So Why Do You Want Us to Read More About DALMATPROD???

On our Twitter posts @DalmatProd, we use the 140 characters to support all Fire-Rescue, EMS & Law Enforcement agencies and the people that they work for.  So why are we so involved with emergency services? The first answer to that is that the four key partners of Dalmatian Productions, Inc., are still or have been, members of the fire-rescue or law enforcement services. But more than that is that it is a goal to bring to open television, a program that focuses on many facets of the fire department, be it career or volunteer or paid-on-call.

There were some great shows in the old days, such as, "WhirlyBirds," "Rescue9." "Firehouse." "Code-Red,"and almost every one's favorite, "EMERGENCY!" This show had such a positive influence on its viewers, that hundreds, if not thousands, entered the fire service and EMS (Emergency Medical Services) as their career path.

I know I did and a good-sized group of people I know also went in as either career or volunteers, based on their viewing experiences from watching. "EMERGENCY!" week after week.

Yet, even after the Tragedy of 9-11 2001, firefighters were in the headlines for a few weeks and then their stories tapered off on the local news affiliates. Yet no one came up with a strong, positive show that could entertain the viewing audience, deliver subtle, but distinct educational content, especially for youngsters and help the plight of those brave souls of your local fire-rescue "barn,"who have made either a major sacrifice and those who made the Ultimate Sacrifice and perished in the midst of their action.

Yet, the question remains unanswered: Why are we on Twitter, "tweeting" about firefighters, cops, EMT's and Paramedic and similar issues?

It has taken over 10 years to finally generate some interest in the vast land of "American Television" for a program that is ours.We will tell a fictional story, with very, very true segments and parts to it, that will show you just what most local departments have to do, one way or another. 

I would love to share the title and a real description of the show to you, however, we haven't reached that point yet. And as I am sure you all realize, TV, Films, Hollywood, they are all part of an upper level attorney's dreams, because the business is so litigious. A law suit is filed in a local, district, state or federal court every few seconds in this business. So even though I can't tell you ALL about the show, that should be enough to whet your whistles. And now the answer to your big question, WHY?

At the moment, are show has excellent names in the talent-representation  and productions business reviewing our synopsis and the script for the pilot episode. But in this business, that's not enough. Sometimes show-writers and producers have to hear the excitement from a live audience and through snail-mail, email, and hand delivery  of thousands of a selected product relevant to the show. And THIS is where YOU come in.

We hope to build up a huge group of followers who are firefighters, paramedics, EMT's, ambulance attendants, Emergency Room doctors,  psychiatric doctors, and fire buffs, one and all. We want you ready when we actually announce that she show's pilot episode script is picked up, to give the studio or production company that will produce the show, a great deal of support.

And there's another thought: Maybe they like the idea, but are unsure if the show will go over with the targeted office. The studio heads may need "encouragement" to look at our show and to decide yo give it a chance. Again, that's where all of you will come in.

Let's look at it this way: There are nearly one million firefighters in the U.S. with between 60%-70% of that number being volunteers or paid-per-call firefighters. Nevertheless, whether they do this as their job or they give so much of their private time of which there is so little, you all have a voice, due to the fact that you work, you pay taxes, you buy gas, you have a home, etc.

In Hollywood-land, one never knows what's going to happen, unless and until it actually does. So we want to come to you and share the news with you. Maybe, we'll have to ask you to help us by calling, writing or mailing the studio, to tell them you want to see our show! Or maybe. it will be the news that a studio is picking up our show and there's cause to celebrate as firefighters are so ready to do.

So, please follow us on Twitter using @DalmatProd and keep abreast with what's happening with our show. In the meantime, we follow many of you and would love to hear your good news as well.

Till next time...

"Why Don't They Believe Me??"

"Sure, your back hurts. Mine does too. Now get back to work!!"

Have you heard that when telling your supervisor that you can't go to work? I know I did, multiple times. You try, you really do try. You take a couple Advil, Motrin or Aleve, hoping that they'll take the edge off just enough to allow you to get out of bed, get dressed and head to the workplace. But it doesn't happen, does it? So why do those closest to us, either in our family or at work, think we're faking this horrible pain that back pain brings?

Let's go back to my first or second post for a moment. Eighty percent of adult Americans experience some form of back pain every year. Of that group, the cause for about 80% of them is muscular in nature. That means that they have strained or "pulled" a muscle in their backs. Most will see out a medical provider, as some of those injuries can producer a significant amount of pain. The "cure" most often recommended is 2-3 days of bed rest and moist heat, several times a day and a couple of OTC (Over the Counter) pain relievers, as needed. Additionally, after each heat treatment, perform some light stretching exercises. This will often help alleviate the pain and allow the muscles to loosen and not cramp up.

So what about the other 20%? If you're reading this blog, you're a member of this group like I am. Our pain is much deeper and much more difficult to ascertain and to cure. Some of us will never see a cure, only mitigation (a lessening of the pain level). This pain come from a skeletal deformation, either congenital or due to accidental injury, the causes parts of the body structure to impinge on a nerve or nerves. Often, this pain in debilitating and excruciating, needing medications much more powerful than an OTC and treatments much more elaborate than warm, moist heat, even surgery.

We've all seen scenes on television or perhaps in real life where someone has ridden a horse for the first time and dismount, rubbing their butts. However, if you've never ridden a horse, how can they explain to you what they feel so that you'll understand?

Luckily, I've been with the same PCP (primary care provider, whom I'll call, "Joe") since 1986. First his late father took care of me and when Dad retired, he took over. We've been family friends as well for all that time. And it actually was his father who was taking care of me when my disc first popped in 1992. So Joe knows all about my back pain. As a matter of fact, I even worked in Joe's office for almost 12 years as his Administrator and all during that time, I was only able to work part-time due to my pain.

For a long time, Joe tried to understand what I was going through. "Where was this pain" he asked. "How much does it hurt?" I explained until I was "blue in the face," and while he was very sympathetic, he never quite got it. I said to him, "You really can't appreciate this intractable pain unless you've had it." He agreed and we moved on.

However, just about two years ago, Joe experienced severe back pain. Pain that was so severe, there were days he couldn't make it to his office for his appointments. And that was very much uncharacteristic for him. As you can imagine, every time we saw each other, Joe wanted to know more and more about my pain and we'd discuss his symptoms. Finally, he reached a point and through a thorough exam by an excellent neurosurgeon, Joe was forced to undergo back surgery for a herniated disc.

He tolerated the procedure well and was hopefully on the road to recovery. He did well for several months. Then one day, while simply standing in the pool at his apartment complex, he experienced excruciating pain. The pain was so bad, he couldn't walk in the water. He sent someone up to his apartment to retrieve the walker he had used after his surgery and using that, he was just able to make it back upstairs and into bed.

Initially, he thought that it couldn't be related to his initial injury. It had to be something else, quite temporary and coincidental. As we've all heard, doctors make lousy patients. Joe was stubborn and pushed himself through the pain to get to the office to see his patients. Yet, after numerous injections and other minimally invasive procedures, another MRI showed that certain pieces of the original disc had not been seen (thus not removed) during the initial surgery. It was back to the surgical table for Joe.

I visited him in the hospital and I remember him finally caving in and admitting that he never had been truly able to comprehend the depth of my pain over all those years, until he experienced it himself. Thankfully this time, Joe has made a full recovery and is backing seeing zillions of patients every weekday, being the outstanding physician he is. And that's why your boss doesn't believe you when you complain about severe back pain. Unless that is, he/she saw you run over by the inebriated fork-lift driver and pinned to the bale of scrap paper.

However, it is imperative for you to know that you're not alone. Let me know what you think!

Where Does it All Begin? Or Does it?

Let's review the basic facts again:

In any given year:

• 80% of American adults with suffer back pain
• 80% of those people's pain will be muscular, meaning it's a simple pulled muscle that can often be treated with 2-3 days bed rest and warm, moist heat.
• The other 20% will suffer from neuro-skeletal injury, meaning actual damage to a disc or other part of the skeletal frame that impinges on a nerve causing severe pain

That's where I was starting in 1992 and still am today, March of 2015 and I have not had a day without serious pain in all that time. What puzzles me, as well as all my doctors, surgeons, therapists, etc., is why, if my injury occurred in 1978, did it take 14 years for my injury to manifest itself? I use the term, "puzzles" because no one has been able to answer that question. 

To briefly recap, in 1978, with about 10 months as a volunteer firefighter, my department sent me and a couple of other guys to the state fire college. I was enrolled in the state's basic firefighting skills course. It consisted in two days of classroom learning and then two days of live fireground skills. My buddy and I were split up into two different groups.

We had undergone good training back at our department, but this way, we'd have state certification. Of the five guys in my group, I was the only one who had some decent experience on the nozzle during actual fires, so I was placed at the end of the line in the live burn exercises.

The state had procured several ramshackle houses that were to be torn down anyway and we'd use those for the practice burns. We were paired up and the training officer had the building lit off and we went to work. Because I was the last one in the sequence, I didn't have my chance until the second day of the burns and I was the last one to go in for that day. My partner in this exercise was a young kid from a small town where he was a public safety officer. If you don't know that term, it's used for people hired to be both a police officer and a firefighter. They would patrol on their shifts, but also carry their bunker gear in their vehicle and respond on a working fire. He had never been in a real fire, never been on the nozzle, and only put on an SCBA in practice.

By the time my turn on the nozzle came, the insides of our building were pretty well burned through. Walls had holes, ceiling was coming down and loose boards were all over the place. I have this rookie behind me and, since this is the last burn of the program, they arced the entire place off! I was just cracking the nozzle open when a set of SCBA bells started to ring. No, not mine, my partner's, who is supposed to stand behind me taking the hose pressure off me. Instead, he drops the hose and starts to yell, "I'm outta air!! Outta air! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die," and turns around and dives out the front door.

So here I am with 100psi at the tip and the training officer to my left at about 3-4 feet. If I drop the hose, he's a dead man! So, I tuck the hose between my arm and my side and try to knock down the fire that was directly in front of us. As I do, I work to close the bale slowly, but the pressure is still high and as I take a side-step, my left leg falls through a burned-out section of the floor. I collapse into the hole up to my crotch with my right leg curled up and I feel this explosion of pain in my left knee. (Did he say "knee?" I thought this was about a back injury!) Don't worry, it is.

Now I'm really up shit's creek. I've hurt my knee, I look like a little-person dressed as a firefighter and I'm trying to close down this nozzle before I let it go flying around the room. I finally manage to do so and take a breath. I close the nozzle and drop the hose. Still wearing my air-mask I begin yelling, "I'm hurt! I'm hurt!" 

For some reason, the officer thinks I'm saying, "I'm tired, I'm tired." We're both yelling at each other and not getting anywhere. I somehow manage to lift my damaged leg out of the hole and role over to grasp the edge of a wall. Favoring my left leg, I hobble over to the front door, tear my mask off and tried to walk out the door. One step and I fell over and down the three steps to the ground, where several firefighters were milling around. Next thing I know, someone is cutting up the left leg of my bunker pants and getting the SCBA and coat off me.

By this time, my left knee is the size of a seedless watermelon. I'm packaged up and shipped off to the local Emergency Room. X-rays were shot, however, even today, they don't serve injuries to cartilage and soft tissues well. I was placed in a knee immobilizer and sent back the the hotel with instructions to see my orthopedist upon my return to Greensboro.

As it turns out, from 1978 through 1992, everyone involved, doctors, physical therapists, etc. all believed that the major injury I suffered was blowing out my left knee. The following December, I had the first of what wound up being five surgeries on that knee. However, throughout it all, we never suspected that there was another injury hiding somewhere in my lower lumbar spine.

Until one day in September 1992.....