Primal Scream
I did something to my back — big time.
I suspect it started about ten days ago, when I was doing my daily qigong routine, one of the gentlest forms of exercise you can find.
I reached down toward the floor, as the YouTube instructor told me, and turned to the left and then to the right — and something went bad.
Of course, I tried to shrug it off. Of course, I went through my regular gym routine with only slight variations.
And I didn’t feel anything, except perhaps some mild discomfort.
In fact, on Wednesday, I went to a doctor’s appointment, picked up my laundry, and did my weekly shopping routine and didn’t feel a thing.
But within a few hours I was in agony.
I’ve had back problems for a long time now. Usually, it manifests as severe pain in my lower right leg. During one particularly bad episode several years ago, I had to get a cortisol shot to relieve the misery.
But this was different — and much worse.
The pain took root in my right hip area and would not let go. Mornings were especially horrible, since my muscles were stiff from being in bed all night.
If I moved my right leg in the slightest way, I let out a yell that could be heard in Kalamazoo. I get up very early and I want to be respectful of my neighbors, but this was excruciating.
I staggered out to my kitchen to my company laptop to do my job, but that was impossible.
Till The Well Runs Dry
Any slight move and I was wailing like Johnny Weissmuller in the middle of an elephant stampede. I finally put my wedge pillow on the living room floor and wrote my stories on my raised knees.
Friday morning was equally painful and equally cacophonous.
For one terrible moment I thought I would be trapped in my bed all day — and then I’d never be able to walk again.
I felt like I was camping in my own home. And I had to do a series of complicated moves to get up, using my hands and left leg, if I wanted to get something to drink or go to the bathroom.
My sister and I were supposed to go to Coney Island on Friday evening for our annual Spook-A-Rama ride and boardwalk fireworks display.
Instead, she very kindly drove me to a local urgent clinic because — surprise, surprise — my back specialist can’t see me for a month.
There was a very nice young doctor at the clinic who looked me over, asked me a series of questions, and eventually decided that nothing serious appeared to be going on.
On the way home my sister told me to get a bottle of Aleve, and it seems to be doing the trick — at least for the moment.
This morning I’m still able to stand and walk, but I’m feeling some pain in that lower right leg of mine, which has me a little spooked.
I hate being laid up like this, especially in these final days of summer, but I’m trying to be realistic.
I’m a nearly 70‑year‑old man with a history of back trouble. And I’m also trying to combat the spike in depression I feel when my routine is upended like this.
I hope I recover soon and get back to normal. I want to learn from this experience and appreciate what I already have.
And if I can do all that without screaming, so much the better.
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