Keep on rockin' (with a bad back)

[scars]

  So I just had an L5-S1 Fusion performed.  while the evidence that the initial and subsequent injuries where work related, I'm wondering how many other Bass players are out there with bulging, herniated or de generating discs.
Whit our generally heavy amps, Cabs and even some instruments (i just got rid of a 12 lbs 5 string).

misery loves company... and other bad back rockers out there?

[jumbodbassman]

back has been somewhat troublesome for some years but I found that loosing about 35-40 pounds over the last 2 years has helped a lot.  Although the last 15 pounds where not so voluntary to say the least......
Carrying a 20 pound ball of fat around my belly definately had some affect on my back....

[Highlander]

I compressed the disc between 5 and 6 (iirc) as a kid after a high dive accident (went over too far and smacked my chin into my chest); then caused a lock-up of two vertebra just above the hip after propping a part on a Pratt and Witney JT9A (B747-100 power-plant) with it when I was 18 and I was 31 before it was properly diagnosed - I'm offset by 5 degrees from my lower body due to this - post a major traffic incident in '88 (van was overturned after rolling partly across the roof of a sports car variant of a Ford and ended up on the pavement facing back the direction I was coming from - I came out the screen, partially, and was dragged across the ground - I walked away from it - she was fined a peppercorn for writing-off two brand-new vehicles) I have a central chest nerve-pinch in my spine that plays up from time to time... other that that, life's grand... oh yeah, and thirty years of driving for a living has certainly helped straighten things out...

[scars]

Sometimes I think we might have been better off had we just stayed up in the trees.

Guess I should elaborate:

Sometime ago, early in my Marine Corps days I , rather in intelligently jumped out of the back of a truck holding a 50lbs tool box in either hand and gave myself a stinger.
A few years after that I simply bent over to pull a file from a cabinet and got stuck in said position for a day.

Then roughly 5 years later, after a day of assembling a wooden swing set for my (then 3yr old) daughter at her moms house with no help from said other parent, I simply sat on the floor, leaned back on my arms and POP my lower back cracked.  Fealt great until I stood up.  That was the large rupture.  The MRI looked as if I had 2 disc where 1 should be.
  I failed to mention, at this point I was a Flight mech on H-60's in the Coast Guard.
My flight status was revoked for 5 months until I convinced the flight surgeon to grant me a waiver.
7 more years of flying in the "shuddering $h!t can did me in.  The disc, according to the surgeon hand warn down to nothing but a meer belt of cartilage surrounding bone on bone vertebrae.
Needles to say, no my helo flights for Ben.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

There was a bunch of talk about growing cartilage in test tubes not too long ago and from what I remember, the science had matured to the point that it was now a viable treatment but I've not anything since then. My back problems are muscular. My lower back muscles spasm constantly from where I have chronic kidney stones. Lifting heavy stuff makes me feel BETTER, but bending over or crouching is no fun. I spent too much time bent over working on the farm when I was younger.

[rahock]

I've been nursing back issues for over 30 years. L3 ,4 and 5 are bulging with 5 leaking also. I have another bulging between my shoulder blades too, (forget what number ). I just got a new hip about 5 months ago that was supposed to relieve some pain , but it didn't do very much.
Gettin' old ain't fer sissies .

Rick

[Pilgrim]

I am fortunate...got a two-month long lower back pain/twinge while unloading bass gear about three years ago; within three months had sold all gear that weighed over 40 pounds and switched to Genz-Benz lightweight amp and cabs.  For what I play, that's fine.  My heaviest bass (out of a dozen) is just under 9 pounds.

So far, all is OK...but I do try to be careful when listing or moving things.  My body has far different levels of toleration for that stuff at 63 than it did at 21.

[scars]

Before:


After:


One might say I was set neck and now I'm bolt on

[Highlander]

34 or 35" scale...?

[daan]

My Mom (age 67) just had a T-10 to S-1 fusion done due to her osteoporosis. (As far as I know she's never toted around a bass amp  ) Man that's a tough surgery... she's such a trooper though, she's already up and walking, and doing her PT. SHe actually had lost all feeling in her legs and was having trouble walking. Back stuff is nothing to joke about!

[uwe]

Before:


After:


One might say I was set neck and now I'm bolt on

Relax, so was Jesus. 

Seriously, I hope it helps.

[scars]

34 or 35" scale...?

Was 33.5" Ric scale as a set spine

34" as a bolt on.

Honestly, I regained just under 1/4" On height.  Not visibly noticeable, but I'm happy with it.

[Highlander]

I'm usually a 1/4" to 1/2" taller each morning but the weight of my load drags me down to earth soon enough, all without surgery, thankfully...

Mind you, my neck does grate some these days, and not the three or four hanging in the shed...

[OldManC]

Been dealing with Degenerative Disc Disease at L4-5 for 17 years. On a good day only my back feels like crap, other days it spreads down my left leg and arm (all the way into my fingers) and I'm especially fun to be around). I hope your surgery does the trick! I wouldn't wish back problems on my worst enemy. OK, maybe my ex...

[gweimer]

I'm reading this with some interest.  My girlfriend just fell on the stairs recently, and not only did she fall on her knee and injure it, but she found out almost a week later that she crushed her L-2.  She has a follow-up this week.  She's already had one spine fusion done.
The sad thing is that she hurt herself trying to carry her dog upstairs.  The poor thing suddenly took ill, and went into a series of grand mal seizures.  The dog couldn't walk up from the basement, and had to be carried.  The dog died shortly afterwards.  If she had fallen down the stairs, she could have died.  She has Leiden V Factor deficiency, as well.  If she needs invasive surgery for her back, she is already high risk.