Saturday I finally decided to tackle the huge mess under our deck that's been accumulating from all the construction refuse. So William gave me a hand loading up the Bronco and trailer will full loads. Then we drove up to the dump about 10 miles north of here, or I should more accurately say, "Refuse Transfer Station". We unloaded, and when I finished I noticed my back was hurting a little. On the drive home it became noticeably worse, and by the time we arrived at home, I could barely get out of the Black Beast. By that evening I was in agony and ....

Karina finally decided, against my feeble protests not to bother him on a weekend, to call Sam, our Neuromuscular therapist who has helped so much in the past year. He arranged to see me at 8:30 am Sunday.
I took a bunch of L-Tryptophan (usual 2,000 mg), and 800 more mg of Ibuprofen, and since I was exhausted, managed to fall asleep around midnight despite my back continuing to spasm. by 4:00 am I couldn't even pretend to sleep anymore it hurt so much. It had started out as just my lower back, but those muscles kept pulling on neighboring muscles, and eventually the whole lower half of my back from my shoulder blades down was in rebellion. We didn't have any heat pads or ice packs, so I tried boiling myself in the tub for an hour, which gave a teeny tiny bit of relief, but not much. Finally my being so large in such a small (average)tub started to make thigns hurt more than help. So I hopped out, and went and laid on the floor in the living room just as the sky was lightening the horizon around 5:30ish am.
I lay there writhing and moaning, counting the seconds until 8:30 when I hoped Sam would be my savior from this pain, but not looking forward to the drive down.
Hour by hour, the pain actually seemed to get worse, and trying 5 alieve didn't even phase it. I waddled to the Crown Victoria, and with excruciating agony (it would have been easier in the Black Beast), squeezed myself into there, I was sweating in the cool morning from the pain and exertion by now.
Each bump of th road triggere another bout of spasms. Finally, made it to Sam's office, and realized it was Spokane's Bloomsday. The roads were shutdown, and right by his office was a band getting ready, and there were going to be thousands of spectators. I was in so much pain by now, and so fatigued, that Karina and Sam had to help carry me into the building, not easy considering I'm around 6'8" and 275 lbs. Finally he laid me on the table, trying different tricks and angles, and the spasming subsided a little bit, but he still couldn't do any "releasing" of the tight muscles by the end of the hour I wasn't any better. So, Karina had been trying to talk me into going to the hospital in the first place, but I had hoped to avoid that, alas, once again, she was right ((( grrr, don't you just HATE when your spouse is right? :P ))).
I couldn't help but laugh as Karina and Sam carried me on their shoulders to the car as we watched thousands of joggers run by in the opposite direction, from the irony of the contrast in mobility.
So we headed to Holy Family Hospital, and couldn't take a direct route because of the race (Bloomsday), well, wouldn't you know it, she picked a road that was being TOTALLY torn up for repaving. We would have had a smoother ride offroading! The boys were with us in the car, and very worried, and I wish I could have been stronger willed to keep my cries of anguish to myself, but alas they escaped all to frequently. Well at this point, I just had to laugh, since obviously Murphy's Law was in full effect with this road and all. Oh, and we had Karina's brother visiting later that evening, and I was supposed to help get the house cleaned and vacuumed, etc. As well as on Tuesday I have a client coming into town for sign off on a project I've been working on for the last several months, and here I wasall but an invalid. of course. Thank you Murphy! So I just started cracking up and laughing as the road became worse and worse, with each stabbing pain, I laughed between gritted teeth. This actually helped to alleviate some of the kids' fear, and was contagious, so they started giggling and laughing too.
Finally we made it to the hospital where after a few hours, they gave me a combination of Demoral and something else, which helped the pain go away as long as I didnt' move (at least I could breath now without triggering spasms).In addition to the Demorol they gave me additional prescriptions for Tylonel 3 with Codeine, a strong muscle relaxant, and of course continuing the 800mg of Ibuprofen. All of which seem to only make a slight dent inthe pain, but have me stoned out enough to at least not "mind" the pain as much. ;-)
Anyhoo, it's now Tuesday, and I asked the client to give me one more day to be in less pain to be a little more coherent before presenting their product, and luckily she agreed.
Meanwhile I'm trying to get a neighborhood kid to mow the hideous lawn, but the reseeding and weeding is going to have to wait a while, and there's still at least 2 more loads to haul to the dump before under the deck is cleared out enough to park the trailer.
Wife just now told me she has a doctor's appointment for me at 3:45 pm.
Yipee Skippee.
Until next time.
Same Bat Channel, Same Bat place.
-Hawke