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Post by boris on Mar 11, 2010 12:06:05 GMT 1
What do you mean a snow blower, get a Bosnian to clear your snow!
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Post by Ribaric on Mar 11, 2010 15:48:05 GMT 1
Thank you everybody for your kind words, I can tell you that such things provide a lift to the spirits when you are down. It's been a month since my operation and only now can I start to reduce the levels of drugs needed to just survive the day and get a little sleep.
Pain, strong drugs and un-met expectations and non-stop nausea, over time, reduce your ability to mentally withstand things and I am not too proud to say that real depression is now part of the daily struggle. I decided to take advice on pain control and have almost cut all opiate derived drugs, I know they are addicitive and very effective pain reducers but the side effects are, in my view, now worse than than the original problem.
Life is now a constant round of trying to control muscle spasms and warming up in order to get through my exercise programme. It's catch 22, if you have too much pain, you can't exercise - if you don't exercise you get muscle spasms and atrophy - which are very painful. The drugs which reduce spasms are horrible and make you feel sick, so you don't eat. I'm 17 kilos less now than I was 8 weeks ago. So you can see, something has to change.
My plan is to be able to walk, with crutches to provide balance but not for support, so that I can go to the re-hab centre at Varazdin Toplice on March 22nd. I think I can do it, I've walked (kind of) about 100 metres in one go but then came the snow. I'm on a much lighter drug 'diet' which has cured the nausea to the extent that I now get hungry and can eat. I can also sit up for 10 mintes or so each hour, hence I can write this, and I now get some sleep. Chuck in the odd anti-depressant here and there and life seems worth living again.
My message to you is the same - don't under estimate the problems you can get if you fail to get adequate and properly focussed regular exercise. It's not just the pain from the injury, it's all the rest of it that gets you.
Thanks again for your kind words and please make my problem a little more worthwhile by taking proper care of yourself.
Paul
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Post by upthevilla on Mar 12, 2010 9:40:54 GMT 1
Ribaric. I had a very similar condition 7 years ago and its hard to believe that life will get back to normal, But eventually it sort of does. For 6 months i was confined to the floor and needed the help of my NON English speaking father in law just to go to the toilet, which is about as humiliating as it gets. For the following 3 months i made it to a bed and had daily / weekly visits to rehab, exercise. I had to be carried to the car and lifted out again. All the time i was slowly recovering and using less of the medicine prescribed but still in pain and suffered from deep bouts of depression. While lying in bed useless and feeling sorry for myself i did a TEFLA English language course on line. This helped, as it focused my mind on something other than doom and gloom and pain. After 1 year in total, i managed to walk 30 meters to my garden gate, unassisted which took me at least an hour. But the joy i got from it was overwhelming. Just to be able to walk again was for the last year ,all i wanted The following days and weeks i carried on walking to the gates and then ventured around the garden and eventually around the village and made it to the shop.6 months later i rode my bike I tried all sorts of exercise regimes and all sorts of medicine. I was desperate for any pain relief and for any future. Some worked and some didn't, but anything is worth ago. After my initial 1 year of recovering and just lying down in pain i spent the next year exercising, Yoga was good and that helped , and i still do a bit now. The best exercise for me was and still is swimming and just being in the water alleviates nearly all pain. After 3 years i could do most things but often causing me pain. Over the years since i have become a lot better BUT i know my limits and and very cautious and stay within those limits. Now 7 years have past and i lead a pretty normal life, and have done so for a few years. Its the little things that make it better. Here are 10, but there are many ,many more, the most important is number 10. 1.Eat as much fish as i can and whenever i can, and generally improve the diet.....omega 3 and all that 2.Don't walk for more than an hour...unless its to the pub 3.Make sure i am comfortable when i drive and stop whenever i feel the slightest twinge. 4.Keep my feet straight when i stand up, It sounds daft, but its about posture. 5.Don't play football... I have now informed Capello of my decision and told MON only if he is desperate. 6.Don't play any sport that involves sudden and un planned movement....Although i have now taken up marbles with my daughter and so far its OK 7.Try not to cross my legs. posture again 8.Don't Shovel snow.. especially in July and August 9. light work in the garden and take it slow....Always stop and smell the roses. its a cliche but very apt 10.At the first sign of pain, STOP what i am doing and immediately lie down,and gently roll from side to side and do light yoga.It doesn't matter where i am, sod them, airports, football matches, out with clients, even the Dylan concert the other year in the press room, sod what people might think, Pain is pain . So, the future for you now looks bleak and i hear and feel your pain but IT DOES GET EASIER AND BETTER It may take 2, 3 5 or even 10 years and you may not play for Leyton Orient again but it will get better. Who would have thought 1 month ago that you could sit up and write !!
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Post by ray51 on Mar 13, 2010 0:40:36 GMT 1
Thoroughly Enlighteng ! ( from one who had L4 operated on ! some 6 yrs ago !~!!!) However : in my , sad , case , it first took some sorry , super-painful and debilitating 3 days of crawling on my elbows and knees , morphium patches on my shoulders : insufficiently effective , before I got operated on , here in Capital of EUrope , by a prof. dr. spet surgeon , of Polish origin ( Yes , all their best-est people have also left too , for pastures greener , like some/many other nations I could mention here ! ); as this all happenned in Bruxelles , yes : there WAS immediately available a de-luxe sexy private room ( of at least 30-40 sq. m. , don't ask me : why so spacious !? ) , en-suite - and fitted with the latest flat-screen TV with 50+programmes ( incl. the debilitating CNBC and CNN hogwash ) , the fridge , the computer-connection and any number of other extras ; the surgeon , younger than myself , attired in latest of street-creed fashion , and : a proud owner of a latest-model black Carrera 4S , nevertheless came to check on me , all-too-often : even on a Sunday morning , early ; the first 2-3 nights after the op were all-too-frequently interspersed by other spets , whom whe asked to visit me/check upon me , which they duly did : virtually every hour or 2 ! And the nurses ? Moroccan , SethEffriken , Slovakian., Erithrean , French ...Nil shortage , in that department !!!Jeeez , if I were not quite so ill , there could've been real trouble , I reckon now ! The grub was Grrreat , too ; so , even though they eventually taught me how to walk all by myself again , on the 4th day after the op , and even though they gave me every possible anti-thrombosis precaution known to humans , the insurance was accommodating and so I stayed on , in my comfy bed , pipes sticking outta my arms etc , luvverly chicks taking care of my hygiene and most of my other wishes and requirements ...hey : one of the best hols I can remember ( besides Mauritius , Seychelles , Maldives . Cape Town , Port Shepstone , Cap d'Agde and a few others , from my better days , i.e. ) ; so much for this post ! Viva , Ribaric ( and : looking forward to that pf Blog again ! )
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Post by kesterj on Apr 3, 2010 10:27:52 GMT 1
Ribs,
I am probably driving by Varazdin next Thursday with friend - tried to PM you but no reply. Could call by for a coffee if you are free. Probably 11.00 ish.
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Post by Ribaric on Apr 4, 2010 14:40:28 GMT 1
Sorry Kester, I didn't notice I had messages. Sadly, I'll be in Toplice on Thursday having my legs stretched and being subjected to all manner of tortures. Will you be back this way at some point?
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2010 12:09:13 GMT 1
@ Ribaric.............
I read what you have been going through Paul.
Hope you are doing better.......
One of the reasons I was retired and able to move to Croatia in the first place was I woke up in the hospital with a tube shoved down my throat breathing on a respirator....my Govt agency and employer said, you are retired..........ok.......... 5 years I fought to get my health back, its not great now, but I am here. But you gotta be tough
Hope you are feeling better.
Tim
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Post by Ribaric on May 30, 2010 0:46:19 GMT 1
It is most humbling to have one's own thread, it is also very uplifting that so many people have wished me well whilst recounting your own experiences. By way of an update, my life is now back to normal except for the legacy left me from the nerves which "died" in my back as result of being clobbered by the disc or mullered by the surgeon. I wil never know which is the case so I've closed that investigation.
The nerve damage has left me with a classic case of Chronic Regional Pain Syndrom - CRPS or CRaPS as I call it. Internet study has revealed to me that millions of people suffer this which can arise after any kind of trauma or surgery. Burning skin sensation, electric shock symptoms and some pain is the legacy which is both poorly understood by medical science and has no cure. In short, my right foot is going to give me "jip" for the rest of my life - almost certainly because I was too bloody lazy to keep myself in good shape. This legacy also means I must eat opiade drugs to keep the symptoms under some kind of control, non-opiades (paracetamol, ibuprofen etc) have no effect on neuropatic pain at all.
Accompanied by Mrs Rib, I have just spent a wonderful afternoon/evening in the company of the madgolfers and other people at their country retreat near Vrbovecs. I was able to enjoy the great food and convivial company and I now declare, I am now fixed. Sadly, the foot overcame my resolve at about 10pm as did the tiredness resulting from lack of sleep which is another long term "feature" caused by the CRaPS. Still, compared to the suffering of many others and certainly compared to how I was during the first few months of 2010, I'm fine. Furthermore, Leyton Orient avoided relegation by a whole point! There is a god after all! (sorry crojoe, I couldn't resist.)
Thanks again folks for your messages, here's wishing good health to you all.
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Post by ray51 on Sept 25, 2010 17:08:17 GMT 1
( after the latest ) More best wishes , R. + A.
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Post by Ribaric on Sept 26, 2010 15:19:52 GMT 1
Thanks guys. Never bloody ends does it?
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Post by boris on Oct 21, 2010 17:07:41 GMT 1
Just curious, how is the nice guy Ribaric these days?
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Post by Ribaric on Oct 21, 2010 20:39:21 GMT 1
Hi Boris, thanks for asking. I'm not such a nice guy these days, this year has taken a heavy toll on me. The back/leg/foot problems are much improved and my drug intake is now very low.
However, I must return to hospital for a week or two from next Monday 25th October for an operation on a kidney. I now have cancer and I am hoping the operation will remove all of the tumour. I also hope the cancer doesn't return.
I've given up on 2010. It hasn't been my year.
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Post by gary on Oct 21, 2010 23:51:42 GMT 1
Seconded...
Here's to a speedy recovery and a wonderful 2011!
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Post by boris on Oct 21, 2010 23:57:52 GMT 1
Ribaric, drzim Vam fige (keep my fingers crossed). I am sure all will go well and you will be fit as a "violina" in 2011.
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Post by ray51 on Oct 22, 2010 8:48:26 GMT 1
Thinking of you and your tribe . Best of Luck , next week and onwards ! A. & R.
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