Bending over backwards....

... actually, make that frontwards!

Yesterday my back went out. It's been about two years since this has happened. I think it's Heavenly Father's way of reminding me what will happen in my old age if I don't heed my Grandmother's advice and stand up straight. (Growing up, she used to come up behind me and pull my shoulder's back and tell me to stand straight and proud. She said she understood that I hunched over because my chest was coming in -what chest was that, Grandma?! She must have been confusing me with normal teenage girls)

Anyway, the first time I remember my back going haywire was when I was a senior in high school. It started aching and suddenly I was in so much pain I couldn't stand up. I was laying on my bed in a panic because I had a paper to write, due the next day, and no way to get to the computer room. So I had my sister wheel in the office chair and I shimmied onto it and had her push me down the hall to the den. Hey, it worked.

From there on out, it would fail me 2-3 times a year. I went to a spine specialist and had an MRI done, all so that he could tell me he didn't really see a problem, but it could be a degenerative disc. No cure. Hmm, didn't sound right to me, but maybe it was the expert's obvious lack of confidence in his diagnosis that had me wondering.

I've been in a couple car accidents, one pretty major and have wondered if this problem could be traced back to that.... Guess I'll never know.

The last time it went out, it was near the end of my first year teaching. I was way too busy and it takes way too long to set up lesson plans for a substitute, so I toughed it out and kept teaching, bent over, mind you. The kids were good natured about it and didn't make fun of me, to my knowlege at least. During recess, specials, and lunch, I would spread out some big, laminated sheets of art on the ground and lay there until it was time to hobble to the playground and pick up my kiddos. Come to think of it, they may have actually enjoyed finally having me at eye level.

Well time marched on and it would randomly cross my mind that my back hadn't gone out. Maybe I'm cured! Not to be.

Pain medicine doesn't really help. Myropractors don't really help. Time does, but who wants to wait for that!

I have a really hard time staying still when my page long "to-do" list eyes me from my horizontal position on the couch. Trav only had school til noon today, so he enforced the "rest treatment", but tomorrow I am free to tackle that list, albeit, painfully. (It was nice, however, to relax and catch up on the phone with one of my best friends from college that I shared an apartment with. I also got to talk to my brother that's living in Switzerland, whom I haven't spoken with in many many months!)

I remember years ago, being in this predicament and needing to go to Target. My little sis needed to go too, but was wary of accompanying me and taking part in all the confused stares of strangers. I assured her that I would stay behind a shopping cart, so it might look like I was just resting on it, instead of walking all bent over so that it appeared I was perpetually on the look out for spare change. She hesitantly agreed.

So as I try to get back to normal life tomorrow I'll play the shopping cart trick to my advantage, but what I'd really like is a sturdy walker or cane. If anyone has one they're willing to share, just let me know. :) Otherwise, I'll brave the stares and leave it to sweet "time" to get my back to "standing straight and proud" stature.