OMG - It hurts!!!!! so good...

[mmglobal]

Starting a new thread here. It's wonderful to post good news.

In the last week, I've:

1. Stood still wearing a lead apron for a 5+ hour surgery. (One I hadn't seen before... very interesting stuff!)

2. Walked on the beach and discovered a whale skeleton.

3. Went back over and over... kind of OCD about something exciting.

4. Sat through a wonderful play. (Tick, Tick, Boom... Jonathon Larson - creator of Rent)

5. Worked too much!

6. Shoveled sand for hours.... dug up a carload of whale bones... unloaded.... washed... carted upstairs... collapsed exhausted.

All day Saturday, I thought I'd be dying... but I survived.

I woke up Sunday hurting like an SOB... sore as hell... but it's a good hurt! It's all muscles that haven't been worked out like this in years. Nothing acute... just a wonderful soreness. Our balcony (60') is covered with whale bones! I posted a bunch of pictures on my facebook page...

It's great to come back again and recover some of who I used to be.

Diane is 2 years post-op next month... she did great too. Between the 2 of us, we have 6 spine surgeries and 8 ADR's. Our friend pictured below has a fusion that is something like T5-L5... massive, successful scoliosis fusion 2 decades ago.

Not bad for a bunch of old spineys...

Mark

PS... leaving for Germany tomorrow!

[sahuaro]

Hey Mark!
All wonderful news! It is great to hear that you are back to life.
Ummm, just curious: what are you planning to do with the whale bones?
(oh, I know--it's for your granddaughter's show and tell when she starts school!)

[Maria]

Glad to hear you're back to living again and now back to traveling to Germany!

I know what you mean re it hurts so good.. have thought that about my own body in the last so many years re just good ol' plain tired achiness vs. retching awful rotten stinkin' pain!! Big diff!!!!

take care and travel well...

Whale bone photo is cool.. sure looks like fun digging that stuff up tho kinda heavy some of them??

[ans]

Wow, that is an incredible picture.

You stay well, take care, and I hope you have a breakthrough med.

Chow - Allan

[Jim M2]

Wow, Mark you really push hard. This is excellent news!

[mmglobal]

Greetings from Heidelberg! I've been in Germany for over a week. I'm still running hard and surviving. I unexpectedly had some free days here and I've stolen up to Heidelberg to see my skydiving buddy, Dr. Jochen Feil. You may have seen in some other threads (Activ-L patient organizes skydiving record!) that he has over 2000 skydives. If things go as planned, I'll come back this way on Sunday and we'll hit the wind tunnel with him. I can't wait to get my knees in the breeze. Not sure yet when I'm coming home. There's so much more I'd like to write about but it's going to have to wait. It's 3am and I've been driving for hours. Just driving in at night, it seems very cool here. The hotel is on a tiny road with very old buildings, just steps away from the river. I'll write more when I can.

All the best,

Mark

[Crystal33]

Mark, It's awesome that you are now physically doing so well after being downed by thoracic pain in recent times.

[mmglobal]

Bad news... good news...

The wind tunnel is completely booked on Sunday! I'm so sorry that I won't be able to do this with Dr. Feil.

However, today I drove to Maastricht, Netherlands to see Dr. Zeegers. On the way, I swung by Bottrop to check out the tunnel. It is the most sophisticated indoor skydiving operation in the world!

YouTube - Indoor-Skydive-ROM-Test1.mpg

Jochen Schweizer Indoor Skydiving Bottrop - Startseite

YAHOO!!!

Mark

[Jim M2]

Mark,

Sorry you won't be doing the wind tunnel but it seems the spinal extension I see in pictures of skydivers jumping or in wind tunnels would aggravate facets big time.

[mmglobal]

Jim, you missed it...

I did make it to the tunnel, just without Dr. Feil!

That is me in the video!

"ROM test" is my NECK - range of motion.

YouTube - Indoor-Skydive-ROM-Test1.mpg

[Jim M2]

Hahahaha

What a kick, i luv it!!!

I'm in a good mood after watching it.

It's cool the way you control motion using subtle motions.

[mmglobal]

Watch what the instructors can do.

The guy in the white jumpsuit had just finished with a group. Tobi, my instructor in the black jumpsuit was just about to start with my group. They get to play a bit between sessions. This is why they 'work' there! Enjoy!

Mark

YouTube - 100306-Bottrop-Instructors.mpg

This is NOT fast motion. I'm standing in the door and my first flight was just after this. Note how they 'land'.

[mmglobal]

YouTube - 100306 cervical adr 1year post op flight1

YouTube - 100306-cervical-adr-1year-post-op-flight2.mpg

YouTube - 100306 cervical adr 1year post op flight3

YouTube - 100306 cervical adr 1year post op flight4

[mmglobal]

YouTube - 100306 cervical adr 1year post op flight5

YouTube - 100306 cervical adr 1year post op flight6

[mmglobal]

There are a few things I want to explain about this trip and my recent activities. First... Indoor skydiving is relatively safe, but what you see me doing comes from 10 years and 850 jumps experience as a "belly flier". That's what we did in the 80's and 90's. It was either small RW - relative work in teams of 4, 8, 10 and occasional 20-way competition; or 'blots'. Blots are the big-ways that you've seen me post about. In the late 80's and early 90's, the fringe groups started skysurfing on snowboards, then sit-flying, then the freestyle that was the predecessor of the advanced freestyle that you see the instructors doing.

I'm quite sore, now 4 days later. Most of it is the 'good sore' that you experience after your first days skiing back for the new season, or the even more intense soreness after your first time climbing. My shoulders are still quite sore from stretch position of that arch, enhanced by 120mph wind. There is a small component of my t-spine flared up, but only went back up to 40mg/day Oxy from 30. Note that just a few weeks ago, I was on 60. I also take some tyelenol, aspirn, advil once or twice a day. Even now, I'm good enought that I can forget to take my meds on time... that's great, but not so great that I don't get hit big-time for an hour or two after I've forgotten the meds for a few extra hours.

So, don't everyone run to the wind tunnels because it is just floating on air. However, if you are relatively fit and you are not recent post-op... accept the risks and give it a try.

On the first flight, I was supposed to wait for the instructor to get comfortable with me in the air. I coud not contain myself. I was surprised that after 12 years, I could turn in place without wandering around and could simply 'think' my right knee to his left hand smoothly and accurately.

Regarding the soreness... my face still hurts from days of ear-to-ear grins!

YAHOOO!

[Maria]

Looks like great fun tho am wondering does it force your neck into extension because of the resistance?

[Chris G]

Mark-

What type of a whale do you think this is. Is this near where you live?

That is a huge amount of sand your team moved!

[dridobits]

Mark, it does my heart good to see such wonderful news from you when it seems like not long ago you were really hurting. It probably was long ago but I'm on another time zone. It's called recovery.

It's amazing how much one person can inspire others as you do with so many people. I'm in touch with Sue everyday and her surgery is tomorrow in Brazil. I'm not sure where or if she is keeping everyone informed but I thought I'd share that with you.

You are awesome Mark,

Liz 5 months 2 level post fusion. I never regret my surgery!

[nomorepain]

wow Mark& Diane i am proud of you, you 2 have been through so much in the last few years, i am so glad to see you can have FUN! this is amazing, so glad to see you 2 are once again living life to it's fullest.... it's a pretty cool ride so far if i do say so myself.
So when are we getting some of these wind tunnels here in sunny southern california, this is something i want to try!

[mmglobal]

Chris... I found this article...

Dead Whale Becomes a Feast Afloat
Ocean: Sharks eat the carcass of a 60-footer off Newport. A passing boat apparently killed it.
August 25, 2001|STANLEY ALLISON, TIMES STAFF WRITER

In a rare glimpse of ocean life resembling a Discovery Channel show, boaters on a dozen pleasure craft watched Friday as two great white sharks and other sea creatures feasted on the carcass of a 60-foot whale off Newport Beach.

The dead whale, believed to be a baleen, apparently was struck and killed in the shipping lanes beyond Catalina Island and then drifted, said John Blauer, a spokesman for Newport Beach lifeguards.

The giant mammal was the fifth to be hit and killed by ships in the past month, authorities said. Three of the whales collided with ships from the Navy's 3rd Fleet as it conducted training exercises off the coast. In a typical year, biologists record only one or two whale strikes in the region.

Last week, a dead fin or sei whale 45 to 50 feet long washed ashore at Huntington Beach. The decaying carcass was hastily buried in the sand. (Mark here.... I think this is the whale that Diane and I found.)

The whale spotted Friday off Newport Beach had apparently been dead for several days before it first drifted into San Pedro Harbor, said Joe Cordero, a wildlife biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Long Beach, which tracks whale strikes.

Blauer said the whale was towed out to sea late Thursday or early Friday from San Pedro Harbor, but floated south and toward the coast until it approached the harbor entrance in Newport Beach. A great white shark about 20 feet long accompanied the whale, feeding on the 70 tons of flesh. That shark was joined by another great white, then several mako and blue sharks.

The great whites, which prefer the deep, cooler waters farther out to sea, could not resist the bounty that the whale offered, Blauer said. "Once they smell food, they'd probably swim all the way up the Santa Ana River if they could," he said.

As two Newport Beach Lifeguard boats tried to tie the whale onto a towing line, yachts, power boats, kayaks and other pleasure craft ferried out to watch the feeding frenzy.

Passengers on a Catalina Flyer boat, apparently on a return trip from the island, also witnessed the rare scene as the sharks fed on the huge carcass.

The two lifeguard boats dropped the towing line in the water, got it under the whale and then maneuvered their boats to tie the whale in a slip knot for towing.

Lifeguard Josh Van Egmond said several of the pleasure craft, eager to move close to see the sharks' teeth, at times got in the way of the lifeguard boats as they tried to secure the whale to the tow line. The hindrance was minor and no one was in danger, he said.

A lifeguard boat eventually began towing the whale about 15 miles out to sea, moving 1 to 2 knots an hour.

"You can't go much faster than that towing a 60-foot whale," Blauer said.

[mmglobal]

Gary, there is a wind tunnel in Perris. (I took Bertagnoli there a couple of years ago when IITS was in San Diego.)

I'm ready to organize a trip out there. It's just over an hour drive from my house. Look online at Skydive Perris | Home - Skydive San Diego, Los Angeles Skydiving, San Diego Skydiving, Indoor Skydiving, California Skydiving, Skydiving in Los Angeles, California Drop Zone, Southern California Skydiving, Skydive California, Skydiving in California,.

A group will go for 1/2 hour of tunnel time. For $480, we get a 1/2 hour briefing followed by the 1/2 hour in the tunnel. We'd split it between 5 to 10 people @ $48 to $96 each for 3 to 6 minutes each. (That's probably split in flights of 90 to 120 seconds each depending on how many people we have.

We may have enough people for a couple of groups, but there is no price break for getting an hour of time. I'll want more than 6 minutes.

This is relatively safe. It's pretty easy for the instructors to keep you from slamming into anything. My shoulders and pecs were quite sore for more than a few days, but that was a good sore. (remember, the title of this thread is, "OMG, it hurts so good!")

Mark