Borked-Up Neck, Open Ocean Boards & Paddle Dog

  The neck, shoulder and arm pain came on gradually after the last Long Beach session with Chuck, big whitewater, no accidents, followed by a little Dogfish Head recovery fuel at Camp Mustang.

Before the now vogue quads, came Brian Hinde's Open
Ocean brand tri-fins

  The next day's 10 mile bike ride just added insult to injury. But I blame it on overdoing it with the golf swing practice ;) like in 2010 (should have just went out on the course and played.)

  My dad told me, after the fact, that he put his neck out every time he played golf. And I'd just gotten my swing rounding into form, ready for some late season empty golf course action. Not to be.

Brian's boards are looking better than ever,
and come in more sizes.

  I'd just gotten my jibes happening after missing all last season, but November sailing was not to be. I as just getting my surf pop-ups more dialed in, and ... that will have to wait till Spring, too, if I'm lucky.

  I'd just gotten used to high-wind sailing again,  on the 82 L Brian Hinde custom Open Ocean 8'4" sinker. ... Actually no... not just used to it, but taking great joy in it. The tri-fin board still rocks. It fit like an old slipper. Brian Hynde knows how to make a custom board that works for you. The carbon fiber is still stiff where it counts. But it will be some time before I do that again.

  ...it started out mild the Sunday night, but by the next morning, I was clamped in painful muscle spasms. By mid-week it had developed to excruciating pain and getting worse. More in the shoulder and upper back, then progressing to the arm, forearm, and back of hand and into the fingers.

   I'd had a mild attack in early July and 5mg cyclobenzaprine and some advil took care of it. Not so easy this time.

The shape remains much as it was. It works;
why mess with success?

   Nope, this one felt a whole lot worse. I made an appointment to see the next available neurologist, since my regular doc was booked up until mid-December.

  Well, it appears I herniated C5-6,C6-7 again. And add a dash of stenosis, according to the physiotherapist, not to mention the degenerative disk stuff that nearly everybody has at this age.

  The Neurologist said it was not so terrible that I'd need surgery, and we'd try chemical and physiotherapy. The physiotherapists added some traction. The neuroogist prescribed and double-p dose of cyclobenzaprine 10 mg 2x day (muscle relaxant), meloxicam 15 mg 1x day (long -acting anti-inflammatory) in place of the 400 mg of ibuprofen I'd been taking 3 x a day, and tramadol 50 mg x 3 for the additional pain.

  My physiotherapists are Philippino I think, (I've heard Tagalog spoken and it sounds like it, but I could be wrong.) and have some good skills with their deep tissue methods, and accupressure. It hurts more initially but seems to work well on breaking up the muscle knots.

Extreme walking partner in training ... and
paddleboarding pooch in due course. She
just doesn't know it yet

  I've had 2 sessions and there's definitely improvement. But there's no counting chickens yet, sit in a chair the wrong way for a couple of hours and things get nasty again.