Gosh, what a month I have had! I would like to say that it was all excitement and great things happening, but it wasn't anywhere near as good as that. I hope you are sitting comfortably; if so, I will begin....
Right at the beginning of the month I had been food shopping (so I know that it was a Friday) and had just put everything away when I turned to pick up the carrier bag and something caused me to have a sudden pain in my back. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was that. Literally in a split second I had gone from being able to move to a complete wreck. I had no idea what I had done, how I had done it or how I was going to cope with the pain that I was in. I accept that I am not the strongest when it comes to pain, in fact I would go so far as to say that my pain threshold sits very happily at zero, but I was in what I considered to be agony, so you can imagine the state I was in. On my own, no family or friends nearby and no idea what to do. Did I panic? Call for an ambulance? Scream for help out of the window? No I didn't do any of those things; stoic to the point of madness, I sat down. If anyone has hurt their back they might know what is coming next. Sitting down was extremely painful but trying to get back up was even worse. My sofa is very low, very soft and not very comfortable at the best of times (have I forgotten to mention that it is also my bed and therefore quickly becoming not fit for purpose?) so imagine, if you will, my dilemma. Oh my giddy aunt (actually she is not giddy at all but a very nice lady and getting on a bit now...) I could have cried. But being a stubborn sort of female, not willing to ask for help (even after eighteen years in the church I have still not learned how to be humble), I put up with the pain and waited patiently for it to subside. Except that it didn't.
Sleep didn't come easily that night, every time I moved the pain shot through me and turning over was nigh on impossible. However, having a sofa bed does have its advantages. Because it has arms, I was able to grab onto the sides and heave myself into a more comfortable position. And they were an absolute bonus when I tried to get up in the mornings! That first morning was a nightmare; twenty minutes to get up into a standing position and then once up I was fine, no pain (well once the pain from getting up had subsided!) and I could walk even though I could not bend. You don't realise how many times you need to bend in the course of a day and I certainly not going to mention here the trouble with not being able to bend when one wants to use the bathroom! Good people, you may well laugh, but it was no joke and there was still worse to come....
Sundays are very busy days for me; I probably spend nearly four hours at church - preparing my classroom so that I can teach Sunday School to a bunch of lovely but oh so chatty fourteen to seventeen year old girls and boys, sitting in sacrament meeting and then sitting in another lesson just for women. And of course there is the obligatory chatting that one does after all the meetings, so all in all, that wasn't the best day to be in pain. You would have laughed to see me being hauled to my feet and walked to my classes by my best friends husband; I felt like an old woman and it was all very embarrassing having to explain that I had hurt my back. Mind you, more people spoke to me that day than normal, so some good did come out of it!
For fear of boring you all to death, I will shorten the story a little and suffice to say that on the Monday I took myself off to my chiropractor who sorted me out and told me that I should feel some improvement by the Wednesday. True to her word, I did indeed feel better by then and continued to make improvement to the point that I considered myself cured of the malady. Ever hear of the expression "Pride cometh before a fall"? Well I had a pain free week only to wake up one morning to find myself in agony once again. Having to go to the chiropractor once is painful on the pocket, having to go twice is just downright not fair! I was already scheduled to see my personal trainer (fortunately for me they all work together) and he showed me some exercises that I need to do to engage my TVA's (transverse abdominal muscles to you and me!), and strengthen my core and pelvic area. This is ultimately going to strengthen all my muscles in the "girdle" area and keep my spine from moving about too much and causing me pain. Well that is my layman's take on what he was explaining to me anyway!
The other thing that happened last month was my computer dying. Such a sorry state of affairs. One minute it was working and the next, poof! nothing! It is at my friend's house right now, trying to be resuscitated, and I am using a borrowed laptop. Not only is this laptop so slow that a snail would easily overtake it (well figuratively speaking as even I know that laptops can't crawl!) but it is so frustrating that all my business work is on my other computer. I really thought it would be a couple of days job, but it is turning into a fortnight with still no end in sight. I am seriously considering going out and buying a new computer so that I can have something that is a bit more hardy than my laptop; which it has to be said, has served me well up till now, but I think the time has come that I actually sit at a desk and do all my work rather than on the floor which is my more usual place to be found. But I am a bit fussy about what I want! My laptop has a camera and microphone built into it, that is what I want on my computer too, and I have no idea if they make them like that. Guess I shall have to wander into a shop and show my complete ignorance of anything even remotely technical and hope for the best. I wish that I was a bit more computer savvy, but sad to say I know nothing about them. Actually it is a bit like my car; my car has four wheels and an engine and gets me from A to B but other than that I have know idea how it works. I can send and receive emails (only because someone set it up for me in the first place); I have a wonderful web site (www.lifechangesandyou.co.uk) which my designer hosts and looks after for me as well; and my father (yes, even my father knows more about the dratted things than I do!) and sisters are often telling me how to find something or do something new. Call me a Luddite if you like...but I did manage to put myself on facebook and Twitter - so there! :)
On a more serious note, I am afraid that I am going to have to leave you here. I know, I know - how on earth are you going to be able to stand the deprivation of not having me to read for another month? I am afraid that my dinner is beckoning me from afar and seeing as this has taken me twice as long as it would have done normally (remember me saying this machine is so s...l...o...w ?), I fear that I need to go and lie down in a darkened room to recover.
Please come back and visit again next month; and I am always happy to receive comments, good or bad (I have to moderate the comments first so I can discard all the horrible ones!). I would also love you to follow me on here; I know there are many people who read my blog (I have stats!), but to see only three people "follow" doesn't do my "street cred" any good at all. But I will leave it all up to you....
Take care for now.
Sorry, Sis, but I had to laugh at your situation. Back pain is not really funny, but your description of your malady was hilarious!
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