Apropos of very little, one of the problems Western Union had when stringing wire across the prairies back in 1850-whatever was that bison would knock the poles over by scratching against them.  Or so I’ve read.

Stretch what you can, I guess.

It’s refreshing to know someone who has studied history and doesn’t have to make it up (I’ve read the same thing). It’s so rare these days. Which more or less has little to do with the discussion at hand, but you know. After the past couple of days of reading and hearing spewed revisionist (fantasy) history, it’s just wonderful to read something that’s based in reality. It does the soul good. Thank you.

Re bison knocking down poles....let’s hope my house is strong enough to withstand my attentions. The door jambs are great for back scratching posts, too.

Grins.  Dare I admit that I may have first read that in a Zane Grey novel but later had it confirmed in a real history of the time?

If your back problems have lasted this long, you probably have a disk slightly out of place.  Here is probably the easiest way to get things realigned.  Set on the floor and bring your knees up to your chin.  Wrap your arms around knees and then roll backwards.  You may have to do this several times.  Then stretch out on the floor for a couple of minutes to left the muscles relax.  Your back will be sore for a couple of days but no worse then it probably already is.

Thanks, Richard. That sounds like a neat trick. I can make my spine crackle if I kind of unfold my back while standing, but this sounds more effective. I dunno...are spines supposed to crackle like that? I guess it must be a normal thing...I’ve been able to do that for years now.

I’m 99.99% sure this is isn’t a back injury. My back feels fine, actually. It’s a butt muscle. Pure and simple. Now that it has healed a bit, I can feel the knot in it and I can trace the extent of the injury with my thumb. And believe me, I’ve been digging my thumb into it for some good old fashioned deep muscle massage the last couple of days. The muscle itches like crazy now, though it’s also sore to the touch. It’s better today than it was yesterday and the day before and the day before. I don’t know which specific muscle it is, but it’s one that’s affected by just about every body movement. At least now it has settled down enough so that I can move almost everything without feeling like a white hot spike has been driven through it. That’s major progress, from my point of view. ;)

Linkmeister....Zane Grey knew his stuff. ;) I’ve read that at one point there were upwards of 50 million bison roaming the plains. Some estimates are as high as 200 million. They were not only a pest for the telegraph, they also annoyed the heck out of the Union-Pacific railroad powers that be. The bison herds could extend for up to 25 miles across. They held up trains and trampled the track beds, ripping them up pretty effectively. The cattlemen hated them, too. The bison were victims of progress in large part, though the US government wanted them gone, too, as a starve and destroy the plains Indians measure. By the time concerned parties were done slaughtering the bison, there were only a thousand or so left. That’s a massive amount of slaughter. It must have been a grim sight to see so many carcasses rotting on the plains—relatively few were harvested for meat or skins.

Richard--that was a great suggestion and I intend to try it--maybe in the next 10 minutes!!  My back kicks up more often than it should and lately I am taking more Aleve than I should so this might be better.  And, today I really need it cause we danced the night away last night at a wedding - on a yacht--such fun!! Dancing in HIGH heels though definitely means a sore back (and a few other things!) the next day....but SO worth it!!  Soon Kate, you will be able to do the same thing.  What if you went to someplace and had a deep muscle massage.  My husband swears by it??

If the spine gets slightly out of alignment it puts pressure on the sciatic nerve that runs done into each leg causing it to spasm which feels like a score spot in the buttocks and causes you to have pain in the legs.  It’s a very common occurance that usually corrects itself in a few days but the rolling to help realign the spine speeds up the procress.

LOL, you are NOT old!
Just got back from the DRs. another MRI is in need. So Wednesday night I have to get one. Sigh. Will this ever end?
He was really a nice doctor. He promised me he was going to help me lol.
Sounds to me you maybe tweaked a muscle in your dairy-air? It doesn’t sound like a back thing to me from what you say that you can do. If I tried to lift my leg up or bend to the floor you would be visiting me at the hospital again!
I can’t even think about what would happen to me if I did what Richard is suggesting!!! Sorry Richard!
Hang in there, listen to your body!
Oh and the SIL had her spinal fushion, not doing well. We are hopefull in a couple of weeks she will improve though. Poor thing.
Hang tight and hopefully before the end of spring we can both be out there pulling weeds and planting things in your back yard!

Welll, I’ll tell ya. I think I owe Richard many thanks and a coupla hugs. Tried his back rolling thingy last night and something went “pop.” I wasn’t sure, at that moment, whether I’d done more damage or fixed something. But it was pretty clear that something had changed. Stood up and there was only a slight amount of pain in my behind. Nothing like before. More than that, my mobility ability increased to almost normal. I’m still tender, but have had a robust day filled with activity. And that included several hours in the car fetching the lad...which would have been unthinkable yesterday.  The muscle is still sore to the touch and it still itches today, but all the peripheral pain is gone. At least, I assume it’s the muscle that’s still tender. Whatever....It’s like a new lease on life. Whoooooo!!!!

J, if hope that doctor can help you. I hope he can fix you up as good as new. This has been going on way too long now and you need relief. He promised. Hold him to it! I’m sorry to hear about M. She has had a miserable go of things. How long has it been since the fusion? Maybe it’ll just take a little more time. Will keep her in my thoughts. Poor thing.

Glad to hear you are getting better! Give the lad a big hug and tell him I HOPE to see him before he goes back to school lol.
It has been a little over two weeks that M has had the fusion. The doctors are disapointed that she was still in so much pain when she left the hospital. We hope by her 4-6 week checkup she will be better.

I never pass up a hug.  Glad I could help a little.  You will be sore a couple of days but that too will pass.

I can tolerate a sore spot. It’s a whole lot better than “hurts all over.” The difference is remarkable. I’m totally mobile again. Fantastic!