I could say not a lot has happened since my last post, but that’s not quite true. Ajax is successfully buried and we speak of him fondly from time to time. Mr. L had a good father-daughter trip to Pennsylvania. Shortly after he returned, I experienced something both odd and incapacitating.

On Sunday, October 27, I was my normal self doing normal self things. On Monday, October 28, I woke up early freezing cold then burning up. I decided to stay in bed for the day. On Tuesday, October 29, I woke up with really bad lower back pain that was unlike the annoying lower back pain I’d been waking up with for the last several months — and it didn’t go away. I opted to have Mr. L drive me to urgent care where they diagnosed a UTI and gave me naproxen for the back pain. I came home, took my meds, and rested in my chair. By later that day, I could not stand or walk. It didn’t get better.

On Wednesday, Oct 30, my neighbor called an ambulance — it was the only way I could get out of my house. The ambulance took me to the medical center where they said I had more than the garden variety UTI and gave me IV meds. At about 6 pm, they told me I could go home. I still couldn’t stand, sit, or walk. They gave me a pain med. No difference. They gave me morphine. No difference. They admitted me.

For 16 days, they did a CT scan, X-rays, an MRI, and a bone biopsy to rule out infection. No problems found that would cause me to be in excruciating pain from lower lumbar back spasms. They did start me on a muscle relaxant, that helps. The first time Physical Therapy tried to get me to sit on the side of the bed, I was in 10 out of 10 pain and begging her to not ask me to do anymore. Subsequent PT sessions went slightly better.

On November 15, I was transferred to a skilled nursing facility. It took two people to get me from the transfer wheelchair to the bed. For the next four weeks, I incrementally began to improve. On Thursday, Dec 12, I was able to walk out of the facility to come home only using a cane.

As for my current status — I still get spasms. I alternate between a cane and a walker, depending on how I feel, but based on advice from physical therapy, I’m mostly using the walker. I’ve come a long way to be able to spend a lot of time in my recliner and to gingerly walk around my house to keep my body moving. But at least I’m home. There’s apparently nothing seriously wrong with me, but my return to normalcy is coming slowly. I’m confident I’ll get back to my “normal” self, but I don’t know how long it will take.

For Christmas 2019, I’m moving slowly, but at least I’m moving. As I normally do this time of year, I’m reflecting on what has been and where I want to go in the new year. I’m not making resolutions, but I am planning where I want to go from here. Perhaps an enforced slow down will help with that.