It’s Official: I’m Getting Old
Part of me already knew it to be true, but it became official today: I am getting old. I was out back doing some light work on the patio today—nothing major, because of the expected rain, just light preparation work—when all of a sudden I couldn’t walk. Or move. Something had snapped in my lower back. It has been three hours since that happened, and despite drugs, ice, and rest, I still can hardly walk or stand, and I can’t move quickly at all.
Being injured doesn’t bother me all that much. I have a high tolerance for pain. But this is my first major back injury, and everybody knows that injuring one’s back while working in the yard is a sure sign of old age looming on the horizon. Crap.
The Comments
Mr. T June 12, 2005 at 7:27pm
Sounds like you have been working on this project for some time now and the straw literally broke your back. I had a similar experience when I was your age in grad school (and it was caused by stress and bad diet/lack of sleep, not physical labor) where my back ached for several days in a row and finally one night, I got out of my bed quickly, my back imploded, and I fell to my knees and ended up crawling around my apartment like a dog. A sad picture indeed. And being the stubborn fool I am - I never went to a doctor either.
One thing has helped me over the years however - yoga. Believe me, it works wonders if you put in the effort and I highly recommend it.
Mr. Wilson June 12, 2005 at 7:36pm
Yoga?! What sort of quackery are you trying to thrust upon me?!
Just kidding.
I would consider yoga, but I don’t have the discipline. Well, I do, but not for that sort of thing. It’s just the way I’m wired, I think.
In the mean time I’ve doped up on ibuprofen with zero results. Or I suppose it could be working and is keeping the pain at “holy hell this hurts” rather than “somebody step on my crotch to take my mind off my back!”
Mr. T June 13, 2005 at 9:05am
Believe me, yoga works. There is a misconception that it has to do with all sorts of chanting or voodoo magic (and I believe there is a type of yoga like that) but the mainstream yoga as practiced in modern times is just good stretching of muscles you otherwise don’t use. Learning a few simple exercises and performing them a few minutes a morning or evening has caused me enormous relief before.
The only thing I can recommend is sleeping with a pillow under your upper legs if you lie on your back, or between your legs if you sleep on your side.