Ow.

So Thursday was exciting.

I had run any number of errands, gotten the paint to paint the stoffice, arranged for the contractors to do the floor (goodbye, money, I hardly knew ye)  made extensive plans to carry the stoffice on to the next stage, most of which involved Kevin and I moving heavy objects and tearing up carpet and of course all the painting. Then I got home, and while throwing something away in the little trashcan under the sink, I twisted or bent or something, and my back went THWANGGGGG!

You only have to have this happen to you once before you know what that sensation means. It happened to me for the first time at eighteen, when I was taking a ceramics class and doing a lot of hunching over the wheel, and has occurred occasionally off and on for the last fifteen years.

It wasn’t an immediate lie-down-on-the-floor-wherever-you-happen-to-be back going out, which is something, but it’s definitely a lie-in-bed kind. I can sit up for short periods, but it starts to hurt pretty quickly. I had to go to the mail place yesterday–the prints must go out! People want this stuff for Christmas!–so Kevin, who was working from home, was able to act as my chauffeur at lunch, while I laid the seat back with a hot pad under my lumbar region and prayed for death.

So, that adventure aside, I’ve been spending my days in bed with the collected works of Eva Ibbotson and Percoset. (Kevin had some left over from his abscessed tooth.) Ironically, I, who can drink one glass of wine and be tipsy, apparently have a much higher tolerance for opiates than Kevin—one of these knocked him into la-la land, you could have driven a steamroller over his foot and he wouldn’t notice—but while they make me somewhat high and render my conversational skills a bit erratic, they don’t do all that much for the pain. (Nor is it a “Yeah, it hurts, but I don’t care!” kinda thing. I still care very very much.)

Because it’s my lower back, standing is fine. It’s the sitting that kills me. It’s better today, although just writing this blog post has sent me into mild agony, and I’m off to take a shower.

I don’t think I’ll get to spackling the spare room today, though. Sigh.

Oh well, at least it waited until I was done with Dragonbreath art…

4 thoughts on “Ow.

  1. Suzi McGowen says:

    I know too well what you mean. I use flexeril (because mine is a muscle spasm that pulls so hard it pulls my back out), once monthly visits to the chiropractor, and any position that doesn’t hurt. (Yes, sitting is the worst.)

    Pain pills do nothing, but the time I had to go the emergency room and they gave me a shot of morphine reduced the pain to the point where I didn’t need to scream anymore 🙂

  2. kat says:

    Argh. My sympathies. I am also waiting for chiropractor-related relief, as my game hip has apparently teamed up with my pregnancy to give me a case of sciatica, which for something I cannot reliably pronounce or spell is causing me an amazing amount of trouble.

    I have the opposite problem with opiates and painkillers, in that they not only work really really well but deliver an entire pinata of unexpected side effects — I am one of a small number of people who get hyperactive when given tramadol, for example. My family really *enjoyed* that one.

    Good luck with the back, and let me know if you find out where to file warranty claims vs. your body. I’m *sure* these things are not supposed to wear out this fast.

  3. Graydon says:

    Many years ago, when my dad was a good deal younger than I am now, he committed several acts of rashness that started with bodily yanking a fence post out of frozen ground, and wound up, after the fashion of the day, needing back surgery.

    Thing is, being my dad, he then went and did the physio exercises in the fashion and to the extent prescribed, and does not today have back trouble. (Nor for a long time.)

    So, yeah, OW. But I’d suggest getting a proper licensed physiotherapist to look you over and give you a set of exercises, and then, dreary though they thought may be, do them. Because back issues really can go away.

  4. Bee says:

    My sympathies. I did my lower back a few years ago. It was a combination of general bad posture and a lot of stress meaning that it was just waiting for that perfect little movement to take me out (for me it was a particularly energetic turn in the tango) and ‘bam’ out it went.

    I found a physio that specialised in back care that fixed the initial pain but for long term care had to go to a chiropractor. I’m now seeing my chriopractor every month for adjustments and I very rarely have back problems now.

    Good luck!

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