SubPop79
Well-Known Member
Hello, fellow and retired UPSers! This is my first post! Unfortunately it doesn't have a very fun topic.
Basically since I have started working at UPS as a package handler, moving mostly 30lb book boxes, and doing an average of 1,200 packages and 100 bags a day, I have developed some "back issue." The first was lower back pain - coming home with a stiff, sore, lower back that causes pretty good pain when bending over, moving, etc. Eventually that went away when I got used to the job and got "safer" at loading, and since that is a problem most obviously affiliated with package handling, that is not what this thread is about.
This thread is about my upper, middle back discomforts, one being around both shoulder blades, and the other being centered right between them. This is NOT pain, just really annoying discomfort. It feels like I need to constantly crack and/or stretch my back and shoulders, but I can't. It doesn't work.
A normal UPSer might wright this discomfort off as a job related problem, consider the lower back pain they have probably felt, but I am a 23 year old hypochondriac and a smoker of 5 years, and since UPS is very dusty, and since this discomfort is merely discomfort and not pain, my paranoid mind is thinking (perhaps irrationally) that this is lung related and not related to repetitive strain. The more down to earth part of me DOES think it is repetitive strain, but since I found this website, I was wondering if you all had of still have this discomfort and if it is in fact just strain, and not something like lung cancer.
What do you guys say?
Basically since I have started working at UPS as a package handler, moving mostly 30lb book boxes, and doing an average of 1,200 packages and 100 bags a day, I have developed some "back issue." The first was lower back pain - coming home with a stiff, sore, lower back that causes pretty good pain when bending over, moving, etc. Eventually that went away when I got used to the job and got "safer" at loading, and since that is a problem most obviously affiliated with package handling, that is not what this thread is about.
This thread is about my upper, middle back discomforts, one being around both shoulder blades, and the other being centered right between them. This is NOT pain, just really annoying discomfort. It feels like I need to constantly crack and/or stretch my back and shoulders, but I can't. It doesn't work.
A normal UPSer might wright this discomfort off as a job related problem, consider the lower back pain they have probably felt, but I am a 23 year old hypochondriac and a smoker of 5 years, and since UPS is very dusty, and since this discomfort is merely discomfort and not pain, my paranoid mind is thinking (perhaps irrationally) that this is lung related and not related to repetitive strain. The more down to earth part of me DOES think it is repetitive strain, but since I found this website, I was wondering if you all had of still have this discomfort and if it is in fact just strain, and not something like lung cancer.
What do you guys say?