Age is Just a Number: Distracted with Discomfort

I pretty much don't like pain. I have had a pain in my left hiney cheek since March. Many stretches and many miles later here we are to today, post MRI and diagnosed with a crapped out disc. Left hiney cheek...crapped out - you'd think there was a joke in there somewhere. But I sit here, painfully, because sitting is the worst position on the planet right now, not feeling the joke love. Tomorrow I get this pro-ceed-jure done to relieve some of that hiney cheek pain. It's amazing how the pain ramps up like it just needs to really get you before you eliminate it.

Now, there are a few medical words that I wince at and hope that they never apply to me, like Spinal Tap, or Catheter or Lobotomy. Another one is Epidural. It just sounds frightening. I get one of those tomorrow and, frankly it scares the crap outta me. Yeah, another joke on the horizon. Anyway, just one little earth tremor or fit of tics and you get a different angle of me. Is this too graphic?

I am assured that this is a fairly mundane pro-ceed-jure, but maybe the whole not eating or drinking for 8 hours prior is what is stressing me out. That's not even a little spittle during my entire workday tomorrow. They said something about "asperating". Dictionary.com didn't fully convince me that this is something I need to worry about, but the word just sounds icky. See above paragraph. I think I am going to go all out with the whole fasting thing and not even bother with breakfast. I am H2O loading this evening. But enough about me.

What all this blasts forward into my thoughts is my mom. When I was little, she had a crapped out disc. However she ignored the pain, continued to help my dad with his brick-laying trade and eventually lost certain amounts of basic functions, then visited the doc where she had emergency surgery NOW. That was 1965 when they used big kitchen knives in the surgery room. What I remember is a coupla things: they didn't expect her to walk out, she nearly bled to death, and her disc was like "a wad of chewing gum and the nerves were like string mashed up in it". They cut many in their efforts to sort it all out and she never had feeling in her toes again. But she walked by golly. Maybe this is some sort of twisted memorial ceremony for her passing almost a year ago.

Back to me....when I was 21, after a hot and heavy fire season as a tough, skinny firefighter, I got a pain in my right hiney cheek. It progressed rather rapidly such that I passed-out upon any hint of movement from the intense pain. After refusing surgery - mom came to mind, and of course, no insurance - I laid in bed for 2 months where I recovered and eventually managed to lead a Normal (that's relative, mind you) life.

So don't mind my scarcity. I've had pictures of the DNC, pictures of the Zoo and other stories I've wanted to post, but pain prevails, and lack of energy, and grumpiness....and distraction. Hope you don't mind. The DNC is old news anyway.