal" is when bad things happen. I used to teach my firefighters it as simple as a quick "risk vs benefit" thought process that can prevent an injury. Is the risk of what your doing worth the "possible" benefit? Sure you can "probably" unload the dredge yourself and not wait the extra 5 minutes for your buddy to get there, BUT is it worth it? That's my advice for the day to prevent injuries, if you're not quite sure what to do, step back take a breath and have a second look at what your plan is and think about the risk vs benefit of your actions. Sure a lot of times you can skate by and be ok and never realize an accident was so close to happening, but staying safe starts with you and believe it or not YOU doing something so simple as grabbing your gloves can remind the guy next to you to grab his.

Hopefully this was some help to someone, and we're wishing you a speedy recovery 63bkpkr!

Thanks, Chris

 

[63bkpkr]

A little thought before being in action

Hi Chris,
Your comments are so correct! Some of my current problems may have been lessened if I'd taken another bite with the pry bar instead of pushing a little harder with the muscles. Think first about what one is about to do, are you in a hurry to get it done, time crunch - do it another day or time.

Thank you for the thoughts and best wishes..............63bkpkr

 

[minerrick]

I've got rotator cuff issues and pain that travels down both of my arms from my shoulders. I am doing PT and my Chiro tells me she will shoot me if I ever pick up another wreaking bar again. "NEVER" she tells me, should I even look at a wreaking bar. So now I am starting to see that this condition is an occupational hazard of enthusiastically mining.

So I will issue a warning to younger guys (unlike any warning any older guy ever gave me): PROTECT YOUR BODIES as it is the only one you've got. My Chiro tells me that after spending a day of working and prying rocks I should have been doing "reverse stretches" of my wrists (put them palm down or back of the hand down on a flat surface) and stretch out the tendons after a hard days work. The people who are working on me say my muscles are all bound up in my arms and they need to be stretched out before I can expect any pain to go away. It sucks as I have no grip strength, I cannot grasp and rotate my wrist and all hell brakes loose when I pick up a wrecking bar- pain from the tip of my fingers to the center of my back.

I've done pretty good, as I am 57 and only now am I getting pain. Fortunately, it isn't bad enough that I feel I need to take meds. I just try to stay away from doing stuff that inflames the pain. Hopefully I will get back in shape in time to start mining early this summer. And I will do the reverse stretches.

 

[Fabrication Specialists]

Good evening,
Man I wish I made it to be that age before I started having problems. Being a wildland firefighter for 15 years beat up my body BAD. Here's a quick list of my surgeries to rebuild me after beating myself to a pulp,

2 left knee surgeries
2 right knee surgeries
1 hernia repair
1 back surgery to remove nerves being compressed and causing pain
1 spinal fusion surgery to bolt my back together after I kinda broke it

all that and I'll be 35 next month! Yeah all you younger folks out there, take care of yourselves, or else life will suck later! You don't realize how much freedom you have as far as walking, bending, stretching, etc until you can't do it. Granted I had a great career and a ton of great stories, but when you hurt getting out of bed and all day, it's no fun. BE GOOD TO YOUR BODY!!!

 

[minerrick]

Wow.... all those surgeries and you are only 35? So far no surgeries for me. The only time I have been to a hospital other than being born was last summer when I got dehydrated and my wife thought I was having a heart attack. I got to get a $17,000 a nite "hotel" room where they kept prodding and poking me all night. For that kind of money, you would expect you could get a good night's sleep.

I used to go pretty gung ho on mountain biking and skiing, but when I turned 53, I told myself, "what does it prove if you rack yourself up?", so I have since become more careful about how I do things. If I had a son, I would sit them down and have a "father/son" talk about aging bodies. It really gets fun when all your joints start making noise when you move them. My aging body is full of surprises. If any of you older guys have any advice, I'd like to hear what I have to look forward to. Are your bodies weather prediction devices? Not yet for mine.......