lgibson - man, you sound like me!! At 33 I just had shoulder surgery and am recovering from it now (can't wait for that first pain free day, haven't had one in about 3 months right now). I too abused my body WAY too much when I was young and didn't fully think out the ramifications down the road (shoulder surgery was probably caused from a shoulder dislocation 14 years ago when road racing where I never saw a doctor about it).
Now you guys are probably going to think I'm crazy for this but I'm just telling you what I went through. I had a bad road racing accident in 1989 where I broke my back in 3 places (broke the trasnverse prosthes (sp?) off of L4, 5, and 6), cracked my skull from my right ear to the base of my skull, damaged the 5th, 6th and 8th nerves in my head (feeling on the right half of the skull, hearing in the right ear, and control of the outward movement of the right eye).
My neurosurgeon wanted to do back surgery and pull the pieces of the spine out of my back. He said there was a chance that something could hit them just right down the road and drive them into my spine and I'd be paralyzed. He told me that there was a 74% chance of success for the surgery. I asked him what 26% chance failure meant and he said that I'd be paralyzed. Now, call me a gambling man but I felt that the chances of something hitting those bones JUST right was WAAAAY less than 26% so I refused the surgery. He told me I'd have back pain the rest of my life and I'd never be able to lift more than 40 lbs.
I was on Percoseth (sp?) for over a year because the pain was so bad, couldn't get out of bed some days. (Here's where it starts to get wierd and you guys are gonna call me a flake!) I had a friend that was majoring in laying on of hands at Stanford University. I was in so much pain I was willing to try anything. I asked her to come over and see what she could do. She talked with me (she was at the track the day of the accident, btw - camping with me) and put her hands over my back. I felt heat and my back felt better. It soon hurt again but that's not the point. I talked with her and asked her to teach me how to meditate because she felt I could control the pain that way. I worked with her for a while and learned to meditate (took me about a year to get to a point where I was truly thinking of nothing) and eventually learned to control the pain through meditation.
After I got off the drugs completely and was able to meditate away the pain when it occured I started going to the gym regularly (like 4 hrs a day, 5 days a week) and started building myself up. After 3 years I was able to get to where I was doing 220 lb bent over rows and since that time I have had absolutely no back problems. I also had no more chronic pain problems so I let the meditation go (although I sometimes wish I hadn't) but I know if the time comes I can do it again.
Now, so you don't think I'm a total crack pot here's what I believe happened. I wanted to feel relief sooooo bad that I was willing to believe that she could help me. I also know that the only way you feel pain is that your mind tells you you're feeling pain. As with anything in our bodies if we try hard enough we can train it. I think that I was able to turn off the pain signals from my back through meditation which enabled me to be able to strengthen other muscles around the damaged area to take up the slack of the damaged area.
This is not an easy thing to believe or to do. I meditated for an hour a day EVERY day for about five years and spent 4 hrs a day in the gym 5 days a week for 3 years. Definately a significant investment in time. All I can say is that it did help me and I've had a recovery that I was told was impossible and was able to solve the chronic pain issue. I really believe that it takes faith to make this work. I am atheist, btw so I'm not talking religious faith. I was just in a place that was so bad and was in so much pain that I was willing to try anything. I just thank my lucky stars that Jan was there to get me started!
-Steve
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) the occasional aches in the fingers/wrists probably from drumming too for most of my life...
