Newbee Introduction - Sorry, It's Long, ...

[benzo]

I don't agree with anyone who says you have to stop all exercise and focus on yoga or whatever.
There are plenty of examples of people that have improved without having to give up what they like eg scoobysnacks who is back to competitive bodybuilding. I think it's key to be able to work around the problems and adapt your exercise regime in a way that only you can determine.

If you find doing heavy leg presses exacerbate your symptoms, do something else. If you find that bicep curls do not affect your symptoms, by all means keep on doing them.

I've had this sh*t for 11 years now and I do weight training 4 times/week. Soon enough you'll find out what bothers you and what doesn't. As long as you know the basics: tp release, internal work, dealing with flareups, supplements, you can take it from there and see what works for you.

After all, stress is a major factor in this and exercise relieves stress so it's all about finding the right balance.

[harpo-rider]

I don't agree with anyone who says you have to stop all exercise and focus on yoga or whatever.
After all, stress is a major factor in this and exercise relieves stress so it's all about finding the right balance.

Wow! See, now that was encouraging. Only time will tell if it's accurate for me (or anyone that has this "crap") but it sure put's me in a better place mentally, regardless of anything else. Isn't that where I'm supposed to be?

Just started reading Headache in the pelvis. PT scheduled out for the next month +, and I'm not going to be working for the next couple of months (or until I run out of money) so I can try and get a grip on this thing, and I just got pudendal nerve blocks by Dr. Jerome Weiss this morning. Check this thread for the updates if you want

[harpo-rider]

I am a flooring installer. Carpet, tile, hardwood, lino, etc, etc, etc, ... I lift, crawl, pull, push, squat, bend, struggle, ...... All day long, every day. Actually, I probably do more physical labor just loading the van in the morning than most people do in a week/month. Clearly this is not conducive to helping myself break through the cycles of pain associated with CPPS. (not to mention that I’m getting friggen old, tired and broken)

I also have a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Art) degree in graphic design, ...that I haven’t used in over 8 years. Unfortunately even thinking about doing this again means weeks of intensive training to relearn all the (drastically updated) software programs that I have forgotten (which means sitting in front of a computer IN A CHAIR 8+ hours a day) followed by getting a job with relatively low pay that will have me, .... Yes you guessed it, .... “sitting in front of a computer IN A CHAIR 8+ hours a day.”

I can’t do physical labor ‘cause it kills my chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome and I can’t sit in a chair all day ‘cause it kills my CPPS, ...Oyyyy Veeyyy!!

I’ve just had some surgery July 1st (complete rotator cuff reattachment) that will prevent me from working for about 6 months. Basically I’ve got about another 2+ months until disability runs out/I can go back to work. Figured while I was down and out I’d try to start changing my direction of job titles.

I was going to get licensed and start selling financial/investment products but unfortunately the company I was going to work for had AIG as one of their biggest products. (well that’s shot to shit, thanks AIG)

Sooooooo, I’m clueless. I need to do something for a living. Something that:
1) Isn’t going to be physical labor all day
2) Isn’t going to be sitting in a chair all day
3) Is going to pay a halfway decent salary

I repeat "I can’t do physical labor ‘cause it kills my chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome and I can’t sit in a chair all day ‘cause it kills my CPPS, ...Oyyyy Veeyyy!!"

Please Help! All suggestions welcome.
Joe

[webslave]

Looking to the future, we are about to hit Peak Oil, and that'll cause a huge disruption to society with many people losing their jobs. I suggest you get ready for it by training yourself in some way that anticipates this momentous change.
http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic42679.html
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/25489
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/1171
http://www.forthefuture.org/assets/arti ... e_0412.htm

[harpo-rider]

Looking to the future, we are about to hit Peak Oil, and that'll cause a huge disruption to society with many people losing their jobs. I suggest you get ready for it by training yourself in some way that anticipates this momentous change.
http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic42679.html
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/25489
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/1171
http://www.forthefuture.org/assets/arti ... e_0412.htm

Where to start.
1) So between reading some of these above links and simultaneously chatting with my insurance co. on the phone, informing me that not only will they not reimburse me at all, should I decide to go to the "Stanford/Wise-Anderson Protocol 5 Day intensive Clinic" which costs $4200, .... but also that I have used up my max. number of PT visits for the calendar year (rotator cuff used 15 and chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome PT used 5 so far) and if I want my trigger points to go away and/or my rotator cuff to work properly I'm gonna have to foot the bill myself. Point is, I went from a relatively stress free day of relaxing my pelvic floor muscles to a day of balled up tension and a burning urethra. Yeaaaaa!!
2) As per the links, I'm not a complete idiot but definitely not a brain surgeon. Even if I do understand possible implications of the bigger picture, (the possible bigger picture) I am quite blind as to the immediate direction that my career path should be taking based on the links. Farming, harder than flooring, That's out. Handy man, not much easier, That's out. Clearly I am not the sharpest pencil in the box as I'm not seeing any type of direction that seems feasible in my life at this point. If there is some direction there that I'm completely missing, by all means, .... call me an idiot, .... but please, spell it out for me.

[webslave]

Without knowing you personally, it's impossible to advise. I suggest you re-read some of the above links and decide, based on your own proclivities, what suits you. The potential list is long. The emphasis will be on doing things locally, producing food locally (about which most people are clueless and you could make a decent living advising them on this), making things last longer by repairing them, installing solar panels (some training in electrical concepts required), etc. Your formal education is a puzzler, but you have practical experience in a physical job that will be useful. Remember that when you recover from this you will be able to resume a fairly strenuous job, but keep away from glues and chemicals, and avoid squatting up and down all day. Sorry I can't be of more help.

[harpo-rider]

Thanx

Ironically enough, as long as I've been suffering on and off for all these years, tonight, after my phone call with my ins. co. (80% fault)) and then (almost simultaneously) reading some of those Peak Oil posts and the predicted downward spiral (20% fault) I have actually felt for the very first time the stress actually and immediately relating to symptoms. After what was basically a symptom free day, before the stimulus, I have been burning ever since. Just finally starting to decline. Wow, that sucked!!

[webslave]

Sorry I cannot sugar-coat the truth. But at least you're convinced of the stress link now.

[superuse]

yada yada yada ..bicycle.. yada yada ...weightlifting... yaada yaada yaada can't stop biking/weights as it is my life ....yada
Same profile of 70% or so of everyone who shows up here. Read my signature at the bottom and thru my posts for some info you may find useful.

Well, I guess every forum has one. Clearly, your the "one" here. Thanx for the warm welcome.

Superuse, I think a healthy dose of reality is needed for newcomers but I think a little optimism and hope for resuming some activities that make people happy is also extremely beneficial to their mental state. I don't know, it's just my two cents and maybe people disagree but I thought I should say it on the behalf of other new people here.

Ditto :thumbup (OK, some smart computer dude needs to implement a "thumbup" smiley)

Unfortunately, it looks like my post has been taken the wrong way. This forum is frequented by many who have spent months or years down a bacterial or parasitic road, and may still harbor fears and insecurities and spend many hours on the net for various rare bacteria or viral solutions. The yada yada is meant in the "Nice" Seinfeld way instead of the mean way. It was meant to show that this is entirely a muscular-emotional problem,albeit one with a difficult treatment process. The case of one who "needs" reasurrance that his bike, weights or running is soon at hand is the archetype for this. It was meant to provoke some curiosity and read my other posts. Oh well, now I know why I got a C in psychology. In any event, every group needs a bar-room knowitall (Cliff Klaven).

This is a malady, (after exclusionary urologic tests/antibiotics) that is dominated by people with a love affair (perhaps an unhealthy affair) with a bike, weights or running in that order. (hint: if you need to be assured you will be biking, weightlifting or running/hiking in order to have your mind in the "right" place you have an obsessive compulsive relationship with them, as 90% of the population over 30 or so could care less, much less that much)

Motorcycle racing, what I've seen of it, has heavy bikes going around and around a circle in the same direction for many laps. The leans I've seen these bikers on the curves around these tracks, one knee almost scraping ground to stablilize the bike at 100+ mph is extreme. The repetitive asymmetrical extreme stress on one side only on whats called the "hip rotators" (piriformis, obturator internus and externus, femoralis and several others) muscles connecting between your mid buttock(sacrum)/groin , sitbones and the top of your hipbone (right or left hip). Numerous motorcycle racers have been to DR. Weiss for obturator injections (search obturator) It would be a real trip to find out for some reason or another that the races are always clockwise or counterclockwise for some tradition or something. Asymetrical stress all the time.

With the bicycle, motorcycle, weights, hiking, and associated mental distress at the thought of an extended stay away you have hit more than the usual quinella or trifecta many may have, but a quadrilla. (centilla?) With the back surgery.

Read my posts of early September (actually aug. edit) (before you ever posted) subtitiled "what to do If I panic like a terminal cancer diagnosis at the thought of no bike/weights/running". Also aka " what to do if I need reassurance about a bike/weights/running to keep me in the "right" state of mind". How did i know you were so attached to a bike (more than my life?) and the other guy would be really depressed about something with a bike well before you first posted? (Of all the 2179 things a dad can do with his child he is upset at losing 10 of them, of course involving a bike, of course on a pain board many (49%) of whom,bike) Also read my post and the (very rough) analogy I make about recovering from a torn rotator cuff.

isn't it just the slightest bit possible that all this crap going on in my pelvic floor has nothing to do with my personality (stress) and everything to do with how twisted and pulverized my back, hip, and groin ligaments/tendons are?Again, fully willing to except all remedies for fixing this mess but just wondering about the possibility of a completely physical cause

Your stressed personality reflects itself in the pulverisation of of your back hip and groin... whenever not biking you are hiking, never time to think, With a Herrington Rod procedure no less. Motorcycle racing, a 40+ hr/week physical job and all the exercise on top of it. You are definitely a type A+ or AA. Not a B. The concept you preferred to skew your type A behavior towards activity instead of 50/50 between a career and sports is irrelevant. It appears the only time you will slow down is with surgery. (knee) The mental attitude results in the physical cause.

I know a lot of old floor guys and no one I know seems to have this crap going on. Hmmmm, ... but even if they did, they probably wouldn't tell me. Hmmmmm again!!

None of the old floor guys are motorcycle racing, hiking, biking,weightlifting on top of 40-50hrs/week of extremely repetitive physical labor with a 6 disk rod procedure in their back. They're at the bar working on cirrosis and or lung problems in their 60s or earlier.

OK, I will not deny intensity at time of activity,

The witness is dismissed with right for recall.

I’ve just had some surgery July 1st (complete rotator cuff reattachment) that will prevent me from working for about 6 months. Basically I’ve got about another 2+ months until disability runs out/I can go back to work. Figured while I was down and out I’d try to start changing my direction of job titles

I just read this AFTER my quote in this message on the rotator cuff analogy( which reference was posted before you ever arrived). And of course you have completely torn that. Can't put a squat bar or leg press bar on the shoulder with that, and of course shoulder presses are gone.... (you can see i've been where you are can't you?).

For Christ sakes I’m only friggen human!!!!!!

Did you write this or did your body sneak it in while you were asleep? Heavy Job, weights, hiking (when not biking), biking, motorcycle racing, 6 vertebrae fractured, rods, rotator cuff completely torn, knee surgery... Weights holding you together physically, trying to hold yourself together mentally (how soon till I can return to my weights/bike/hiking/?.) SlOW DOWN. (is there anything else not mentioned? the rotator cuff just came up in your last msg.)

We have people on this board and others who are/were bedridden with symptoms for quite some time, and many without your back issues, so don't push it. This is nothing to screw around with an obsession with a piece of metal with two rubber wheels or some weight plates.

It seems your body is going to slow you down without your mind. In any event, If you don't fancy me fancy carld, who seems in agreement you have at least a 2 year layoff from the weights. Some empirical evidence from the competitive bodybuilder who posted who needed at least that long. Also re-read the webslaves post about obsessive compulsive aspect of this. Note carld's comment on Dr. Wise's clinic.

I haven't done any squatting, leg press, or anything else requiring heavy weight for the legs for quite some time. Leg work-outs consist mainly of PT type stuff for stability (lots of balls, balance, and stretchy bands), stretching, and then actual muscle work comes mainly from the sport itself.....Problem is, now everything hurts. Can't seem to find anything comfortable except lying down, usually flat on my back.

I don't know what "quite some time " means (2weeks or 6months). I assume the rotator cuff deal means the latter (or leg work wouldn't have stopped at all?).

Dump the stretchy bands, especially the old band around the doorstop, another around your ankle and kicking out sideways and groinways. Irritates the hip adductors and abductors no end where they tie into the groin and hip and sent my chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome symptoms up. Even if physical exercise (yoga,light weights, etc) makes symptoms temporarily better this may be no good either. (read my posts on possibly why)

You need a long period of inactivity (non work wise) and underachieving to heal. I believe AIG (American International group) insurance arm may be in good shape, or bought quickly. In any event sales of insurance/financial products isn't just tied to them. I had a friend who was a flooring estimator/salesman who did some of the biggest projects in the city and made good coin. Wouldn't that be a more natural progression for sales? Who would know the man hours and complexities involved in these projects more than you?

I always suggest for chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome folks to permanently dump the bike due to its ubiquity with its suffers and the severity (sometimes)of their problems. Even if remission is achieved it seems a poor risk reward. I explain my thinking in my posts for one to accept/reject. Different ergonomic seats/etc make no difference.

As usual good luck to all
--jjf

[superuse]

I actually built a windmill on a guys farm with a generator setup. (I'm an electrical engineer). With the help of the power grid his bills are cut about 60%. Only the cheap way we did it and his small farm made it practical. Selling the stuff back to the power co. (coal,oil ng and nuke) when the wind is right is what really makes it practical. We were going to get the lead acid battery set up and go really "Art Bell" and armageddon but never got around to it.

If only you folks knew the joke the commercials are about windmills, demands that all our energy be from renewable sources "solar, wind etc. in 10 years. A presidential candidate babbling something about 10% in 10 years (also a joke). Just the concept this stuff is being babbled shows just how screwed we (at least temporarily) are.

Looking to the future, we are about to hit Peak Oil, and that'll cause a huge disruption to society with many people losing their jobs. I suggest you get ready for it by training yourself in some way that anticipates this momentous change.
http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic42679.html
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/25489
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/1171
http://www.forthefuture.org/assets/arti ... e_0412.htm

[carld]

Very good post Super!!

There is very usful information in the above post and if Super didn't care about helping, he wouldn't of posted such a detailed post to help out.

Bravo...

[harpo-rider]

superuse, incase you don’t know, this is a repost of my original reply to your long, point by point break down. Pulled the first time, due to it’s (my) many inflammatory remarks. MY BAD. I was given the opportunity to tone it down and repost it, and so I will, as I feel that I’m going to need this forum and the advice offered within, to maintain some iota of sanity and that I would be cheating myself if I let your point by point breakdown be the descriptor of what makes me tic. I was also told to give you the benefit of the doubt as you have helped many people on this board. I will try and do that. But please understand, as new comer on the board, to first be met (your first post in my thread) with what seemed like not only sarcasm, but also not even giving me my fair shake, just lumping me in with all the rest of ‘em, “yada, yada, yada,” Regardless of your meaning, it certainly didn’t seem like anything other than face value, and I wasn’t alone in that observation. You then proceed to rip me to shreds in post #2. Not only have you painted at least a semi-inaccurate picture of me, ... If you guys are here to help, posts like those are definitely not helping me.


Here is my kinder, gentler version, My Re-Post if you will
It seems to me, that you have tried to paint a picture of who you think I am and what you think I’m about by dissecting every thought I originally wrote, analyzing it and then informing me of all my compulsions, obsessions, inadequacies and disillusionments. Yes, it is starting to become painfully obvious that it’s going to take a long time and serious input to kick this thing. But to think (or be accused of) that there is any type of irrational, compulsive addiction for someone that’s been athletically inclined his whole life to want to be able to get 2 cardio workouts and 3 one hour gym session a week, and god for bid after his 6.5 –7 hour a day job as a flooring installer is (IMHO) reasonably inaccurate. Sorry, I just don’t read that as compulsion or Type A. And to tell someone that’s been riding 2 wheels of some sort his entire life, his greatest outlet from the grind, his favorite source of exercise and well being, his best legal avenue to get his adrenaline fix, that due to some absolutely bizarre, absurd, unimaginable and until now (5 weeks ago) undiagnosed twisting and turning of his pelvic floor muscles that he’s going to have to stop doing that which he loves, that which he’s been doing for 38 of his 43 years of existence, who can possibly imply that my not being able to immediately come to grips with this “pile of crap of facts,” represents some irrational and or compulsive behavior or is impulsive on my part.

Just so you know, All exercises and or sports I’ve mentioned have been throughout my life. They are not all lumped together in some crazy, feverish, mad dash to get everything in. I still try to do all in some form of moderation as I still love them all (up until chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome took over anyway) but they are not overlapped. One replaces another. I have chosen to not work more then 35-40 hours a week, I have chosen to allot 6 – 10 hours a week on ALL exercises/sports and I have chosen plenty of down (quiet/self) time and time to be with friends. I make less money than I should but enjoy piece of mind. And have time to sit in the recliner and take a nap if I so desire. For this you imply I am Type “AA”

As for your dissection of the motorcycle thing, the tracks are road courses. Louden, Poccono, Laguna Secca, Daytona, Mid Ohio, Sears Point, etc. Turns are in both directions, left and right. Uphill, down hill. (this is me on a typical road coarse http://www.visionwells.com/ )Knees are regularly scraped on the ground but almost never support the weight of the bike. (unless something goes drastically wrong) Bikes are light and nimble. Turning them is almost effortless and done mainly with handlebar input. Yes, there are leg, hip, glute, back muscles etc. involved but you really don’t have to be any type of physical specimen to ride one. It’s far more of a mental thing than a physical one. Was I consumed at one point in my life??? Was I compulsive at one point in my life??? Well, I have a closet full of road racing trophies which represents a passion I tried to turn into a career in my twenties and also accounts for the majority of titanium fixtures and broken bits and pieces “that are” my body. When I ride now (and for no less than the past 17+ years) I ride for fun. It’s an outlet not a stressor. The only pain comes from the actual sitting on the seat. I’ve never felt pain from the rest of the leg/physical motions involved with the riding process. That’s not to say that at this inflamed, contorted acute state I’m in, that it’s even conceivable at this point. My motorcycle is actually for sale on criagslist as I write this. http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/mcy/855662971.html anyone wanna buy a motorcycle? LOL

Mtn biking, motorcycling, skiing, hiking, etc., .... These are my escape, my Zen, my ultimate “me” time. Mtn. biking through silent, pristine singletrack in the middle of a deep thick forest, being the only person in sight slicing fresh tracks down a slope in waist-deep powder far from the hustle and bustle. Compulsive?? Type A?? Been this way for 38 years. To tell me in one instant that all of these (at the same damn time) are being plucked out of from underneath me, and then to imply that my reaction of distress is anything more than natural one, .... Coooome Oooonnn, Cut me some slack.

supeuse , though indeed I do find your response to be at least partially distressing, I do realize that hidden somewhere in your sharp text, that you are merely trying to get me (in your own special way) to possibly look a little bit deeper and maybe a little bit harsher into myself and my future life as the clutches of my pelvic pain increasingly tighten. Possibly also (again, in your own special way) trying to make me see the bigger picture, and possibly giving me a glimpse of the preparation both mentally and physically that might help to get me through this thing. For that I am grateful. That said, I kindly ask two things of you; 1) Please don't assume you know who I am or what makes me tick. You couldn’t possibly know. 2) If you have suggestions to make, please do so, but understand that sarcasm and ripping me apart definitely isn’t helping me and/or making me feel any better.

Joe

[webslave]

I do think superuse could have phrased his posts better, but I also find that your responses to both me and him denote a fairly tightly wound personality. I detect more than a little tension in your online persona. I may be wrong, but I'm quite experienced at this and generally correct in my assessments of people from their postings.

Now if you are tense or anxious or worried or angry about something (not just the UCPPS), this has to be looked at, perhaps not here by us but by a psychologist.

[webslave]

Harpo-rider, you may find further help with post-peak-oil career decisions here:
http://globalpublicmedia.com/peak_momen ... s_lifeboat

Book: