Maybe I am getting to old for this shit. I say that all of the time as kind of a joke…you know like Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon. But for years I’ve had this problem. I fell off of a truck in 2000 (on duty…the truck wasn’t moving, I was trying to remove a battery and slipped). Still, I landed in such a way that I hurt my spine…or specifically, a nerve in my spine. My left arm would go numb from time to time at first. Then it ramped up to numb but with a dull ache.
When I was a recruiter in NJ it got really bad. So I had an MRI done. (the accident occured in Germany, and no, they didn’t ask for an MRI, they just sentme to physical therapy which didn’t really help at all) Since there wasn’t a military hospital nearby I went to the Univ. of Pennsylvania hospital. They gave me steroid shots in the nerve because as the doctor told me it was dying. This was really painful. But after afew months of that I was moved back to Germany, and again not near any base. So I saw a german therapist who actually did help alleviate the pain and numbness a bit.
Now…recently the pain has gotten kinda bad. I saw a doctor here at Ft. Bragg this week about it. She says I have cervical degenerative disc disease, Cervicl spinal stenosis. I say it just freaking hurts. Its been painful for awhile now, but I kind of muscle through it at work. Today I found that I couldn’t anymore. Wearing body armor at a practice range the weight of the armor on my back and neck made the pain blinding. I could barely aim or hold the weapon…bad enough that i just got up and told them I can’t fire. (don’t worry…this practice range is done with computer controlled weapons indoors, like a video game. The weapon feels and looks and even recoils like a real M4 but no live ammo is involved)
I’ve never just quit like that, but the pain shooting down my left side and shoulder was unbearable. Technically I’m on a profile starting yesterday, so I don’t have to do some of the “army” stuff…but man, firing on a range…its not hard! its kind of fun…and I can’t do it effectively right now. (and we have a range tomorrow where I’m the Range Safety Officer.) I was looking forward to qualifying with my weapon and I don’t know if I can. I literally couldn’t hold my arm steady enough to look through the sight, the pain got so bad. I’m kinda depressed.