My turn

[Dave's Not Here Man]

to complain. One day of work, about 3 hours actually, and my lower back feels like it is on fire. The burning sensation is new. Nerve pain? I had it in my thigh a few years ago and they said it was meralgia paresthetica and it was next level painful. This isn't that bad yet (fingers crossed) but I'm just getting started on this project and need my damn body to keep up, at least for a few hours a day. 

At what point is this shit, along with the other shit (anxiety attacks, etc) solid basis for filing for disability? 

[minx]

That sounds way beyond any type of painful - I am sorry.

I don't know about disability. I know your doctor pisses you off big time, but did they give you any sort of guidelines?

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Nope. And our medicaid/marketplace plans are all effed up. Both are apparently effective which I just found out about. That's probably a problem. I have an appt tomorrow with the therapist and hopefully have time to go to their admin dept and see if they can figure it out but in all likelihood are going to direct me back to the marketplace and/or medicaid, which who even knows what effects the freakin shutdown are having in that area.

Once I get that figured out, then I'm going to have to get more aggressive about treatment for my back. To date, there has been nothing indicated except weight loss and the refusal to do surgery based on my risk factors.

[minx]

Have they recommended any type of program for weight loss?

A friend of mine has Cushing's Disease (your adrenals go berserk, so your metabolism is way off), so she's gained a ton of weight, which of course has led to other health issues.
Doctor recommended lap band surgery, but the surgeon said not yet, because of the Cushing's. However, he did refer her to a nutritionist, and they are working together with the doctor to find something else.

I'm not sure what though - she went on a full liquid diet for 3 weeks, and lost less than 5 pounds.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

They always offer to send me to a nutritionist and I always decline because it's not really rocket surgery. I'm more than capable of losing weight on my own but life always and I mean always jumps in the way. I was doing pretty well a couple of years ago and was down to 318 from 354. Even had bobathon on the kick for a while.

That said.... Signed up for KP's weight management program a few weeks ago. Unfortunately it's not what I was expecting. So for now at least I'm going to try to make some adjustments on my own again. Beer drinking is a major obstacle (mega calories per week) so I'm trying to slow that down. PS- didn't drink at all the first month we were here and gained two belt holes) but with all the other misery notwithstanding it wasn't even a blip on my radar. Another biggy is bar food, which holds hands with beer drinkin. Drink beer at home has several benis; no DWI, spend less, a lot less, drink less, and no wings-rings-yuenglings bar food. That's my starting point. Stuffed gym clothes and shoes in my bag so if I'm feeling up to it, I have it in the truck ready to go whenever. Almost made it yesterday but just felt too aweful.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

I got out to the jobsite yesterday for a very short time but at some point I heard the spring pop in my back and within a few minutes the burning went away and the pain returned to baseline, which is very helpful.