Re: RC: Bad Backs/Chronic Pain (Riders with...)MANY THANKS!

["B.E. Jackson" <riosanbravo@hotmail.com>]

To all RideCampers who responded to my original post:

I've replied to many of you to thank you for your candidness and to ask 
permission to quote or use info for an article (looks more like it'll be a 
series of articles) in Trail Blazer on chronic back (and elsewhere) pain in 
riders. If there is a respondant who wouldn't like to be included, could you 
drop me an email? Apparently, this is a subject that unites practically all 
of us. Perhaps ride managers should consider coordinationg on-site 
masseuses, chiropractors, and p.t.s the way they do vets and farriers at 
basecamp? :-)

Okay, this is where I give my plug for lifesaving health maintenance. If 
your back pain is intermittent and seems "deeper" than musculo-skeletal, 
please go get it checked out by your doctor. I had lower back pain for quite 
a while that I attributed to disc trouble due to heavy lifting and extensive 
riding, only to have them find a large "bad" polyp in my colon. I ignored 
the symptoms or attributed them to something else because I was "too young," 
a "health nut," didn't smoke, and had no family history of colon cancer. 
Luckily it was caught early enough that surgery took care of it. It is only 
now, noticing that a lot of my back pain has disappeared since the surgery, 
that I realize my error in diagnosing my symptoms. Compared to major 
abdominal surgery, colonoscopies are relatively simple procedures; if you're 
rapidly approaching 50, go get one. End of  PSA...

Bonnie in AZ
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