Journal Entry: July 22, 2008

Believe it or not, I really try to limit the amount of complaining I do on this blog, particularly for ongoing things like back pain and insomnia. Yeah, I mean that, it could actually be worse....

Today, I've got no choice, though, because most of my last 24 hours have been determined by back pain. I mentioned doing a lot of housework on Sunday. Part of my reason for doing that was that after three or four weeks of "taking it easy" in the hopes my back would get better, I had seen no improvement. So, I figured, maybe what I needed was to exercise my back more -- stretch it out and work out the kinks. So I took care of a lot of little things around the house that had gone undone while I was taking it easy.

By the end of the day Sunday, I was in excruciating pain. Far worse than I had been before. I decided while walking miles through Wal-Mart Sunday night that, fine, I would actually meet with a chiropractor.

So yesterday I scheduled an appointment for after work, went in and got XRays taken and had a preliminary adjustment, and then went home and spent the evening trying not to shout obscenities any time I moved. T-- made up some chicken fried rice for dinner (which was delicious) and we watched some Boston Legal, and I went to bed relatively early. In the meantime, I iced my back every couple hours and did all kinds of weird stretches, as recommended by my chiropractor.

Then, this morning, I woke up and couldn't move. For weeks I've been in pain, but it only really hurt when I would move -- going from sitting to standing (or vice versa) or folding myself into a car seat. Once I was positioned, it didn't hurt until I tried to move again. As of this morning, though, that is no longer true. I hurt all the time. Excedrin makes no noticeable difference (nor does the cold pack, but my chiropractor insists it's helpful). I'm just gritting my teeth constantly and still groaning every time I move.

So I called work and told them I couldn't make it in this morning, and then T-- called my chiropractor to move my afternoon appointment up (to noon), and then I called my regular doctor and scheduled a visit for Thursday (because I couldn't get in sooner). He wouldn't prescribe me painkillers over the phone, the bastard.

Anyway, went to the chiropractor at noon, and T-- took AB to go grocery shopping at a nearby CVS, so that we could meet afterward at the pizza hut on the corner near there. How convenient! Then I could drive on to work (because the chiropractor is close to my work) and T-- could drive home.

Only, as I was leaving the chiropractor T-- called to tell me that her car wouldn't start. Ugh. I picked her up at CVS, drove across the street to Pizza Hut, and had her call AAA while AB and I enjoyed the pizza buffet. Don't tel K--, but the jumper cables we bought last time I had a car that wouldn't start are currently sitting on a shelf in the garage. They never made it into our trunks. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Anyway, AAA said it would be an hour (and, in case you haven't been watching the news, it's over 100 degrees outside these days).

Bah. That was not a very happy lunch hour.

Afterward, I took T-- back to CVS to raise the hood on the Saturn (with a forty minute wait still ahead), and she went ahead and tried to start it, and it roared right up. Thank the lord for small miracles. So she was able to take AB home, and I headed on up to work to salvage a few hours of leave time -- I can be in excruciating pain here as easily as I can be in excruciating pain at home, right?

Given my location, it made more sense to just drive south on Meridian than to go back east to get on the highway, so I did that, an two miles down I came upon Reno, and discovered a bunch of my favorite restaurants there! On the Border and Earl's were the two most important, because that intersection is only 3-4 miles from my work, and I've sometimes gone 10-12 miles over my lunch break to get to the next nearest of those two restaurants! I had no idea. So, there you go -- another small point of happiness in my day. I think I shouted "No way!" to no one, when I saw the OtB.

Now I'm at work, folded into my desk chair, trying not to move at all. It hurts. I'll go home in a few hours and just lay flat on the floor for the whole evening, while Boston Legal plays over my head. Hopefully Thursday he'll give me something to feel better. And I'll be spending half an hour four days a week visiting the chiropractor, for the next four to six months (plus whatever physical therapy the real doctor assigns me).

Wish me luck. I'll let you know if anything gets better.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.