Late afternoon Friday I was in my yard attacking weeds, and one of the weeds won. A trip to urgent care and several days of rest, anti-inflammatories and *many* swear words later, I'm walking more-or-less normally. Sitting for any length of time isn't happening, and I dread my next car ride, but it could have been considerably worse. Much worse.
So I am grateful. Grateful I'm learning this lesson yet still ambulatory; grateful I have a calm boyfriend who helped me inside, took me to urgent care and insisted I eat; grateful I have friends who immediately offered assistance; grateful I have cats who curl up with me in bed (the comfort factor there is embarrassingly huge). Grateful the discomfort is tolerable, that I have internet that allows me to connect with friends and distractions, that I can do some of my hobbies while reclined in bed, which is the only place I'm comfortable staying still for long stretches. Grateful there's a position in which I can be comfortable. I know people with back injuries for whom NO position is comfortable.
Last week I did so many things without even thinking about it -- picking up items off the floor, driving a stick shift, picking up a heavily loaded basket, cleaning the litter boxes, planting fall flowers in pots, vacuuming, even getting up from the toilet (toilet hygiene requires counter-balancing spinal muscle contractions I had not been aware of or considered until they made themselves highly known that first day).
I thought about all those things this weekend, and most of them I didn't try. Getting off the toilet was the only necessary action, and a learning process about how to get up from a sitting position primarily using my legs, not my back. I'm grateful I can take time to heal. Going to a job in this condition would be both terrifying and miserable. Yet another thing to be grateful for: health insurance for everyone, finally, in the U.S.
Word to the wise: if you ever find yourself fighting geranium roots, dig 'em out. Don't pull. Those things are better attached and stronger than your spine.
