Recovering

The exact type of bucket that I sprained my back - I mop the tile floor at the Inn at the end of my shift

Looks like I'm going to survive. My back is still sore but I can maneuver about much better than I did yesterday. I will be able to go to work tomorrow. Thank goodness. I have a new appreciation for those who have physical disabilities like I was faced with, temporarily, yesterday with my severe back pain. 

Bill was very upset. Quite frankly folks I don't know how this household would manage if I was out of commission.  Bill can't drive now. His eyesight is failing (macular degeneration) and he is very hard of hearing. Also, his cognitive abilities are declining. Yesterday I spent a lot of time showing him again how to answer his iPhone. I've shown him multiple times before but he keeps forgetting. I had the same experience with my late friend Bob McC.  I often had to explain to him how to access his e-mails. He never did get it.  Thank goodness Bill can still get around on his on although much slower. However, he absolutely cannot manage running a household. Paying the bills, shopping, cooking, and just about everything else except mowing the grass. He's good at that (thank goodness).  

I called my manager at work this morning and told him I would be at work tomorrow.  He was relieved and I was relieved. I have my regular routine (working two nights a week; Mondays and Thursdays) that works quite well for me. My job not only provides me with extra income for my quarterly escapades with Pat, my Canadian Travel Buddy but psychological as well. I can't imagine staying here (home) all the time. Yesterday I didn't even go out of the house, which is very rare. I can't imagine being in some assisted living facility where I would be cooped up every day.  That to me is a prison that would kill me as it did my late friend Bob McC. He never wanted to end up in a facility like that but he did and he died. 

My back is still sore.  I will have to be very careful tomorrow so I don't injure it again. No more emptying buckets of dirty water after moping the floor at the Inn.

Back Pain!

Woke up this morning with a very sore back. 

When I returned home from work at the hotel last night I noticed a stiffness in my lower back (right side).  My back is often sore, upper left under my shoulder blade. But this was a new ache. 

I went to bed assuming when this morning when I awoke that soreness would be gone.  I've had tis happen before, something that would cause a pinched nerve or twist of a muscle. I thought this was just another one of those episodes. But that didn't happen this time when I awoke this morning.

My back was so sore I couldn't stand up straight. I was bent over like an old witch stirring a cauldron.  

As I went about my morning ambulations the soreness didn't go away, it just got worse.  Oh uh.  

No bike ride this morning. In fact I didn't go out at all today.  That's right, I didn't even go out of the house.  That's a rarity for me, I usually at least go out of our house and make the rounds in our back yard. No, my back was so sore today all I could do was manage breakfast, some time at my computer (which my computer chair as a brace), lunch then a long nap.  I must have slept for about three hours (went to bed at 2:30 and got up about 5:35).  As I lay in my bed the pain was totally gone.  Oh how good that felt.  

Problem was that once I got up and started to move around the soreness came back but, thankfully not as bad as it was this morning.

I texted Mike, my manager at the hotel to tell him I might not be able to go to work this Thursday.  I couldn't go to work bent over and in pain. Especially when guests sometimes expect me to help unload their luggage.  Of course that created a problem because there was no one to fill in for me. He said he would try to work something out with one of the full time guys. I hated to put Mike in this situation. I've always prided myself on my dependability. Now that I'm older, and my aging body is failing me, I'm not that dependable.  That's a fact of life I have to face.

The time now is 9:25 PM and my back is still sore but not as sore as it was earlier today. Thank goodness.  Looks like I'll be able to go to work Thursday.  But this episode today brings to the forefront how vulnerable I am.  

My Aching Back

For the past several days my back has been killing me.  It's my lower back.  Yes folks, I have the most common ailment of modern man who walks upright, lower back pain.


I think this was brought on my hours of sitting at this computer knocking out my daily blog posting, researching my family tree, catching up on my e-mails, paying bills, and stopping for an occasional porn  interesting video pit stop.  Yes folks, I'm guilty of sitting on my kestrel for hours on end and is it any wonder that my back is absolutely killing me?


I rose from my chair too suddenly yesterday and I almost fell over backwards.  The pain was excruciating. It hurt so bad that I almost did the complete circle back to feeling good. The pain actually took my breath away.


Years ago I used to have this problem all the time with my desk job I had at the bank where I worked.  I sat almost all day.  One day I had to go upstairs quickly to put out a fire and I couldn't wait for the elevator so I rushed up the stairwell when I had a back spasm to intense that I almost fell down the stair backwards.  Talk about a wake up call.


That was enough to persuade me to go to the doctor, something I rarely did back in those day when I was young, vibrant, pretty (no smirking please) and invincible. 


I see the doctor. He examines me and asks me how old I was.  I think at that time I was 42 years old.  He said basically that I was getting old and this was to be expected because man was not meant to walk upright.  He said we were supposed to walk like chimpanzees with our knuckles dragging.  Well, I must admit I have walked like that on several occasions after a long night at my local gay bar hangout.  But I didn't think I walked like that at work .


He prescribed a medication called Naprosyn, an anti-inflammatory drug.   Well, it worked.  In fact it worked too good.  I remember those horse pills costs $1.00 each, which was fairly expensive back in the 80's for medication.  I took them for a few months and they did eliminate the pain but I began to worry about getting hooked on painkillers so I weaned myself off of them.  I like to be in control and I didn't feel right knowing something was going on with my back and I wasn't feeling it.


Over the years since then I've had occasional flareups but with all my walking I've kept those episodes to a minimum.  However, lately, with all the cold weather we've been having around here I been using those painfully cold winds blowing against my face as an excuse not to take my daily walk.  Now I'm paying the price.  I've also put on about eight pounds....around my waist.  I'm getting that "muffin" look around my waist.  


I think we all know what the answer is here don't we folks?  Get off of my behind and get walking.  


Tomorrow, I promise (if it's not too cold).  


P.S.
Yeah, that's my back in the picture (I wish)