Day 101 - Otherwise known as "Wow - I can't believe it's Day 101" or "Wow - My back hurts"

Hi there,

I'm a horrible blogger, I know. I promised to blog every day, and it's been a week and a half since my last post. I do have a good excuse though, actually I have two:

1. It's the Christmas season and I work in retail . . . . 'nuff said

2. On Wednesday I threw my back out and have been holed up in bed in a drug-induced sleep for the past 2 and 1/2 days.

Yup - I seem to have bad luck when it comes to getting sick or getting injured. I killed my lower back on Wednesday afternoon, and could barely move without getting tears in my eyes on Thursday, so Chris took me to the doctor to get it checked out. I pretty much tore some muscles in my lower back and it's caused the nerve and muscle centres at the base of my spine to get all swollen and inflamed. This equals extemely painful back whether I'm lying down, sitting or standing. She said I need to pretty much be off my feet for a week (so no work), and I'm on tylenol 3's, one really strong anti-inflammatory, and another really, really strong anti-inflammatory that will basically knock you out (for 24 hours!!) So the last few days have kind of passed by in a very "fuzzy" kind of way. She said I will hopefully be good to at least go back to work by about Wednesday of next week, but I won't feel totally normal for about 6 weeks - lovely. It could be worse I know, but this is pretty much the worst time ever for this to happen (leaving my work short a manager during the busiest time of year). Grrr . . . I have new-found sympathy though for lower-back pain sufferers. I seriously have never experienced pain like this before. When I was at work Thursday morning (I went for half a day before I had Chris come get me), I had to hide in the bathroom twice 'cause I was crying from the pain and didn't want anyone to see. It shoots up your back and also down into your "butt" area, but is also this horrible, constant pain. I know when I'm back to normal that I'll have a new appreciation for being able to move pain-free!!

So this is my first day of not sleeping all day ('cause I didn't take the 24-hr long pill last night - I'm not a fan of being knocked out for that long - dr. said it was okay). Apparently I'm not good at "doing nothing" when it's not my choice. At any other time, if someone had said to me "Hey Suzanne - just lay in bed and watch movies and read all day", my reaction would have been "yes please!!" But really, that's not a lot of fun. I'm bored already. I've already watched the first two Harry Potter's again (I got the ultimate extended editions - woo hoo!!), and every Christmas movie that's in the house. I started rereading the third HP book, but even that's no fun anymore. Argghh. I'm like a little kid. I've now turned to silly games on the computer to pass the time. Diner Dash and Chocolatier are my new friends (seriously silly games, but kind of addictive!!)

Anyhoo - expect a lot of blog posts from me in the next few days!

Hope everyone else out there in internet land is having a good Holiday season so far (and that it will remain injury-free)!!