Steadicam after back operations?

[Peter Abraham]

Hi all.

 

Indeed, I had a back injury but before I relate an encapsulated version of it, this cautionary remark. As others have mentioned, we all use our body and react to treatment and are built slightly differently. A lot of the advice listed is incredibly useful and quite primal to good Steadicam Operating. Not loading the spine- which means good Operating posture. Natural strides, working with the machine not against it and so on. What works for me may hold no water for anyone else. Anecdotal evidence IS useful in my opinion- all of the evidence and situations related above, and below this post, are of value because of the unique thing we do to our bodies when we put on a Steadicam or other stabilizing system.

 

In September of 2000 a ladder slid out from under me while at home doing some wiring. I have an open fracture of the L-3 vertibra with some disk damage immediately above. Additionally, the spinal facets from L-3 down in to the Sacral have lost most of their sinovial fluid from the compression/ impact. This resulted in arthritis.

 

My fracture, while looking more like this I / than like this II is now stable due to a procedure called Percutaneous Vertebroplasty. Fancy phrase ! Anyway, it stabilized the break. Prior to the treatment and for years after, I couldn't wear a full sized rig because of the pain levels. The inherent distribution of the pressure of the weight focused on- sadly- the lower Lumbar. Chris Fawcett's Exovest resolved those issues because of the main area of pressure. It is now between the shoulder blades instead of centered around L-1 to L-4. Nice !! Back to operating these last two years. All is good there.

 

Now to treatments. I would recommend getting a good second opinion. Find someone who specializes in sports medicine. What we do is essentially asymmetrical sport. Those doctors, ortho surgeons and neurosurgeons are more familar with this type of stress on the spine than those Dr's who focus in on static work-related injuries. Just my two cents. Find a few of the right KIND of Dr's.

 

When discussing short- and long-term treatment with your main Dr, discuss the use of a T.E.N.S. Unit. These small battery operated devices are used to increase blood flow in the area stimulated. They are entirely non-invasive. When dealing with a broken bone, they do greatly accelerate the time needed for a break to heal. In the case of soft tissue injury/ pain, the increased blood flow does seem to ameliorate pain. This is ENTIRELY subjective, and may do nothing for you. However, you can likely borrow a small unit from a Dr. and see how it does for you. I rarely use mine now. Maybe after a brutally long concert or somesuch if I'm sore. Otherwise, it gets pulled out when we travel to visit people. Some mattresses are so fugly in terms of lack of comfort that I'm more sore from that than from running the rig on a long day. :)

 

While a slipped disk is in of itself painful, in my experience the resulting inflammation and then resulting pressure on the surrounding nerve bundles is the source of most of the pain one feels while awaiting diagnosis and during early treatment phases. Inquire as to the use of heat, cold, T.E.N.S. Unit therapy and other treatments ( such as Mechanical Inversion Tables to assist the surrounding tissues and control swelling and pain.

 

This kind of swelling and pain is a very vicious cycle. One suffers an event. A disk slips out of true. The swelling produces pain, which produces more swelling as a reaction, causing more pain and sometimes radiating far beyond the impact that JUST the slipped disk might be having on the body. Rough stuff.

One final entirely subjective bit. Inversion Tables are without a doubt the Operator's friend. If I had the room I would own one. Using gravity to open up the spine in a gentle manner after a day of work ( or at lunch !! ) is quite remarkable-feeling. Find a way to try one out. Forget an injury. They just feel great after work.

[Sanjay Sami]

Hi James,

I was wondering if you have resolved your injury ?

I hope all went well.

 

Regards

 

Sanjay Sami