Some days are better than others. Some days I can't do much of anything at all and I can ALWAYS tell you if the weather people are right about "severe thunderstorms" because if they are, I hurt way more than I normally do. I can feel it when the weather is going to change.
I didn't drive as long as you did, and honestly thought that all those aches and pains I was experiencing were just the result of doing a good hard days work, especially given the physical and repetitive nature of doing local P&D I was doing at the time the problem first showed itself. Turned out I was doing some serious damage to myself and only making it worse by not getting looked at...... until it was too late.
Of course WSIB jumped in bed with my then employer denying my claim and went so far as to tell me the issues were NOT caused by the daily heavy lifting, pushing, pulling, twisting etc, and the general repetitive nature of the job I was doing, but as a result of age. I wasn't yet 42 at that time, and after some physio/rehab, and adapting what I was doing from local P&D to simple local pin to pin for a different company who knew of the issues I had, less than two years later and 2 back to back longer than normal work days, the conditions had progressed to the point that I was told by several different doctors that if I didn't get out of the truck, I'd be in a wheelchair by 50. So, I listened to them for a change. Went back to school, graduated with honors, but no in role experience for the jobs I've been looking for. Related experience yes, tonnes of it, but no in role experience, so nobody would hire me.
Most saw the driving experience and being drivers are hard to come by, even today, they wanted me to drive for them. They couldn't seem to wrap their head around the concept that IF I could still drive professionally, I would have been, and would still be. But, I can't pass the medical let alone climb into the truck. When I went off in 2014, permanently, I could barely walk, IF you can call what I was doing walking at all. I walk with a limp now I never knew I had, and I still don't notice it. Didn't know about it until I went for an interview after graduating college and the first thing out of the guys mouth before I even sat down was, "what's wrong with your back?" He told me he knew I had back issues when he saw me walking with the same limp a friend of his with back and hip issues, who was also a driver had developed that forced his friend out of the truck as well. I had no idea and asked my family about it later and they confirmed it. I also have a friend in Yellowknife who was a driver who has the same issues I have that has been out of the truck and on disability for longer than I have been.
Given my age, although it has been discussed periodically, the doctors don't want to seriously consider any surgical options yet. It's always an option of last resort and they tell me IF that time comes, they only want to do it once, and feel that if they were to do it now, they'd only have to do it again at a later date. So for now, we're just taking the OTC's (and the Rx when necessary) to 'control' the pain as best as possible, and of course numerous restrictions to my physical capabilities. But they've already told me that the pain will be with me, even if I do have surgery, for the rest of my life. I do what I can around the house, and when I'm having a bad day pain wise, I take the day off. But as I said, I take something for the pain every time I leave the house, including when I go fishing, because if I don't, I won't be able to do much for very long. That's just the way life is for me now.
