Back pain and getting old

Oh my, right when I was starting to have a little FUN time on my hands, I got all ambitious and decided to BLOG! Now, I have another stress--gotta BLOG today! :) Okay, okay, okay. I'll just pretend it's one of those little pink books with the flap that locks with a key and call it a diary!

So here's what you've missed--a TSC staff trip to the lake. When I get my camera back from Reese Wagoner (she accidentally packed it in her diaper bag yesterday)--I'll download some pics and show you how Angela Spencer CAN SKI!!!

You also missed my bday gift to Tom--I gave him ME! And, that's all I'm saying about it--I'm also NOT telling you the real reason my back went out on Saturday.

And that brings me to the subject of the blog I'm writing now. Tom turned 45 on July 4. And when he had his bday, I just start calling myself that age (my bday is September 11--great thought for another blog; fireworks on his bday--flags flying half mass on mine...) Some of you may be reading this and thinking that we are in the prime of our lives. I read it and remember thinking people were kind of old when they got to be this age!

I stepped out of the shower Saturday morning and felt a "hitch" in my back. That was warning that this great BIG, wonderful, amazing, completely taken for granted part of my body was about to scream for attention. We had a long drive home and by the time we arrived, my back was ACHING!! I'm talking sharp pain, dull pain, constant pain, throbbing pain...you get the picture.
Okay, so when you hurt, you rest. So--I tried to rest. Only the pain was worse when I was lying down or sitting. The only relief I felt was when I was walking or floating in the pool. So I'm thinking "it will get better with time..." wrong again. It got worse. You should've seen my kids when I tried to unfold myself from the car as we ran our errands! Everyone's been amazingly patient, and only a little embarrassed. I'm just here to say, OUCH!!!
So today I finally broke down and went to the doctor. Oh my goodness, I'm loving DRUGS! I know, just say "no" and all that...but I'm counting the minutes until I get my next pain killer! I got my first cortizone shot. Thankfully they didn't put it in the pain-not sure I could've handled that, but they did put it in my rear--and when that medicine unleashed itself into my system, I totally forgot the pain in my back and traded it for a pain in "my you know where!" the weirdest thing was the immediate surge of pain as the medicine traveled up my side. It was like someone punched me!
Tom went with me to the doctor--that in itself was amazing. Now that he's a president, and pastors such a big church and has so many important things to do--I don't even think to ask him to take me to the doctor! (Besides that--I don't think he went with me to see the ultrasounds that revealed the sex of two of our three children! It's just not the kind of marriage we have.) But for some reason, today he offered to take me--thank you, LORD that he did!
When we went to pick up the meds and as the woman was breezing through the possible side effects, the cortizone was still giving me the whammy! and right when she said, "you could feel light-headed and dizziness" I grabbed Tom's arm with my cold and clammy hands and muttered, "Tom, I'm dizzy now--I'm not feeling so well." The woman's voice drifted far away and Tom carried me over to a little bench I guess they put there for such a time as this.

They found me a Diet Dr. Pepper and a spoonful of peanut butter--and after what seemed like a long time (actually just a few minutes) I came back out of my abyss (I didn't see a bright light, but my insides were screaming to let go of life as I knew it!) I've only come close to fainting once before (won't go into that today)--but my daughter Mikel has this happen to her often. Oh my! I have a much better appreciation for what she goes through!

So, that's the back pain. Want to know about the getting old? They took an x-ray and my prognosis sounded like this from Dr. K-- "here you have the disks between your vertabrae, and these are all good--but see this one between 14 and 15 (not sure those numbers are right, I've never been a numbers person) here your disk is thinning. This happens AS YOU AGE!!"
There it was, those 3 little words that flashed before my face and reminded me that I'm getting old!
So--what now? I can jog 6 miles, ride 20 and ski all over the lake (or at least I could LAST week)...now I can stand up--maybe lay on my side tonight rather than "flat on my back" and live to my next pain killer. And next week I'll go to physical therapy and start doing those exercises. Tomorrow I'll stop eating sweets and breads and keep trying to get this little bit of extra weight off. For, I can't change the fact that I'm aging, but I can do a few things to strengthen my poor old back.

All that to say...I'm BACK!! (No pun intended).