apparently im not the only one who's noticed wheeler dealers sucks since they moved to CA:

Commercial but pretty funny.

I taught somebody to shred tires yesterday.

I want to play this game.... so bad.

Looks like Contra with acid inspired graphics.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ntra_cover.jpg

Here in Rosslyn, they started putting the bike lanes on the inside of the parking lane. it's kinda nice:

https://www.arlnow.com/wp-content/up...A1SHs-1024.jpg

http://www.guusbosman.nl/images/logb...25bikelane.jpg

Now everyone parked gets a ticket for being too far from the curb! Muhahaha

i wouldn't be shocked in arlington...

I'm not a biker. But here in Detroit they're doing some neat stuff for those who are. Everything from converting old railway lines to bike routes. Completely protected areas for bikes. As well as hundreds of miles of specific lanes for them. We have plenty of roadway, since the city was designed around the automotive industry, it's common to see 8 and 10 lane wide surface streets going into and out of the city.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8c6c4cc6cf.jpg

We also offer cycling tours that go around the city. As well as bike rental stations in many locations. As bad as this city may be, the downtown area and surrounding districts are absolutely awesome. This city has so much to offer and is doing good things, even after starting from the bottom. Everything in the city is growing and expanding. Though it's not hard to grow from rock bottom(bankruptcy).

We have a pretty big "slow roll" community. I hate these fucks for obvious reasons.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...12758736e3.jpg

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...645989d9e3.jpg

For Erat;

Bikers:
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...22fb90f1ba.jpg

Cyclists:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7fb3032633.jpg

So, I'm both a biker and a cyclist? Seems confusing.

On an unrelated note, this is a fine-looking tube:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...67948f1ca0.jpg

This is amazing

Thanks to the miracle of modern science, I now posses a high resolution, cross-sectional image of my own asshole:


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...67faa908ff.png

And now so do I!
Thanks!

http://img.allnurses.com/cartoon/nur...nformation.jpg


. . . and now so have we. :facepalm:

This srsly had me in tears

In all seriousness, though... I'm not a radiologist, but this doesn't look normal to me:


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7f2d5ace18.png


I think we may finally have an explanation for why my back went to shit again after climbing in and out of Chiburbian's ground-scraping NB several times last weekend, which is a repeat of the episode that plagued me from Sep - Nov of last year.

Back pain sucks.

I also discovered that since my surgery, I have shrunk by almost an inch. They told me I would, but I never thought it'd be that much.

What was the procedure they did on you?

I'm legitimately sorry... It's not THAT low though? I raised it up about 3/4" from where it was.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e7074391a4.jpg

I love puddles pity party
The girl in the middle is Robyn Adele Anderson...I love this video too

One of my favorites:

Right side Lumbosacral Radiculopathy and Lumbar Laminectomy at S1. Herniated disc removal (partial) and enlargement of the opening for the nerve exit on the right side.

Recovery was 1 month before I returned to work, one year before pains disappeared.

Yowsa...

In my case, the pain is centralized in the lumbar region, and is extremely sharp- not dull or achy. It radiates into the left hip, but only occasionally into the left leg itself (and then, only into the thigh, rarely the lower leg, and never the foot), and I've not experienced any numbness or loss of muscle control, which is atypical for sciatica from what I understand.

It's also not constant. Some event sets it off, it hangs around for a month or two (with anti-inflammatory and muscle-relaxants) and then dissipates until the next episode.

Anyway, this is the image series that really caught my attention:


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2ea7bb7734.gif


Note frame IM: 10. Some shit is fucked up down there. On the one hand, I'm displeased by this. On the other hand, I'm hopeful that we now have a diagnosis which allows us to move forward, rather than just "here's a prescription for more narcotics, and do some PT."

Anytime you have pain radiating into the butt or leg, that is sciatica. Mine went all the way to my foot, and was constant. You probably have a ruptured/slipped disc, and it impinges (presses) on the nerve. Nerves don't like that, and signal their displeasure by causing pain. Modern laser surgery can help correct this, by removing minor disc eruptions. My surgery was originally supposed to be laparoscopic, but it was determined that the laminectomy (cutting away part of the vertebra) necessitated a more invasive procedure. Part of that was because the nerve was so swollen that just removing the disc bulge wasn't enough.

In the images above, you can clearly see the discs at S1 and S2 are displaced. Those dark blobs outside the spinal column are the culprit. That is not supposed to be like that. Hate to say it, but you are probably looking at some form of surgery to fix.

Even now, if I over do it (lifting/bending), I get some sciatica. It tells me to back off and be more careful. Fortunately, I no longer have to take anything stronger than acetaminophen. There was a time where I was popping Vicodin faster than Dr. House.

Ah, don't be sorry. I'm just turning into a rickety old man.

EDIT: And sorry I kinda cut out on you early, but I was in serious fucking agony towards the end. I cried in the car on the way home. (Hoisting those last two wheels, the ones with rubber on them, up onto the trunklid felt like I was being stabbed. And I've been stabbed, so I can speak to this from experience.)

For what it's worth, I finally understand your username. Chi-'burbian. With emphasis on the "burb" part. :D


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...eeaa1073be.png

I was going to ask about that, when I read the "1 month before I returned to work" part. I'm hoping for an endoscopic / laparoscopic solution here. I've only had open surgery once (to put my right hand back together), and it sucked majorly. By comparison, I walked the mile home from the hospital 18 hours after my appendectomy last year. Granted, it was a hard mile, but it was more gratifying than the 8-10 which I jogged every day at the time.


S2? I'm looking at the L4-L5 and L5-S1 regions.

But yeah, that's my takeaway as well. The coloration of those two discs in the image kinda concerns me- not sure why the density is so much different from the rest.



Aaah, great show.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3bdec5cf5d.jpg

I don't know why, but acetaminophen has never really done anything for me. Aspirin works well on stuff like headaches, but even the hydrocodon they've been giving me doesn't do much to take the edge off this one. I use it sparingly (still on the same bottle I got the last time, in October 2016) so I can't imagine that tolerance is an issue...



Also, it just now occurs to me that I posted an image last year which contained my full mailing address, and I still haven't received any ponies by mail.



Anyway, off to work. The Non-Union Electrical Fairy has some shit to get done this weekend while no one is around.

Would squatting help in your daily routine?

http://robbwolf.com/wp-content/uploa.../08/pic-5.jpg?

Yes, you are correct. I was copy & pasting from my records, and forgot to change it. The color difference is due to the fact that they are somewhat desiccated. This happens over time, especially when the discs have been damaged. The "juice" leaks out and is absorbed by the body. Mine were black/dark in my MRI as well.


I'm working on it. There are others ahead of you, and do you have any idea how long it takes to make a My Little Pony Trojan Horse?

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5afe7e7ef5.jpg

Welcome to old age. For irritated and inflamed nerves, I have always found that naproxen sodium (Aleve) works best.

Often people with nerve pain will be given gabapentin. It was originally developed as an epileptic drug, but they found it doesn't work so well for that. But it is very common for sciatica.

Unfortunately, side effects include "mood swings". I found that when I was on it, I became overly emotional* and slightly irrational. In other words, it makes you a woman.

Anyway, be forewarned.



* our family watched "Frozen", and I cried like a little girl. Wife thought it was funny.

No, but this guy does:

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/phot...79-500-370.jpg

Postage might be a tad excessive...


At the risk of interjecting politics into the Random thread, Pinkie Pie seems to be a common theme here.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ee47906374.png




Haven't tried that. I've been trying to stay away from the hydrocodon (haven't taken any in 3 days) as it screws with my head. I shall pick up a bottle.



I'll admit that I wept at the beginning of Up.

And when Han Solo died. And again when Rey found Luke.

And during the "well, this is it" scene in Toy Story 3.

And a couple of times during Battlestar Galactica.

I'm a softie for good drama...

Joe, given your height and build, L4 - L5 problems are more common than you would think.
One caveat to such problems is a healthy, active lifestyle.

And, it's a misleading caveat.
An active lifestyle keeps muscle groups in decent shape and they help the body maintain good posture, among other things.
Assisting the skeletal structure in this fashion helps conceal a number of back and especially lower back problems.
In other words, you live a happy life, without ever knowing there are certain problems with your "frame".

Then, there comes a time when you may be overworked, fallen weak for some reason, or stressed where you neglect yourself, or are no longer able to maintain a healthy level of activity to keep decent muscle tone.

BAM. you wake up with back pain one day.

It was an important client meeting for me. Heads of a major pharmaceutical company.
We shook hands, I took one step back to sit down, and suddenly there were a dozen rusty swords stuck in my body.
I was frozen in a semi standing, getting ready to sit down position, and they carried me that way.
A decent shot of muscle relaxant unraveled me at the hospital.

It was almost exactly a year to the day since I had stopped exercising. By exercising, I mean skiing regularly in two disciplines, rock climbing, mountain biking and playing soccer in the city league.

Anyway... Next week or so was pure hell. I kept falling for no reason - my left leg would just cease to exist - I would just fall on my face.
Pain was excrutiating at times. Like hot, burning oil running in my veins.

They gave me pain killers. Hell, they gave me killers. They were of pretty little use.

I saw two specialists. They both said "Surgery, now!"

So I had an emergency back surgery.
Turns out, I was just living merrily with a herniated disc. No big deal.
It became a big deal when the herniated disc ruptured and the torn bit slid down to the next vertebrae and lodged itself in the bundle of nerves coming out of it.
Random short circuit circus.

Not properly active anymore, my muscles had lost their tone, and no longer played their supportive role.
The rest was a domino effect with my body weight pounding on the herniated disc.

Surgery took a couple hours. I do not remember being wheeled back to my room.
I do remember the surgeon walking in the room after I woke up. He told me to get up and pack. Without help.
I did. It was a great feeling.

I went home and took it easy for four days, watching TV and movies, eating pizza and drinking tea.
Then I booked a ski trip.
My surgeon was delighted to hear about my ski trip.

I was skiing the black diamond stuff on Uludağ on the 21st day after my surgery.
That is where I cried. No one was around.

And, I never looked back.
Have the damn surgery. It gives you your life back.



Edit:

Sorry, this is a picture thread..

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...29ab1e2b46.jpg

I hear you.

When I lived in NYC, I didn't own a car and commuted by foot. Worked my way up to 8-10 miles a day, at about a 70% jog / 30% walk pace. Best shape I've ever been in my whole life.

Now that I'm in Chicago, I drive to work every day. My work day is about 3-4 hours at a desk, and 4-5 hours on my feet walking, climbing stairs, working inside racks, etc. At 6'2" and 185 lbs, I'm hardly obese, but I'm definitely not in marathon trim anymore. That may well be the explanation for why this has suddenly started to happen to me again, after nearly 3 years without a single episode.



My next doc appt is this coming Friday. He's not a specialist, but now that I've got the MRI I'm going to ask for a referral to the Chicago Back Institute, which rather conveniently is only a few miles from here at Swedish Covenant Hospital.

While I dread the idea of the convalescent period, if the docs there say "surgery," then I'm 100% on-board. I just want this to stop.





I want to be able to do this again:

http://images1.tickld.com/live/artic...4687136115.gif

(Without the sparkles, obviously. Also, that's the last pony meme, I promise.)

Waffles.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e8c387416e.jpg


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b835e0a965.jpg

This I don't get. Are they difficult to get?
I mean, I can walk into an imaging center and get one for maybe 25-30 bucks - free if I plop down my insurance card.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...094fc69dd4.jpg

No. He waffles...

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...99a6b25483.jpg

Also.
Explosion at Ukranian arms depot

click to play

In the states expect to need like 4 appointments.. also expect the insurance cover about 70% of the cost and also expect the insurance not to cover any of the cost unless you follow every single rule. Also most hospitals dont want to release them to you directly. They will often only release them to other doctors unless you jump through hoops to get them.

In the US, you need a prescription from a doctor to get an MRI, or any other medical imaging procedure.

In my case, I'd already established a relationship with an MD regarding this problem last year, so when it flared back up against last week, he wrote the order immediately. And getting the appointment for the MRI wasn't a problem. I made the phone call on Wednesday, and was inside the machine on Friday. (I was pleased to note that it was a Siemens Magnetom. I've never trusted GE, for some reason...)

Health insurance here typically works in such a way that, for a given year, the patent is responsible for all expenses up to a certain amount in a given year (called a deductible, which is $900 in my case), after which insurance takes over and you pay only a small percentage of the total cost (co-pay.) Since this is my first medical experience this year, the doc visit cost me $120 and the MRI was about $1,050. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, I just want to be able to drive a car like a normal human being without excruciating pain. (Protip: if you have radiating pain from sciatica in the left side, the clutch-leg is a tool of utter misery.)


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...34e9c9d0ff.jpg



Gas leg:

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...881050f3b1.png



Clutch leg:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c55045d112.png


(not my actual legs)


Which reminds me... I need to go to the hardware store and pick up some grip tape for the clutch pedal.





I've never had this problem. On Friday, I just said "Can I get a disc with the processed images, and a copy of the radiologists report?" and the girl at the desk immediately burned me a CD with the images, and gave me a card with the number for medical records where I can call next week to get the report.

Same deal with the X-rays when I broke my foot in 2009, and the fluoroscope images from the reconstruction of my right hand in 2014.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...fb10b1ef71.png

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8159854c0a.png

Unrelated to back-pain:

I have to assume that King George I is wondering where his jar of capers went:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0bd85e3313.png

I have paid as much as $1,200 for an MRI and his little as $40. It has taken only a few minutes to go from being admitted to getting an MRI to scheduling it out a couple of days depending upon the circumstances. I have asked for and received copies of the Imaging discs every time without any problem at all.

Picture of a 1969 GTO hood tachometer unrelated.

lol up to 8k but the engine only revs halfway :D

It occurs to me...

When I went in for the MRI on Wednesday, I obviously had to fill out some patient-info paperwork. The person behind the counter crossed out a large section of page 1, dealing with the "are you pregnant / breastfeeding / may become pregnant, etc" stuff, before handing me the form.

They assumed my gender.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...62ddaec3fe.png

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...61ffe692fb.png


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...175957aa83.png


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4d4cf72c31.png


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6f531e9313.png

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ae6c04cd13.png


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...de47207dc6.png

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...63300095f2.png

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8c979a6609.png
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f8e1e00d72.png

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...60c22c9eaa.png

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4d813b0f6b.png

And for the bastards that dont like this..
Are you not entertained?
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7b08f7bfe7.png

Either that or they had access to your medical records and could look it up. :)

--Ian

After you get fixed, start getting in shape; running wasn't enough for me. I would have lumbar/pain down butt cheeks a few times a year, each time lasting ~2 weeks or so. That ended when I started cycling.


My first issue with severe back pain was running to make our fastpass time.
http://www.thethemeparkguy.com/park/...uction-big.jpg

http://www.laughingplace.com/files/s...730/aldrin.JPG

your MRI looks similar to mine l4-l5 not so healthy looking. L5-S1 blown out. first blew it out in 2001 when I was probably about the best physical fitness of my life and was competing regularly at a grass roots elite level bicycle racing with a very high level of cycling fitness. Mountain, Cyclocross, and Road racing. By 2003 I could no longer spend much of any time at all on the bike without intense pain and quit racing competitively and just couldn't ride much so started playing with cars more. in 2007 after spending a week on the floor in intense pain and basicly not having a functional right leg if I sat or stood for more than 5 minutes I had a microdiscectomy. It relieved the pain well but still attempts to return to bike riding still resulted in severe back pain. Last year July it blew out again in the same spot. had a microdiscectomy again. felt absolutely wonderful for about 6 months after that. I had forgot what it was like to wake up without back pain after living with it for ~15 years. After being off the bike for 15 years and gaining ~75 lbs in the process I was feeling good and decided to work back in some bike riding slowly working my way back to riding on a regular basis riding to work etc. couple weeks ago it did it again. MRI shows the disk pooching out and completely crushing the sciatic nerve cavity. I'm back to being upright right now but not sure what I'm going to do. Dr is back this Friday. it might be disk removal and fusion time. I have a feeling l4-l5 will fail too if I do that.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...33eacfeb44.png

:giggle: