I fear that we may be loosing Aratinga as an owner :( . This is very upsetting and she would trully be missed. I would like to set this up as a petition to plead with Aratinga to stay around and add her .02 cents worth whenever it's needed and to add her special flare of humor to our forum.

Aratinga please don't leave us.

You have my sig on the petition:

93rd Current!

Heck YA!!!! I thought it was a given not to let her go without a fight!! :D
I'm signing this dam petition, and so are my cats!

I'm signing! Come back aratinga~ :(

Don't go, we miss you already, you don't post enough lately.....

Sign me in. Aratinga, you are a well respected member of the forum and your 0.02 are always worth more than what they really are...I'd say 2 dollars :D . I hope you do consider getting another RX-8. Even if you no longer own your beloved 8, you can still come onto the forum and chat with us to keep us all sane. Meowloud, Morgan, and Meowloud are fighting an uphill battle and it will be much better if you come and stay with us.

I'm from Florida. I can sign it twice. :D

.I'm from Florida. I can sign it twice. :D

I'm signed! Aratinga was the first RX-8 owner I met (well, I saw her car at the Concourso Italiano and at Laguna Seca at the Historics last summer, never actually met her!), and an RX-8/Miata combination is just too good to give up.

Aratinga, if it's a given that you're going to sell your current 8 once repaired and replace it, then another RX-8 makes as much sense as anything else! Please stick around!

Regards,
Gordon

Sign Me Up!!! At Least Let Us Know How Its Going With The City. We Could Get A Whole Bunch Of Angry Club Members Out To City Hall And Make Them Sorrry They Arent Helping Her!!

Aawwww shucks, y'all.... I'm touched. :o (Yeah - in more ways than one, Doc's thinkin'.)

Seriously, I appreciate your support, and I'm sorry I haven't been hanging out here and posting more. I've been RX8-less for over a month now, and I can't seem to get the body shop to return my calls. I don't even know if they've actually begun working on her yet.

As for keeping her after she's finally done, I'm just going to wait and see how she drives and feels and looks. If she's not the same as before, I will probably not keep her -- if I don't have to take too much of a financial hit by trading her in on something else. I wouldn't be able to sell her "private party" without telling potential buyers about her prior damage, and it's unlikely anyone would buy her when they can get such great deals on brand new 8s from the dealers right now.

But no hard and fast decisions have been made yet. I do promise that if I leave the RX-8 owners' fold, I'll make my collection of RX-8 memorabilia and models and stuff available here first! ;) -- Jeri --

We hope things work out well with the car of course and we also hope that you yourself recover well. I hate hearing about the body shop though. I was wondering just how would you get a hold of said body shop to ask them a few questions? If they were to get phone calls from a few dozen forum members do you think it might speed things up a bit for you... ;) Just lookin' out for the family :)

Aratinga - Hang in there! I know (first hand) how hard it is when your baby is in the body shop and you have to wait and wait and wait. And then you worry about how the car will turn out and what she will be like when you get her back. But its been a little over a month for me now since I got mine back, and I am sooooo happy to be back driving my 8! So, good luck and best wishes, and remember your friends are here to support you!!!!

MM

Actually, the bodyshop guy just now called me back! He says work in earnest will begin this week, with all the cutting (ouch!) and welding (yikes!). The new driveshaft arrived today, so now all the needed parts are in. I'll try to get down and take some pictures during the process of the repairs as they progress.

You might want to have a friend do that for you. It just might be too emotional to actually see your baby in that condition :( How are you doing. Hope the surgery stuff is unecessary.

I have an appointment with a neurosurgeon on August 31st. I've already dropped off my MRI films at his office. I love those MRI images! It's amazing what you can see in those. I now have documented proof that I do indeed have a brain in my head. :) I could also easily see the damaged cervical discs. At this point, my regular doctor doubts surgery will be needed, but the concern is that herniated discs never heal up or go away on their own; who knows what'll be going on in a few years' time?

Hope your baby gets better.

better late than never, you have my full support!! Your car will be good as new i'm sure!! and I'm sure your cervix disk will be in good shape too!

Sell or trade your baby if you must :(, but stick around the club. You're part of the family.

I hope your back heals soon. Living with a bad back is a tough thing. It can really put a damper on your sex life. Can't have that now, can we? :D

Sorry to hear that you had an accident. Hope everything will be ok. Even if you get rid of the 8, you will always be one of us.
Do keep us updated. Cheers.

Wow, I'm sorry to hear you were injured. I barely knew about the wreck, but didn't realize you were injured too. Hope you get good news from the Neurosurgeon. The reasons to have surgery would be intractable pain or neuro deficits (weakness, numbness). The presence of herniated discs alone is NOT a good reason.

There have been numerous studies about MRIs and herniated discs....for example, they took 30 people with back pain and 30 people without back pain and did MRIs on all of them, then had radiologists blindly review the MRIs. Just as many people with NO injury or pain had herniated discs as those who had an actual injury or pain in the back.

If surgery is recommended, I would consider another opinion as well. Surgery is no guarantee of pain relief either, because the pain often recurs. It is usually better to avoid any surgery unless absolutely necessary, such as with loss of function or impending danger. In some cases surgery can stabilize an area to prevent the risk of future problems. It is not hard to find a surgeon willing to do surgery, as the old saying goes "if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail." That is how they pay the bills, after all. Ask what the risks and potential benefits of surgery vs. no surgery are. Good luck.

I don't suppose the bonk on the head changed your political affiliation (knocked some sense in ya)? That would be good. :)

Lmfao! :D :D :D ^^

Wow, I'm sorry to hear you were injured. I barely knew about the wreck, but didn't realize you were injured too. Hope you get good news from the Neurosurgeon. The reasons to have surgery would be intractable pain or neuro deficits (weakness, numbness). The presence of herniated discs alone is NOT a good reason.

There have been numerous studies about MRIs and herniated discs....for example, they took 30 people with back pain and 30 people without back pain and did MRIs on all of them, then had radiologists blindly review the MRIs. Just as many people with NO injury or pain had herniated discs as those who had an actual injury or pain in the back.

If surgery is recommended, I would consider another opinion as well. Surgery is no guarantee of pain relief either, because the pain often recurs. It is usually better to avoid any surgery unless absolutely necessary, such as with loss of function or impending danger. In some cases surgery can stabilize an area to prevent the risk of future problems. It is not hard to find a surgeon willing to do surgery, as the old saying goes "if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail." That is how they pay the bills, after all. Ask what the risks and potential benefits of surgery vs. no surgery are. Good luck.

I don't suppose the bonk on the head changed your political affiliation (knocked some sense in ya)? That would be good. :)

SSSshhhhh, Doc.... ix-nay on the udies-stay. We don't want the City of Pasadena to know about those. ;) I'm absolutely positive that my discs were perfect before the accident!

I had a feeling you and many others missed my original thread (http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=34536) over in RX-8 discussion (complete with lurid photos) about the rear-ender.

And as for it knocking some sense into me... you betcha! These @#$%^&* automobiles are all unsafe death traps! I'm voting for Nader. :D

I don't suppose the bonk on the head changed your political affiliation (knocked some sense in ya)? That would be good. :)

I want to add my name to the petition. I wasn't going to try to inject politics in here, but since Doc broke the ice, I want to say I appreciate your "Fair and Balanced" point of view. The pix of the car make me sad, but it was worse hearing that it wasn't just the car that got hurt. Good luck.

I had a feeling you and many others missed my original thread (http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=34536) over in RX-8 discussion (complete with lurid photos) about the rear-ender.
Yeah, I don't get over there much, I've degenerated into a lounge lizard. With the pain shooting down your arm and the MRI findings you posted, you might benefit from surgery, although that kind of pain occasionally goes away as the inflammation around the nerves improves. You've been hitting the ibuprofen pretty heavy, so you should have a feel for whether or not it's getting better. If it's going to get better, it should have by now.

The involved discs/foraminae should cause pain that goes to the thumb/index/middle finger, and a careful exam might reveal weakness in those areas too, as well as possibly in elbow or wrist flexion or extension. If weakness or atrophy is present, surgery is definitely indicated (and promptly).

What an awful situation, I'm glad you're OK.

Here are a couple of good links:

http://www.spineuniversity.com/public/spinesub.asp?id=57

http://www.emedicine.com/sports/topic21.htm

If you go we will be sad and lonely little beavers

Doc, thanks for those links! And to all my favorite lounge lizards, I truly appreciate your support. I really don't know how I could stay away from this place regardless of what's occupying my garage. The image of sad and lonely little beavers moping around is bringing tears to my eyes as we speak. ;)

Yeah Aratinga stay around here!! I'll tell you think much I didn't want to mess around with her on the forum when I was new. Don't know why...maybe it was all the fantasy characters people posted to depict her..... :D I still think shes got a whip in her hand waiting to whack you...

Sorry I didn't get around to this thread Aratinga. I hope you can stick around, RX-8 or not. :)

...maybe it was all the fantasy characters people posted to depict her..... :D I still think shes got a whip in her hand waiting to whack you...This is what she looks like now.... :D