Bad PC, good dinner

While I was stuck flat on my back trying to recover from the back problems, my main home PC blue-screened and died. I foolishly left a few bits of very important data on its main C: drive, which is hard to recover because "it" is actually a pair of striped 160GB 10K-rpm drives. Guys at work are going to tackle it for me, because I can't afford the time right now, but I'm pissed at myself for not following my own rules and backing up regularly.

Dinner tonight, on the other hand, was very good, courtesy of the fine folks at Four Square restaurant in Durham. We've been going there for many years, and the food has been consistently above average or better. The setting, an old Victorian house, is also quite lovely. If you're in the area, check it out.

Speaking of being in the area, if you are and you'd like to come to our massive fireworks party, email me (there's a form on the site) and I'll tell you about it. It's an open party and always a blast (both literally and figuratively).

Sorry for the radio slience

Wednesday night's back pain turned into a very bad night. I had to roll out of the bed to get out of it, then crawl to the bathroom. I screamed in pain, and to my embarrassment I did so many times. Thursday, I went to the chiropractor, and Friday I saw both the chiropractor and an urgent care MD. After a couple of days on muscle relaxers and pills to reduce swelling and pain, I am much better. I am still, however, far, far from normal. I figure feeling as healthy as usual is a solid week away, and being fully healed is at least a week or two past that.

I'm spending all of my time flat on my back with a pillow under my knees, which makes typing rather hard. The various pills make me drowsy, which makes working next to impossible. So, I've not been working during this time.

I hope to be back to work and to daily blogging by Tuesday or, at the latest, Wednesday. Until then, if you feel like commenting, what's your worst pain story, and how long did it keep you from working?

Wow, as I said before, do I hate this.

The word of the day is pain

Back pain, to be precise. It's back, worse than ever, despite (or maybe because of) a chiropractor visit today. I had a ton of work I had to do, so I spent many hours in my work office chair, which though good for my productivity only worsened the pain.

I made the mistake once of stretching out on the floor, knees up to relieve back pressure, and enjoying five minutes with almost no pain. When my self-imposed deadline came, I could not get up. I had to turn on my side, crawl to the desk, and pull myself up. This process involved much grunting and suppressed (not entirely successfully) screaming. Fortunately, my office is at an end of the lab without a lot of people nearby today. Unfortunately, I disturbed Gina and probably a few other folks.

Life since then has basically alternated between really bad pain and pain so harsh I can't help but make noises. I'm almost done working, though, so with luck in an hour or two I will be on my back for six or seven hours, hoping my back mends enough that I can be more functional tomorrow.

I hate being weak or slow. I just hate it.

I hate being hurt

Which is exactly what I am right now. I went to bed Saturday night with a slightly sore back. I awoke an hour later in serious pain and found I could not sit up or stand up. So, I rolled myself out of bed and then pulled myself up to first a kneeling and then, after much pain and time, a standing position. The process took multiple minutes and involved enough pain to make me grunt, cry out, and tear up. Wow, did it hurt.

I repeated this process several times before I gave up trying to sleep any more.

Thanks to some persuasion by Jennie, her chiropractor opened his office on Sunday, when he would normally be enjoying a day off, and saw me. He worked on me then and again this morning. I'm slowly getting better, but the emphasis is definitely on slowly. I can't sit or stand without significant pain, and the transitions between positions are amazingly bad.

Of course, in the interest of full disclosure I should note that I am not following the doctor's instructions. He wanted me to spend the first twenty-four hours on my back, with ice for fifteen minutes every hour, and I just could not do that. He also wanted me not to sit at all. Not sitting basically equals not working, so no way could I follow that part of the program. I did as best I could, I finished the work I had to do (including the day's writing, of course), and as a result I'm probably healing more slowly than I would have. I hate it, but so it goes. The work must go on.

This attitude, by the way, caused Jennie to remark, "You have the common sense God gave a barnacle." She and Sarah now refer to me as Barnacle Man or, if in a very good mood, Commodore Barnacle. The first sounds like a particularly sad superhero, while the second strikes me as the fleet commander in a Napoleonic naval parody, so given a choice--which, of course, I never get--I'd opt for the former.

To illustrate my astonishing good sense, I will see the chiropractor the next two mornings, then head Thursday for Baltimore, Balticon, some fine meals, time with fan friends, time with Kyle and the UFC Saturday night PPV, and much more. The doctor said healing should take three to four weeks. I'm giving my back until Thursday morning to return to normal. It better listen up.

Oh, in case you're wondering how I injured myself, the truth is, I have no clue. I must have sat wrong for a long period of time, which is how I hurt my back the last two times. Amazing.