A few weeks ago, I got out of bed and discovered I had a bad back. Well, shit happens, I thought; I’m not getting any younger. This old body isn’t what it used to be, and believe me when I say that it wasn’t much to begin with.
Such twinges tend to occur from time to time. After a day or so, they’re usually gone. Not so, this one.
Depending on the day during the last few weeks, this lower back pain, somewhere in or near my sacrum, has been anywhere from manageable to quite debilitating. By that, I mean that even walking has been painful.
It’s really been quite unpredictable. I go to bed each day with no idea how bad the pain will be when I get out of bed the next morning. Bending to pick something up, lifting children, walking: it’s all been very painful at times, tolerably uncomfortable at others.
In such situations, Sarah usually nags me to go and see someone. I usually respond by ignoring her until the noise of her nagging becomes louder than the persistence of the ailment from which I’m suffering.
Earlier this week, it had become obvious that this rather painful problem wasn’t going to go away on its own in the near future. With our long holiday starting just a couple of days from now, I couldn’t allow myself to be incapacitated in any way, so I relented and went to see a physiotherapist.
Half an hour after going in, I was feeling worse than before. He had applied a technique that I’m going to refer to as violent massage, although the plaque on the door read ‘medical massage’.
Yesterday evening, I finally started to feel a bit better, which was a great encouragement. I had another appointment with my torturer today, and again, I left his building brutalised and bruised. However, I did feel a lot better again.
The first visit didn’t yield most of its benefit until yesterday evening, so perhaps it’ll take another couple of days before I begin to feel the full benefit of today’s treatment.
Anyway, I want to be fully over this backache as soon as possible. I can deal with having it in my daily home life, but I don’t want it while I’m on holiday.