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Pain when shooting

For the last year or so, I have been in really serious pain when shooting prone. I had several squad patners ask if the tears in my eyes were from my scores. Laughingly, I explained I was in terrible pain when getting down on my gun. I had considered asking the NRA for a dispensation and ask that I be allowed to shoot sitting. The pain, tingling and numbness had gotten so bad I went to the orthopedic surgeon today. His tec X-rayed my shoulders and neck. The doctor said my shoulders were fine, but my neck looked like a train wreck. There are about 7-8 vertabrae in the cervical spine. Each is separated by a disk. The X-rays revealed I have 4 missing disk and bone surs on the remaining 3 or 4 disk spaces. The orthapedist told me I will have to go to a neurosurgeon and have my neck verterabrae fused and the spurs removed. He said I will be out of shooting for at least 6 months maybe a year due to the volume of neck problems. I think I will put the surgery off until after the holidays and deer season. Have any of you had neck or back surgery? Would like to hear about your experience and the recovery time. Have you been able to resume shooting without the pain?
Rustystud
 
Rustystud: Same problem here. Had to stop shooting the 20 rds. of slow-fire from the prone position, in the NRA Hi-power matches, several yrs ago. X-Rays showed several discs have no cartilidge/ bone against bone. Rapid-fire from the prone position,,for 70 seconds) was OK. Shot the 20 slow fire from the crossed ankle sitting position, but that now results in severe lower back pain after 8 or 10 rds. Rather than surgery, have chosen to stop "position" shooting. Off-hand, like silhouette matches, are no problem. I don't believe any approval is req'd. from the NRA: you can fire the 20 rds of slow fire from any position,, with the corresponding lower score on the prone tgt.). See NRA High Power rule# 13.2 Temporary Disability: "sitting may be used for prone". I carried a letter from my Dr.but was never questioned/ after all, you are handicapping yourself by using the more unstable position.
 
Are you sure your injury isn’t from other exploits ;), like from what’s been breaking your back :D

Hope you get better and have a speedy recovery after surgery if needed. A guy I know had X-Rays of his neck after complaining of pain in his neck and shoulder. The Neurosurgeon told him that the black between his vertebrae in the X-Ray was normal, the pain was from a pinched nerve.
 
William:

I have degenertive disk diesase and yes the nerves are being pinched. My fingers, hand and right arm are going numb, my shoulder and neck have level 8-9 pain on a scale of 10 being worst. After many years of butting my head against the wall and swinging from the chandaliers, football, racing motorcycles, bull & bronc riding, car wrecks and falls from trees, all have caused my body to have taken a hit.
Rustystud
 
I had a cervical fusion done in 2000.Couldn't use my right arm before surgery.Arm works fine now.
I shoot Highpower across the course, prone, smallbore, and benchrest.
It took awhile to get comfortable shooting prone after surgery, but I can do so now without any major problem if I pay attention to my position and rest often during slow fire prone.
I just put my head down for a few seconds while the taget is down to be scored then come up check the score and wind, load and shoot.
If you are suffering any neurologic damage I would recommend you have the surgery. I was lucky. Anthing you loose you may not get back even with surgery.
 
Rustystud said:
William:

I have degenertive disk diesase and yes the nerves are being pinched.

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully, surgery will remove a large part of the pain if not all of it. I'm hoping for a speedy recovery for you, good luck.

William
 
Back in 2000 while trail riding I got clotheslined by a thorny 'wait-a-minute' vine. My head was twisted far to the left and downward, chin on shoulder. 6 months later my neck started locking up when doing anything that required looking down and left for a long period of time [ like truing a wheel ].

The neurosurgeons basically said I am screwed. Most of my problem is at the top [ the atlas and axis ] and there is no surgery that will help in my current state. I also had a lot of pre-exisiting arthritis that I didn't realize I had that explained some issues I had been having for many years [ neck and shoulders ]. I had to close my dirtbike/atv shop because lifting anything much over 25 lbs causes pain, numbness and migraine headaches [ which I have always suffered from ].

As long as I am not stupid I get by ok. I can do a small amount of heavy exertion if I am careful. Doing too much will quickly cause me a lot of pain and pretty soon a migraine is coming on [ Imetrex saved my life ]. My neck starts to feel like all the vertabrae are moving out of position which is a very scary feeling.

My main suggestion is to do what the docs say [ get more than one opinion ] and do not rush the rehab. Really apply yourself to the PT and rehab after the surgery. Once you get to whatever level is attainable then you can assess what sort of shooting you can do. Don't try to be a tough guy when dealing with a compromised neck or back. Some types of shooting can do some real damage in these situations.

The reduced physical capability can be a real kick in the balls but I just have to deal with the new reality.
 
Hey, Nat your are a miss . Sorry to hear that. That will put a halt on things for a while . Art
 
Just got back from Neurosurgeon, he is a shooter and real nice guy. He looked at my X-rays and told me he was going to order a MRI for a better understanding of my problems. He confirmed I had at least 3 disc/5 vertabrae that were involved. He also said I had a lot of bone spurrs. He put me on an anti-inflamitory and scheduled for me to return in two weeks after having the MRI.
Rustystud
 
I am on celebrex [ was on Vioxx ]. Without it I feel really bad all the time, probably the way you feel right now. See if he will put you on it now.

At my last headache specialist appointment they wanted me to try taking my Celebrex in the morning instead of just before bed. Big mistake. I started sleeping poorly and would wake up feeling all stove up with lots of joint pain every morning. I wouldn't start feeling decent until about noon.


By taking it before bed it helps me sleep better and I wake up without the pain.
 
Nat:

I hadn't been reading this thread until tonight. I'm very sorry to hear about your predicament, but it seems there is hope from what you are reporting. The only thing worse than getting old is not! God be with you and keep through the long days ahead. It's a long ways to VT but if there's anything I can do, please feel free to call.

Reed
 
Reed and Art:

My doctor told me he is using a new artificial disk replacement that does not fuse the verterbrae keeping the neck flexible. He want know what direction he wants to take me until he sees my MRI. I will start a nonsteroidal anti-inflamitory today. They have not worked long term in the past. The pain has always returned and usually worse. I will keep you folks posted.

Nat
 
I cannot shoot from the prone position because of my neck damage and if i try my eyes go out of focus and i get bad neck pain and headaches as it pinches nerves etc when i try to hold my head up so i shoot F Class from a Bench.
Also shoot other benchrest
 
When a person starts finding out more about their individual problem areas it becomes possible to identify some reasons for the issues that at first would seem to be unrelated.

In my own case part of my neck issue is caused by my eyesight. I have a blind spot in the center of the vision of my left eye. I am also very near sighted. Whenever I am doing any detail work I naturally rotate my head to the left to center up my right eye. I also tilt my head down to see over my glasses.

I have been doing this without thinking about it for at least 25 years. Now at age 53 if I leave my head rotated in a left and down orientation for more than a few seconds my neck bones start to move out of position and will get locked up if I don't catch it quick enough. Even if I catch it in time I still get a bad pain twinge as everything realigns. Just happened this morning in the shower.
 

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