It has been a while since my back "went out," so I guess I should be grateful that things were good for so long...
Nonetheless, an aching back is a real pain.
In the past, it seems like I have had some warning that "an attack" was immanent. Not this time.
There I was Sunday morning, all ready to do my annual Form 5 renewal. I had even walked over to the FBO and drank a few sips of coffee and chatted for a bit. Everything seemed fine. I got in the truck to grab my flight bags which were sitting in the front passenger seat and when I turned to get out of the truck...ping!
It was like a string in my back had been plucked.
I tried to stretch and loosen up but I knew in my heart that I was headed down hill fast.
I suffered through the oral part of the review, but when it was time to fly, I had to tell the reviewer that I just wasn't up to it. I was so disappointed. It is so hard to get all of the elements - plane available and working, my schedule, the reviewer's schedule, the weather - all aligned. But, sometimes, such is life.
I'm not really surprised that my back acted up. The last few weeks have been very stressful.
We had a major deliverable due at work that should have taken a month to finish, but for which we were given one week.
Towards the end of the week above, we received a call from the ALF (Assisted Living Facility) where my mother resides asking us to come take her to the hospital because she had stopped eating, drinking and taking her medication and was refusing to allow an ambulance to take her to the hospital. It was very interesting to be sitting in an emergency department room on a Saturday afternoon/evening trying to deal with my mother while simultaneously making escalation calls because of challenges at work and a looming client deliverable deadline.
The following week, Jeanie's mom had back surgery, so Jeanie went to her folks house to help out. That turned out to be a good decision as her mom's recovery did not go smoothly.
As I was driving to the airport a few days later at ~6:00 am, Jeanie called to let me know that her mom was having complications and had to be taken to the local emergency room. The local ER doctor was an absolute ass, and Jeanie and her dad ended up having to have her Mom transported back to Macon to be seen by her surgeon. We talked about whether I needed to cancel my business trip, but Jeanie encouraged me to go, so I did.
I did have a nice afternoon - other than worrying about Momma Melvin. I went for a visit to my old high school, The Storm King School. I got to walk around the campus and revel in old memories. I even got to walk through the dorm I lived in junior and senior years and see my old rooms. I also got to meet and chat with a number of folks at the school including the new head of school, development director and chairman of the board of trustees.
The business trip was for a leadership seminar which was interesting.
Because I wasn't sure exactly when the seminar would end, I had scheduled a late (~7 pm getting me home around midnight) flight home. It turned out that the seminar ended a bit early, so I was able to change to an earlier (~4 pm) flight. Unfortunately, the earlier flight ended up having a weight and balance issue and Delta was begging for volunteers. Since Jeanie was still away, I decided to be a nice guy and volunteer to give up my place - even though it meant not being able to fly home until ~10 am the following morning. Delta did give me a $400 travel voucher along with a hotel voucher and a dinner voucher.
The hotel - a Wyndham Garden Inn near the Laguardia airport - was the worst hotel I have had the displeasure of staying at in a long time. It isn't near any restaurants or stores, the service at the hotel restaurant was abysmal and the air conditioner in the room was so loud that it kept awakening me all night. The dinner voucher was for $7 - which doesn't go very far in the New York area!
Then, to top it all off, my ~10 am flight ended up being canceled and I didn't end up getting home until ~6:30 pm, and that's only because I thought to call the Delta medallion desk and pitch a fit and get booked on another flight after my morning flight had gotten delayed for the second time.
I guess it really isn't surprising that my back would "pop" with all the other stress, then sitting in the horrid chairs in the waiting area in the airport for eight hours, and then sitting in the miserable seat of a regional jet for three hours, and then having the stress of having my Form 5.
I am definitely not suffering as much today (Wednesday) as I was on Sunday. I am grateful that we happened to have the necessary medications - anti-inflammatory, muscle relaxant and pain reliever on-hand. I used a cold pack for the first few days to stop the muscle spasms, and have used heat for the last day to get the muscles to loosen up.
Jeanie's Mom is doing better. Compared to what she has been through, my back pain is insignificant. Or to look at it another way, given how bad my back has hurt, I can't imagine how much she has suffered. But, hopefully she will continue to feel better, and will get to go home at the end of the week.
Speaking of crappy weeks, Jeanie sure has had her share of them lately between helping me deal with my mom, then going to her parents and getting very little sleep because her mom was having so much trouble, then having to rush her mom to the emergency room, then having to drive to Macon, then having to drive her parents to the rehabilitation center in Savannah, then having to drive home on Sunday and deal with me.
The good news is that my deal has been in a slow period, so I can afford to be down. The sad part is that the deal is in a slow period, and the weather has been beautiful, so I could have been having some fun.
Hopefully, things will trend up from here all around for everyone...
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Posted by David at August 01, 2007 01:38 PM