Looked up the Phoenix Isere, looks remarkably like my Phoenix Appalachian. Glad to see other '70s boats still in use.
Been taking osteo Bi-Flex for 15 years it’s been great. I take multi vitamin, and vitamin D.
Unfortunately still flat on my back. I think it’s a bit better after 8 days. Fingers crossed 
The simplist tasks take a ton of planning and effort. Cough or sneeze is a horrow.
Sounds like you might be having piriformis issues (the deep pain in the upper butt). This can lead to inflammation of the sciatic nerve. I had a bout of it in 2019 that began when I had to sit on an 8 hour overseas flight to Spain – just sitting became excruciating and I had to stand and lean against the seat ahead of me to keep from writhing in pain. Pain would start deep in the upper butt cheek and then extend down the top and inside thigh all the way to my ankle eventually. It was like having a hot knife driven into my flesh. A few months later, while kayaking in Maine with Celia, the same pain would begin an hour or so into being in the cockpit and I had to pull ashore to stretch out the horrible cramping in that right rear pelvic area and the leg.
I looked into piriformis stretching exercises on line – a lot of therapists post them. I added those into my workout routine and have not been bothered by it since, but it was nasty while it plagued me.
Having had plenty of strains and skeletal-muscular woes during my years of working construction and outdoor sports “whoopsies” I have become a true believer in having an established relationship with a competent chiropractor. I had an orthopod trying to treat me for a week with pain pills, muscle relaxers and “bed rest” after an incapacitating upper back muscle spasm attack in my mid thirties. My GP referred me to his own chiro – the guy worked on me for half an hour and I walked out completely pain free (learned I have a slightly loose neck vertebra that can get slipped and lodged against a nerve if I turn my head too sharply.
The problem is finding a GOOD chiropractor, not a hack who claims they can cure everything from bad breath to the plague by tweaking your carcass.
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PD, I’ve been where you are and as painful as it will be, you have got to get out of that bed. Get a walker and do what you can.
I have had the same experience with a good Chiropractor as Willow. I ruptured a disc on a Saturday afternoon and after a night in hell I got the guy to meet me at his office. I walked out of there able to move and breathe again. It still took several days to get back to normal.
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Started to feel sciatic nerve few days before this happened.
When I was 18 I had problems. It was hard to get a doctor to look at me they said everyone was trying to beat the draft. They said then crowed disk, split spine, what ever that means. Had problems here and there from 18 to 68 lol. 20 years ago I had some discs in my neck flare up. Went for mri and all that crap. Three weeks later I was ok after resting. Pain was the worse I ever had for a week. I couldn’t touch my pinky finger in the lightest way I’d scream. Had three fingers go half numb after that for 15 years. Last few years almost gone. Went for physical therapy for that. Pulling you neck and crazy stuff. It did ZERO, I got better after I quit going. Little better today made it downstairs for lunch coming up especially when turning on the landing.
Willowleaf may be spot on with diagnosis. I miss work even though retired and stopped my business. I have to watch what I eat now not burning calories 
. Decent weather to work and kayak 
on Long Island.
We may be brothers by another mother. Retirement is great in the warm months but this wet, 45° weather is ugly!
My first nasty back incident was in the 10th grade.
Got to keep on keeping on.
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That’s why I work. Keep bone and muscle mass and I love my trade. No worry’s like business gives you.
Reading symptoms on piriforms not sure some are there for sure.
When I had similar issues I tried a highly recommended Chiropractor. Felt great when I left the office but pain was returning by the time I got home. Then a physical therapist recommended by my doctor solved the problem. One of the p.t. exercises was piriformis stretches; I didn’t even know what that was.
I have a titanium rod in my femur and a bolt through my hip from a bad mule wreck in 2007. I can tell you what the weather is doing without looking outside. I am a great believer in physical therapy not chiropractic. My PT has given me some stretches. After about 5 miles of hiking I get some muscular contraction in my gluteus maximus. Stretching helps a lot. Sometimes after about 7-8 miles my hip kind of locks up. Then I use DMSO and some NSAIDS. Usually I just quit for the day. In a boat I am almost as good as I ever was.
I give thanks to the Mountain Gods every day that I can still go out there.
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Word for me today is “progress” thanks for advice and tips all!
The Appalachian and the Isere do look similar. I wonder if one was meant to be an improvement on the other, or if they had different purposes. My fiberglass Isere is about 15’ x 24” wide and 35lbs. A whitewater outfitter in Virginia sold me the Isere as a compromise between white water and flat water paddling. I think I had some thought of doing class I and II rapids in the upper Rappahannock and James, but as it turns out I mostly paddled in my saltwater creek off the Chesapeake/lower Potomac. I added a vertically adjustable skeg for tracking in any wind condition. My other boat was a Nordkapp HM. A friend gave it to me, and I passed it on to another friend when I bought my used West Side Boat Shop Extra Fast Tourer (EFT) this fall from its owner in NY state. That’s what I paddle now, but I’ve hung on to the Isere. The original builder of the EFT told me that in the 70’s an Isere was the first kayak to go down the Grand Canyon (illegally).
I will add that my mom was saved from disc surgery and tremendous pain by a very good chiropractor. At the age of 77 she fell on her icy back stairs, caught her foot in the open steps and suffered spiral fracture of both lower leg bones. Once she had endured two months in a hip to ankle cast and started recovering mobility we discovered she also had serious back pain which the orthopod suspected from looking at xrays had either happened during the fall or during the physical stress of getting around during the period she had the cast. He advised surgery on the disc.
I knew a chiro in town with a good rehab clinic and we tried him out. He analyzed her situation (also looked at x-rays) and did cautious manipulations and set her up with twice a week sessions with the PT’s in his clinic. They guided her through strengthening exercises and stretches as well as postural corrections.
She ended up not getting the surgery and even the orthopod was impressed. She went from having to lay on the carpeted floors of the house for hours a day in agony and taking way more NSAIDS than was a good idea for someone her age to becoming completely mobile again without pain. I had moved in with her during this period and witnessed what was almost a miraculous recovery.
A year later after I had moved out following her recovery I came over one day and had to yell at her for climbing out the second floor window onto the low pitch roof of her front porch to sweep the sycamore bark out of the box gutters. She had no more back pain for her remaining 4 years of life.
I find chiros a real godsend with neck vertebra issues. For lower back strains and displacements it takes a while to get full relief. But I have a janky neck bone and have frequently popped it out of place as I described in my initial post. Since I learned how this paralyzing pain can be immediately remediated by a chiro I have been fortunate to find one who knows that technique every time one has retired or I have moved to another city (tried several who did not) and rely on them when I use the wrong body English and inflict it on myself.
My primary care physician had sent me to the first one back in 1983 – an older guy who was the chiropractor for most of the Pittsburgh Steelers at that time. Unfortunately he worked alone and never trained a replacement so it took me a couple of years to find his equal when he retired.
Bought the Phoenix Appalachian new in ‘75 in Ann Arbor for $750. 14’ x 24", 33 lbs kevlar, marketed for whitewater and expedition trips and came as a 3-piece kit. Its been on local rapids as well as week+ trips at Isle Royale and the Missinaibi. I added a Clearwater Whitewater (a flatwater boat, 14 X 24 with no rocker) in '76 and that was my main boat until last year’s purchase of an Epic 18x. Still have all three.
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Hello PaddleDog52
So sorry about your back. Just remember - this is temporary! You will be better again one day! I remember lying flat on my back in the hospital with a fractured vertebrae, hooked up to IV morphine drip and thinking I would rather be dead than live like this! A kind nurse told me to hang in there, I was now in the “healing mode” even though I could not feel it. She was right. Next day the morphine drip was stopped, I was able to sit up a little. Then each day was better. Now I am back kayaking and hiking and all, and am 81!!
Don’t give up!
Best to you.
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ivyabby, at 72 I consider myself young and your post affirms that opinion. Thanks!
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I am 68 and I a lifetime cyclist (2,500 to 5,000 miles a year) I rock climb starting at 17 with times off, hike, and play a little golf. I am active in the pottery studio and have been learning to play the mandolin. I have been renting kayaks for the last 6 years and have finally ordered a Delta 16 for myself and a 15s for my wife who is 9 years younger. I am so excited about the adventure kayaking will bring to my life. I see splitting my weekends with a ride one day and a paddle the next. What I have noticed as I have aged, I am not as fast as I used to be and need a little more time for recovery. I do have the confidence that comes with experience to dig deep to go the extra mile. I also fear that if I were to stop, I will lose it very quickly.
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