Hello all..........and Mac..(lol).
I returned to road patrol at the beginning of November after a month off for knee surgery. Knee is/was doing well, though it does get a little sore when I try to overdo it. On December 4th (about 4 weeks after returning to work), I injured my back during an "incident" at work and was off for another month. I just returned to work "lite duty" this past tuesday. I get to man the walk up desk in the P.D., go to physical therapy and hope my back heals up.
MRI confirmed that I have a bulging disc in my thoracic spine, which is impinging the nerves leading to my abdominal muscle as well as my diapghram. The pain isnt so bad, but I can't take deep breaths and for the most part, my abdominal muscles remain "flexed" pretty much 24/7. The doc's are approaching it conservatively, thinking that P.T. will solve the issue...we will see.
For the time being, I am warm and cozy working inside the P.D., pushing paperwork around and entertaining the general public from behind a wall of kevlar and 2 inch plexiglass..!