I know how ye feel D. Since I met Dee I’ve had 4 health disasters. Got over one with a back operation… hit with another. Give up work. Go to college to entry qualification for uni. End o 2nd year at uni, hit with another, a year oot and 6 months chemo. Make full recovery. Get back to Uni. Graduate with a degree in Environmental Science/Geography, then a month later diagnosed with arthritis in both hips and has now spread to my lower spine.
I first injured my back playing football in 1994. I jumped up to head the ball and threw my neck and head at the ball but completely missed it. I heard a horrible ripping crunching sound. I said to people at the time I feel like my whole body has taken a lurch to the left. My shoulder muscle was wrecked and ripped to fuck. No one ever x rayed my lower back. When my shoulder muscle healed it nipped the nerve. I went about with right hand resting on top of my head for about 4 months because that position un-nipped the nerve in my shoulder/arm.
I got a job working Concrete Repairs all over the UK. My back kept going oot and it would take 3 or 4 weeks to recover. I had to get a job in Dundee and give up working for Concrete Repairs.
I got a job in a factory that makes petrol pumps. My back still went oot on a regular basis.
I was going to my GP but he never ever believed I had back problems. I was a temp at work (before temps had rights) and knew if I was off that would be the end of it and would never got a full time job. I soldiered on for about 6 months and eventually became a full time Employee of Schlumberger. My back kept going oot though and I was regularly aff work. My GP even followed me oot side to make sure I was still limping. I spotted him when my daughter was helping me into the car. He never sent me for x rays or gave me pain killers. He made assumptions because of where I lived. He does not want to work and he wants drugs is what he thought about me.
My work and even my ex began to doubt me tae.
My work told me if you are off with a bad back again you will not be getting sick pay!!
One of my friends said change your GP. I had never thought o that for some reason.
I changed my GP practice completely, told them my story. They immediately sent me for x rays on my lower spine. Two days later they phoned me and said you need to go Brechin (Strathcathro) for a MRI Scan.
That week I was diagnosed with broken back. One my vertebrae was oot o alignment from the football injury (the lurch to the left). Because it had gone untreated for 9 years it had began to crumble and fragments were floating aboot in my spinal canal. When they hit the nerve that’s when my back would go oot. I got an operation in 2004 to remove the bone fragments.
There was no way to move the vertebrae back and it’s now classed as progressive degenerative.
HR at work could not look me in the eye and gave me £5000 to fuck off. By that time I had not been to work in 3 years and did not know I still worked there! I was actually at Uni when they called me in. I never told them I had been to college and was now at uni.
Holy fuck
I know how ye feel D. Since I met Dee I’ve had 4 health disasters. Got over one with a back operation… hit with another. Give up work. Go to college to entry qualification for uni. End o 2nd year at uni, hit with another, a year oot and 6 months chemo. Make full recovery. Get back to Uni. Graduate with a degree in Environmental Science/Geography, then a month later diagnosed with arthritis in both hips and has now spread to my lower spine.
I first injured my back playing football in 1994. I jumped up to head the ball and threw my neck and head at the ball but completely missed it. I heard a horrible ripping crunching sound. I said to people at the time I feel like my whole body has taken a lurch to the left. My shoulder muscle was wrecked and ripped to fuck. No one ever x rayed my lower back. When my shoulder muscle healed it nipped the nerve. I went about with right hand resting on top of my head for about 4 months because that position un-nipped the nerve in my shoulder/arm.
I got a job working Concrete Repairs all over the UK. My back kept going oot and it would take 3 or 4 weeks to recover. I had to get a job in Dundee and give up working for Concrete Repairs.
I got a job in a factory that makes petrol pumps. My back still went oot on a regular basis.
I was going to my GP but he never ever believed I had back problems. I was a temp at work (before temps had rights) and knew if I was off that would be the end of it and would never got a full time job. I soldiered on for about 6 months and eventually became a full time Employee of Schlumberger. My back kept going oot though and I was regularly aff work. My GP even followed me oot side to make sure I was still limping. I spotted him when my daughter was helping me into the car. He never sent me for x rays or gave me pain killers. He made assumptions because of where I lived. He does not want to work and he wants drugs is what he thought about me.
My work and even my ex began to doubt me tae.
My work told me if you are off with a bad back again you will not be getting sick pay!!
One of my friends said change your GP. I had never thought o that for some reason.
I changed my GP practice completely, told them my story. They immediately sent me for x rays on my lower spine. Two days later they phoned me and said you need to go Brechin (Strathcathro) for a MRI Scan.
That week I was diagnosed with broken back. One my vertebrae was oot o alignment from the football injury (the lurch to the left). Because it had gone untreated for 9 years it had began to crumble and fragments were floating aboot in my spinal canal. When they hit the nerve that’s when my back would go oot. I got an operation in 2004 to remove the bone fragments.
There was no way to move the vertebrae back and it’s now classed as progressive degenerative.
HR at work could not look me in the eye and gave me £5000 to fuck off. By that time I had not been to work in 3 years and did not know I still worked there! I was actually at Uni when they called me in. I never told them I had been to college and was now at uni.
Holy fuck Richie
That's horrific mate
I feel for you as my Dad was injured in the yards at the age of 33, an apprentice left his tools lying around and my Dad was teaching them how to do something, stepped back on a tool and slipped a disc
No compo in the early sixties and his doctor told him you'll be off for a day or two so back he went until he collapsed again first day
The disc was pressing on his spine and I came home from school at the age of 10 to find the man who was my hero, bent over a chair with his knee resting on a cushion, trying not to let his boy see the tears in his eyes from the pain
He couldn't work for years after that, and they couldn't operate because there was a good chance he'd be paralyzed and in a wheelchair for life
8 years later, he had the operation, full body cast afterwards from his chest to his groin, for 8 months
I watched my hero, who was the strongest man I ever knew, and the biggest influence in my life growing up, go through torture and my beautiful Mother worked two jobs to keep us going to supplement our income, she was the strong one
Two years after the operation, my Dad who was a journeyman, got a job in IBM, maintenance, it was a heavy job, and after being sedentary for so long, it took a toll on him
He had a stroke and a heart attack, and that was his working life done at the age of 43 - 44
I grew up in a loving home, I was lucky, and I learned how to do household chores, make dinners, learnt to bake from my granny, and still love cooking and baking to this day, long before any of my mates...which has stood me in good stead
My Dad took to drink, and the painkillers fucked him up
He used to watch out the window watching the guys go to work...I can hear him saying "Look at those lucky bastards" even in the dead of Winter
His health suffered, but he was loved by everyone, and his sense of humour saw him carry through all the shit
He passed away at the age of 51 and my Mum followed him four years later aged 52
I crawled into a bottle for a while, and lost some friends because I was an angry man...until I decided I didn't want to be that man...I have been off drink for 30 years, and it saved my life tbh
Richy, you are a great man, and I am glad to call you friend
Many people never get out of the rut they're in and play the "Why me..." game...some of us have their folks genes, good or bad...the good is who my parental role models were, and the bad because I've inherited their health issues
I wouldn't change my upbringing for anything
No medals required, we are built that way, and it's in many of this Community's DNA
I am a much better person, and am happy in my skin and who I am
I have many flaws, but my wife and kids, my Granddaughter and the pets we've had, all know how loved they are, and it's reciprocal
And the close friends I have are Diamonds, some on here are in that category
People say adversity builds character, I tend to think more along the lines of it building character
Some of us on here, who know what I'm saying are in that category
Richy, you give Dee a big hug mate, I'm doing the same to Kerry when she gets home from her doctors appointment
Anyway thanks for the kind words
All of you shall Never Walk Alone
Cyber hugs sent to each and everyone one of you
D
little artistic licence there
concrete repairs to university that’s a leap!!!a would’ve went back to the bastard doctor who doubted you and tore the cunt in half
.hope it’s gravy from here on in mate
