Coasters and Back Problems

I'm glad that you are feeling better. You'll be coastering in no time.

You may have just done something that aggravated the stiffness you after you got done coasting that day.

Two decades ago, I got the wind knocked out of me and twisted my back on the first drop of the Wild One. This was back before the drop was reprofiled, when it had that nasty little kink about a third of the way down.

I was maybe 9 or 10 years old.

Oh, man, that hurt. And I had to suffer through the rest of the ride -- the old, truly wild Wild One -- before I could get out.

Kennywood's Thunderbolt used to cause me some compression discomfort at the bottom of those deeper drops, about ten years ago. I went back this year for the first time in ages, and had no trouble at all. My theory is that the musculature in my torso is stronger now than it was then, so I can keep myself better aligned and upright under high Gs. But honestly, I have no idea what's up. Backs are funny things.

These days, Loch Ness Monster gives me a spinal realignment every time I ride. Apparently I'm way, way too tall for the OTS restraints in those old trains. The torso restraining portion of the shoulder bar sticks straight out at a shallow angle when it hits my shoulders, forces them downwards in the high-G portions of the ride, and then locks in that lower position, preventing me from sitting fully upright. Then the train goes bouncing through those vertical loops...

Too bad, because I really love that ride. But I haven't ridden it in a few years because I just haven't been in the area. Have they done anything to change the shoulder bars, or is it still business as usual on Nessie?

I went to Disneyland on May 26th 2018 and stood in line for about an hour for the Matterhorn ride. My kids begged me to go on it and I’ve had some minor back issues throughout my life and problems with my spine but I’ve been riding roller coasters for years and years and didn’t realize that the Matterhorn was an old piece of crap that resembles the Russian railroad. I experienced an injury to my back that I can only compare to having someone pull the chair out from under me several times in a row. It’s been six weeks and no medications have been helping me. In fact the corticosteroids gave me muscle myopathy which greatly exacerbated the issue and now I’m in more pain than I was to begin with. I can barely walk and my muscles and nerves are just screaming in pain. I can barely drive myself to work without crying because of the strain on my right leg. I’m basically going to avoid roller coasters rest of my life because I just can’t gamble with this happening again. I feel pretty helpless right now because I am afraid that my back will not get better.

The x-ray showed there is no fractures in my hips or lower back. I know that I have some arthritis and some bulging discs and some narrowing in my spine due to arthritis. But I had been in a job where I sat a lot and wasn’t as active as I used to be. So be really careful with your back if you don’t have a healthy back your quality of life really just sucks.

Thanks for joining a coaster forum and telling everyone you're not ever going to ride another coaster... by resurrecting a thread that's been dead for 12 years!