Throw Your Back Into It, Stupid

Smart me. Today I must've moved the wrong way or turned a funny direction or something. Around mid-afternoon the muscles in the right side of my back went haywire and since then it's been torturous to move in certain ways. I just stepped out of a hot shower, hoping the water would loosen up the muscles that seem tighter than a drum. I have trouble sitting, getting back up, twisting to one side, reaching over and down with my right arm, and a whole host of other otherwise mundane 'ings.' I'm sitting in the chair now dreading getting up.

The obvious answer is that I shouldn't have dragged that five-shelf bookcase up a flight of stairs to the second floor this morning. But, really, I didn't do anything extraordinary. I just slowly eased the thing up onto each next step, one at a time. I don't recall pulling anything then, and the pain didn't come till hours later, after I'd been sitting on the couch for a few hours doing work on the laptop. Still, the mind wants to make connections, and this is the easiest explanation that accounts for the data.

It could also have happened while I was vacuuming the entryway. (That'll teach me to clean the house! Last time I try that! [snort]) At one point the belt slipped off the upright and I had to, well, UN-upright it and take the plastic bottom off, holding it between my knees at a weird angle and cleaning out the gunk and hair while putting the belt back on properly. Perhaps I held something at an odd angle for too long and yanked something then.

Doesn't matter. What does matter is that I'd love to go sink into the waterbed right now and let the warm water in the mattress (and the relaxation) help the muscles unknot. But I'm afraid I won't be able to get back out. Plus, the TV that was in our bedroom had to be sent back to AT&T (we got it free as part of their cable rewards program but the picture was all goofed up), so we're TV-less in there for the next few weeks. Normally, that's no big deal since until a few months ago I'd never had a TV in my bedroom, ever. But at times like this it would be nice to go in there and relax and watch some TV.

It'd be a perfect situation in which to read a book (currently I'm reading Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned), but I've never mastered the art of reading a book in that sloshy waterbed. Severe motion sickness comes to mind. Literally.

Oh dear. I feel the right side tensing up again. The hot shower had loosened things up a bit (enough to move around without searing pain, but just bad soreness), but the effects seem to be wearing off. I can't even turn to the right at all now. Figures.

As a last resort I may climb into Wayne's La-Z-Boy recliner with the book and the TV remote. Sounds like nirvana for a lot of people, but to me it's tough to get comfy in that thing. It's made for people well over six feet tall, not wee thangs topping out at five feet, two inches. (I always feel like Edith Ann in her rocking chair in that thing.)

But it would give me the support I'd need for my back and the creature comforts I'm not ready to do without right now. I may also get out the hot water bottle. That is, as long as I don't have to turn to the right to get to it.

(sigh)

I hate feeling old before my time. (Then again, ask my kids. To them, I am old--no question about it.)

Off I go.

Linda The Pained