Boating with back pain

I recently purchased a Shock Wave for my main helm seat in an effort to help save my back from the off shore pounding. I think that I logged 88 days this year and at the end of the season my back was "done" so I'm going to try the shock wave to see if it lives up to the hype. Hope it does!!
 
Wow... I can't believe all the great responses. Thanks folks!
I put over 60 hours on the new Suzuki this year. No doubt a good part of the problem. Lots of gusty days & I took longer trips than last year, not having to breath 2 stroke fumes. Or burn ridiculous quantities of fuel.
I've had some very good advice on inversion table use. 20 degree tilt & 2 minutes at a time to start & work up from there as tolerated. I will be very careful, for sure.
 
I’ve lived with a couple of degenerative discs (l5-s1) for about 25 years. Everyone knows the pain in the hip, sore neck from standing funny so my leg didn’t hurt blah blah blah. Ive tried everything from chiropractors to wholistic healing. I could pretty much count on being flat on my back twice a year for a week at a time until I found my last chiropractor. My old guy kept me mobile but I can’t help but think he was just soaking me for $40 twice a month. This new guy took a detailed description of my symptoms x-rayed me and discovered the exact damage to my discs. Something all previous “back” specialists neglected. Even after telling them my family doc had found a couple degenerative discs. He implemented a course of back stretches, has me spending time on an inversion table and once monthly visits to have my spine adjusted and I can say my story is a night and day difference. I’ve still got occasional back pain. I think I always will, but haven’t been off my feet with it in over 4 years. The best advise I can offer is to keep trying, if your not getting results from your current health care provider, find another one. My biggest regret is not doing it sooner and having to deal with a couple decades of needless agony.
 
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I suffer from spinal osteoarthritis and definitely need to watch what I am doing. Launching and retrieving the boat , sleeping on a ****** foamy and a pounding boat will effect how many pills needed . Cant fish out of my friends aluminum if there's any chop and might be a little slower getting to the fishing spot in my boat . Like most guys trying to ignore things but need to be more proactive , lose some weight do my stretches and will be following this thread . ( never been to a chiropractor)
 
I herniated multiple disks manhandling my boat off a trailer about 12 years ago. I reached the point where I could just barely walk without cortisone injections stuck directly into my spine.

Fast forward to yesterday--- We got a 23 centimeter dump of snow in the mountains-----I skied double black diamond pitches with a girl half my age, dropping into steep mogul fields and in and out of powder stashes in tight trees....the moral of the story....there's light at the end of the tunnel and it's not an approaching train!!!!

Core strength is critical---do your floor exercises when you're feeling well enough to start stretching. Get one of those inflatable Swedish medicine balls and drape your body over to stretch out the spine. Lots of info on the internet to steer you in the right direction with exercise regimen

Last summer I took a three week boat camping trip up to North Coast --- I manhandled 30 feet of chain and a 10 kg Rocna anchor several times a day for the entire trip. When I got home I couldn't walk ..... my sciatica flared up again, I lost sensation in my left foot.....I felt like the village idiot because it was clear I'd gone and bulged a disc again..I took a week of physical therapy to settle things down ....

The FIRST thing I did to side-step a repeat of that idiocy was to install an electric windlass in my boat and a third battery to handle the power draw....take care of your body, don't torment your spine doing goofy things like hand-pulling anchors or lifting 8,000 lb boats off trailers...always use your legs instead of your back when possible....yes, things will get better on their own, but baby yourself while waiting for the bulges in the disks to settle down...they will....good luck!
 
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Hi there.

I'm an orthopedic surgeon, but I do NOT specialize in backs.

The steroid injection is a good step as well as all the othjer non-op measures mentioned above. IF you haven't met with a reputable spine surgeon, doing so would be appropriate. Usually an MRI is better at showing nerve issues (pain going down leg) than a CT.

good luck.

Howard
 
Prfisher said:
I've been using that exact line about getting old for a long time. Not as original as I thought!
I can't imagine sitting for days on end in a lecture hall with this level of discomfort. My hat's off to you!
It's VERY encouraging to hear you are still enjoying an active life. Thanks... I needed to hear that.
I've been doing all of the core exercises. Massage & deep tissue laser help too. My kid is picking up an inversion table for me at Costco this week. I guess I'll add a brace to the shopping list as well. Any suggestions on which works best?
We should add that getting old gets damn expensive too!
I haven't tried acupuncture yet, but we do have a good practitioner here in Powell River. Yoga is too painful at this point, so I'm sticking to the standard core work for now.
Steroid injection scheduled for next week. Fingers crossed on that one.
Ive found that sneezing is to be avoided whenever possible. Feels like someone is clubbing me on the side of the leg with a 2X4.
Things have improved a lot this past month and I'm hoping I can get back on the water before the best fishing months are past.
Thanks to all who are pitching in here.
Edit... Please note error in first post. 10 mm, not cm bulge. Doh!
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Good luck with the steroid injection. I hope you get some relief from it. I had it done a few years ago and in my case it was awesome. It was the first time in over a decade that I had zero back pain. I felt so good I went skiing the next day and was hitting jumps in the terrain park that I hadn't hit since my early 20's..........until I found one I was too old or lacked the skill to land. I tore my ACL clean off. Ughhhh getting old sucks some days.
 
Disc damage and nerve root impingement is a *****. I have struggled with it for years and learned a few things. I still have some things to learn.

First off, everybody's injury is different, you will need to figure out what works for you, as what works for other folks may not.

If October was the inciting injury, then surgical intervention will likely not be the way to go, as it is chronically irritated, a little inflamed and has months of organizing fibrosis pulling on everything in there including the nerve root. At least this is what the data shows (surgery/discectomy best in the acute phase after the injury, less so if chronic). The epidural steroid injections can be helpful, but usually only get you through a tough patch and are temporary. They don't heal anything structural. Often they'll do a trial of a few ESI's spaced out by a few weeks, and then reassess an acute injury to see if it is surgical or not. At least that's what we do in practice down here.

While there are a thousand different tricks to help decompress a disc/nerve/sciatica, the one thing I strongly recommend is you get plugged in with a good physical therapist who can help you with flexibility and core strength, and follow a gently progressive program to the letter. Later on when you're healed and in maintenance mode, yoga would be a good maintenance program, but with a hot disc I wouldn't turn yoga loose on it.

Physical therapy can be kind of a mind screw with chronic injury rehab. The pace of noticeable progress can be mind-numbingly slow, but most patients see slow steady progress, even if they're just improving flexibility while the injury heals. PT is the most useful core strategy for most folks with chronic injuries (according the current data), and then you use a few other secondary strategies at the same time to support it. Those might be acupuncture, traction, NSAID's or other anti-inflam meds, herbal supplements, prayer, higher forms of fish worship, running for government office, saving doomed whales, etc. Dabble in the secondary strategies and figure out what works. Then months from now, when it's stable and at whatever your steady state is, stay on top of the maintenance, and don't do anything silly to reinjure it.

BTW I don't know what it is about sneezing in the shower, but a lot of people (me included) reinjure their backs by sneezing. That sudden increase in pressure in that spot is potent. So SNEEZE CAREFULLY!

Hope that helps and good luck,

fb
 
searun said:
I recently purchased a Shock Wave for my main helm seat in an effort to help save my back from the off shore pounding. I think that I logged 88 days this year and at the end of the season my back was "done" so I'm going to try the shock wave to see if it lives up to the hype. Hope it does!!
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Would luv to hear results. Shockwaves are expensive but back pain is not something you can put a value on. I’m thinking about doing the same given back issues I have too.
 
I installed a pair of Bostrom wide ride seats with an air pump a few years ago. Best seats Ive ever seen and adjustable at the push of a button. Have not had a issue with them yet and I run the 7 days a week commercially. Skulpin on this forum turned me onto them. @ seats for just over $3000

All kinds of bases and seats to chose from. I have the high pro 915 with a swivel.
https://www.bostromseating.com/en-us/suspension/wide-ride-classic
 
I am so impressed by (and grateful for) the thoughtful replies you folks are posting. So much good advice. Much I was already aware of, but lots of good stuff also, that I hadn't considered.
I knew there were a fine bunch of folks here, and you all have more than confirmed that impression.
My best takeaway has been that yes, there is light at the end of the tunnel. (And, that it's not the headlight of an oncoming train. ;-) I am an active person with some big projects on hold while I recover, so this has been a tough slog for me.
So, cheers & all the best for this new year to you all.
 
I have battled back issues for the last 11 years or so. The first time I was putting my daughter in her crib and turned when I stood up and down I went with the worst wrenching spasms imaginable. I spent the next 2 hours crawling to the phone to call my wife to come home from shopping. After that it would happen at least once a year if I was lucky and usually brought on by the simplest of things. I just bought it was one of those things I would have to endure and just put up with for a week a year that I was bed ridden and basically unable to get up until my back said so. After an especially bad spell about 3 years ago I decided to try the chiropractor after several trips to the doctor were fruitless. After about a 6 month stretch with chiropractic treatment I went for about a 2 years where not only did I have zero back pain but I didn’t even having that nagging sore feeling reminding me that it was a time bomb ready to go off. I have of late had a few moments but not like years past. I have ordered a inversion table as I think for my issue a gentle spinal decompression from time to time will help. Again each person will know what will help them best. I also bought Shock Wave bases for the new boat as I think the pounding all summer in the boat is a problem for me as well. I can sympathize with anyone that says they have back pain because until you have had issues you will never know how debilitating it can be. Good luck and keep us posted on any progress.
 
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Years ago when I was in my early 20's,I was in a bad car crash that resulted in a lower back injury that laid me up for several weeks.In time everything settled down and life went on without any pain whatsoever.I was a helicopter logger and my job was very physically demanding and kept me in great shape but was seasonal with several months off in the winter and while off I would party hard, live on pizza and beer, and sometimes put on 20+ lbs. in the process.Fast forward to my early,mid 30's and during a
extended lay off I suddenly found myself in excruciating pain and unable to even get off the couch.These boughts of pain would come and go with no warning or reason that I could figure and when I returned to my job it would be living hell for the first few shifts and then like some sort of miracle the pain would vanish.This cycle would repeat itself for a few years until I finally noticed a pattern.Every time I got laid off for winter shut down,I got lazy,ate and drank like a fool and got badly out of shape,and the back pain would rear it's ugly head again.I'd had enough of that rollercoaster ride and made a decision to stay in shape on my time off with particular attention to my core.That was the end of my back pain and I've never looked back.Since then I've retired from that line of work and have stepped up my exercise routine to include heavy weights and cardio and can say I'm in the best shape of my life at 55 years old with not a sign of back pain.It takes discipline but living life pain free is worth the effort it takes to
live this lifesytle and I wouldn't trade it for anything.The key though is keeping your core rock solid and I devote 30 minutes a day,6 days a week to ab training alone.It's tough but the alternative is far worse.
 
wishiniwasfishin1 said:
This might sound like an odd piece of advice but invest in a money clip and carry your cash / cards in your front pocket.
Its amazing what kind of damage a fat wallet can do especially if you sit on your butt the majority of the time at work...
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I been told that by my doctor and therapist. Makes sense.
 
Lots of good advice here, key is to find what works for you. I have fallen trees for living, skateboarded, snowboarded and generally physically abused my body most of my life with little concern until one day my back went out lifting a small cooler on the boat. I find when I’m active it stays pretty good, sitting is the worst, in the winter months I ran snowcats building terrain parks and sitting operating equipment is the worst. I generally stand when I run my boat. Also if I happen to put on even just 5 pounds it’s not good for the back. Even staying active sometimes it will go out and if it gets bad enough I find IMS to work really well combined with chiropractic and message. IMS was the break through for me. Another thing, knowing lots of people over the years in whistler with tons of injuries, you gotta work through the pain sometimes and just stay active
 
Like my physiotherapist says. "Motion is lotion". Laying around babying things is the worst. Finding a comfortable balance takes a flexible approach as things improve. With lots of help, things ARE improving.
 
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