#70 Back Out - 2

My back is out again.  I thought the last time was not very long ago, so I checked the journal entries, and it was like the first of July, so that's not good, but not so very bad.  This one is a different spot, too.  The last time was the small of my back, which affected everything in my abdomen.  This time it's just above the tailbone, so it's just pain there and down my legs (every so often my ankles catch fire). 

When I woke up Saturday morning, my back was feeling fragile.  I took a load of stuff to the recycle center, and had intended to ask one of the (three) workers there to help me (I could carry the bags of paper at hip height without too much strain, but was worried about lifting them overhead to dump them into the bins), but for the first time ever, there didn't seem to be anyone else around.  So I did it myself.

After I got home, I bent over to feed Thunder, and I felt something snap.  I spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday in bed.  I could make it to the bathroom and kitchen if  I supported my upper-body weight with my hands on my knees, and could get almost upright if I walked my hands up my thighs to my hips.  As usual, when I'm hurting the most, I forget about things like aspirin, heating pads, braces.... I just lie there and moan.

Since Sunday, I've found that aspirin and the heating pad help a little, a pair of canes will help me up from sitting or lying, and although the back brace does nothing for me, tying the belt from  my bathrobe TIGHTLY around my waist makes it possible to stand up straight.  I haven't figured out why that should work, but it does. 

I'm going to try for a bath later this evening or tomorrow.  I haven't had a bath since last Friday, and I can't remember the last time I washed my hair.  I can't stand long enough for a shower, and I was afraid that if I got into the bathtub I wouldn't be able to get out.  Jay's bath chair is in the attic, but it may as well be in China.  I smell terrible.  My only consolation is that the smell from the kitchen sink and Thunder's litter box are worse.  I've had to let dishes and poopy build up because I can't do anything that requires bending over or two hands (I need one to support me). 

I have only four cans of cat food left, so this had better be over by Monday!