BGfisher

Retired at the age of 55. I'm 62 now. Every day is Saturday and every week is vacation time.

That being said I have several hobbies. #1 is archery (several venues). #2 is scuba diving in which I travel all over the world to persue. #3 is as a school bus driver which takes up some of my free time and gives me a little pocket money to persue the other two hobbies.

I would say the wife, kids, and grandkids eat most of the time that's left.

Down&OutHunting

Im a student at SIU and a farmer. So the hunting can be limited depending on harvest.

dyb3and88

I use to be an auto mechanic/shop manager. But after my back gave out 10 years ago, I am on permanent disability. I have 6 screws 2 rods and 2 cages in my lower back. The last 3 vertebra are screwed together. So I pretty much just work around the house and yard. Work on a car every now and then, just simple stuff now. I love to hunt and fish. The wife and I try and go out on the boat as much as we can in the summer. My wife has a state job. I have been getting injection in my back this month and hope that they can get me pain free, or at least take most of it away. I pretty much hate the winter after hunting season is over. Then I have nothing to do. No garden or lawn to take care of. I will build car models after hunting season is over to pass the time. I also love tinkering on my 86 Ford Ranger. Its got a mustang GT V8 with a supercharger. You can see pics in the posts about " lets see your meet wagons" All the kids are out of the house and on there own. My wife and I are 43 and where alone, yippee!!! lol. We get to come and go as we wish and have ice cream for dinner if we want,lol.

BGfisher

Sorry to hear about your back. I have a bad one, too, but not nearly as bad as yours. It's not debilitating for me. Of course my lower back doesn't bother me that much, but the neck has seen surgery 3 times in 15 years and have all the screws and titanium. I'm pretty much limited to 50# or less draw weight, but that's better than giving up.

What kind of shots are you getting? Steroids? Epidural?

I'm sure you do most of the cooking, right? If not your should learn. Like you my wife is the main bread winner these days and the least she deserves is a hot meal after 12 hours at work every day.

dyb3and88

I do 80% of the cooking and cleaning. Like you said, its the least I can do after she has been at work all day. I got the epidural injections. I have had them in the past. The Doctor that does the injection had me get a surgical opinion to see if there was something that surgery would fix before he would give me more injections. Nothing surgical will solve my problem they say. So back to the injections. They do work for me. I only have 24 to 48 hours of down time for the injections. And 4 to 6 months of relief. They worked good enough to where I could stop taking pain meds. But when I did that, I started having problems with my shoulder. Come to find out I have a bad disc in my neck also. But when I started taking my pain meds again with some aleve the shoulder problem went away. MRI showed a bad disc in my neck, but at this point if the meds are working, I'm not having surgery. They have also talked about doing a pump implant. That would put the meds right to the pain area with 1/4 of the dose. Not so sure about that though.

Canuck_2

dyb, sounds like you have some nasty problems but a good attitude dealing with them. Good for you.

I'm a retired geologist and high school teacher. However, I now do the occasional short-term mineral exploration program on a contract basis because I enjoy it. I just tell anyone that contacts me that I don't do cold and I don't do steep.

My wife is still working as head of a hospital imaging department and, like dyb3and88, I usually prepare dinners as well as look after other household chores. Free time activities include archery in various venues, rockhounding, wildlife photography, and having a ball with my 3 granddaughters.

dyb3and88

Thank you. You have to have a good attitude. You can go through life pissed off, there is no fun in that. Sometime I wish I had some grandkids to watch, it would give me something to do. But the kids are still only 18 to 21 and need to get there heads on straight and good jobs before they bring kids into the world.

BGfisher

Don't worry. Your kids are like the rest of ours. One day they'll figure life out and the grandkids will come along quick enough. Then you'll fall in love again and have less time for yourself. I'll say this though. It's nice being able to hand them back at the end of the visit or baby sitting tenure.

I did forget to mention that my problems are the same as yours. Degenerative disc disease. I think the problem with my lower back is scar tissue from my previous surgery 3 years ago. It hurts all the time, but gets worse with barametric changes, but it's not going to stop me; just slows me down at times. The neck is good right now considering I only have three vertebre (spelling) left. C3,4, and 5 are fused. I'm a little limited in how far I can twist my head, but I adjusted to that. It's the pain I used to have that almost drove me to suicide--that's not an option any more.

Shoulder pain? Let's not talk about that. Some of it's just my age and my body paying me back for the dumb stuff I did when I was young and dumb. Ibuporfin takes care of it pretty well when needed.

Keep up the good attitude. As you said, you can go through life pissed off about it or you can look ahead and get on with life.

dyb3and88

It will be nice to have grandkids some day to spoil. Wined them up and send them home, lol. Then the kids can see what they did to us when they where young. lol. Pay back.... lol. Ya the shoulder thing kind of caught me off guard. A disc is pinching a nerve in my neck that goes to my shoulder. Until I cant move my arm, I am leaving well enough alone. The Aleve keeps the swelling down enough to where its not bothering me right now. Here is what my lower back looks like. This x-ray was taken when they where doing the epidural injections.

sharpizzio

I am an Environmental, Health, and Safety Coordinator for the Worlds #1 Lingerie Company (HINT: We employ Heidi Klum! ). I love my job and make my own hours so I hunt and fish as much as I can but also find time for my girlfriend, family, and friends!