4 January 2011

I should know better than to spew forth sunshine and rainbows like a post-Taco Bell fart fest when it comes to crap like my back. No sooner than I proclaimed by back to be getting better than it seized up on me again. I wasn't quite back to square one, but close. I've been inventing new compound swear words...I'm not sure how many more I can cough up, so it's time for something to give.

So today I asked the Spouse Thing to make me a doctor's appointment, and the doc had a open slot at 1 pm, so off we went. I touched my toes for him, I leaned left, I leaned right, and he poked and prodded, and declared it to be muscle inflammation, and to do basically what I've been doing. But... he wanted me to see a physical therapist. You know, so someone else can torture me, because that seemed like so much fun...

He did give me a scrip for Flexeril in case I need it, so there's that.

The PT group was just down the road so instead of calling for an appointment the Spouse Thingy thought we should just stop and go it. So we did. I figured I'd get seen in a couple of days, but an hour later some skinny thing that I could probably break in half with a well aimed wicked garlic burp was making me bend in directions I don't think I was ever intended to bend in, and then she hooked electrodes to my back, slapped a five hundred pound heated weight on top, and left me there for 15 minutes as my lower back and buttocks were cooked to a medium rare.

Thing is, I felt better as soon as it was over. I'm not foolish enough to think I won't wake up tomorrow and have it hurt again, but for now, I'll take it.

I'm supposed to see her twice a week, but she thinks the recovery will be fairly quick, at least in terms of pain relief. She thinks, however, that the issue is a mildly bulging disk; the treatment for that versus inflammation is the same, though, and she did stress mild. I've also apparently been exacerbating it by my really horrible sitting posture, so the Spouse Thingy moved the love seat out of the family room and into the living room and brought in a chair that will force me to sit more upright.

In the bigger picture, the back issues are likely related to my shoulder injury; I spent a couple of weeks not moving much, slouching on the sofa while trying to not drool onto my laptop's keyboard. Toss my crappy posture on top of everything--the back has always been problematic--and bingo...we have taken a vacation to the City of Ouch.

It's not a nice place to visit, and no one wants to live here...

I'm leaving soon, though. Cause it really sucks.