15 September, 2007

The One Where It Takes Me Ten Minutes Just To Put My Underwear On 

Looking around my cubicle Tuesday, I was growing dismayed with the somewhat chaotic state of the folders that I had inherited. So, attempting to bring order to my workspace, I started sorting and organizing boxes and buckets of files. At one point I felt a slight twinge in my lower back but it wasn't much and, though I took it easy walking back to the Ferry Building, I mostly forgot all about it. I came home and fed the cats: I stayed in the bedroom with Billie and had a quick lie down while she ate her supper. Everything was just dandy until I tried to get up. Muscles spasmed, a nerve became pinched and I suddenly could only wash my hands and brush my teeth by kneeling in front of the bathroom sink.

(Those were the Good Old Days...)

I woke up in pain later that night and had trouble going back to sleep. Around 4:30 a.m. Simon finally came and snuggled around my head, purring. That relaxed me enough that I finally slept. I "snoozed" the alarm and went in to work an hour late (I would have called in sick but had a meeting and, well, it's a week where I really had to be at the office). I asked a co-worker who teaches yoga what asanas I might try to unlink my back and she suggested a couple of easier, more gentle ones to try. I hobbled my way through work, modifying my cubicle so that I could type and write standing up (sitting was rather out of the question at that point). I came home that night and realized that I had forgotten to stop and pick up ibuprofen. I figured, though, that between the yoga and relaxation and icing my back, I should be all right. After all, that's worked in the past and these incidents always started clearing up after a day or so.

A little after 2:00 a.m. Thursday morning I awoke to a back that was shrieking with agony. I tried the yoga asanas. I tried ice. I tried massaging. Nothing helped. At 3:15 a.m. I was finally so desperate that I put my green polar fleece jacket on over my oversized pink flower pyjama bottoms, put on my glasses and grabbed my keys and went to the 24-hour Wallgreens for some ibuprofen. As I got to my corner, I seriously considered heading over to the ER, hoping that maybe I could get a prescription for a muscle relaxer (which I had never taken in my life). I decided that Wallgreens was closer and faster and, since I hate medicating and rarely do it anyway, a small handful of ibuprofen might take the edge off of the pain enough that I'd be able to function. Then, as I turned onto Otis, an evil thought crept in about how nice it must be for those people who have boyfriends/girlfriends/spouses who would go to Wallgreens for them. I've worked hard to not indulge myself in such pity parties lately, but this one had the positive effect of getting my mind off of how fucking much my back was hurting. I pulled into the lot, shuffled inside the store and got two bottles of Wall-uprofen (they had a buy one get one free sale), a bottle of Vitamin Water and, miraculously, remembered to pick up a pack of toilet paper (I had been forgetting to do that for almost a week). I stifled a scream as I got back into the car (have you ever tried getting in and out of a car with mostly cloth seats?), opened the Vitamin Water, opened one of the bottles of ibuprofen and took four of them before starting the car.

Unable to sleep and somewhat delirious, I took this photo and, because there was nothing better to do, posted it on my Flickr stream:



(My thanks to those who posted kind comments on the photo, BTW...)

The pills did take the edge off enough that I was able to lie down for a little while before the alarm went off, though I never did go back to sleep. By the time I made it to work, I was exhausted and still in incredible pain. My game plan was to the input only for the stuff that HAD to be in by Friday and then take the next ferry back to Alameda. Well, it went slowly and I only ended up leaving an hour early. Actually, I had planned all week to be on the 4:10 ferry on Thursday because I was going to SFlickr that night. However, considering I hadn't slept since 2:00 a.m. and the state of my back, there was no way I was in any shape to drive across the bridge and socialize. I was bitterly disappointed at missing the SFlickr meet up; the one thing I had been looking forward to all week...I still want to cry, I'm so upset about that.

Between the ibuprofen and a rearrangement of my body pillow (doubled over and placed under my knees so I slept only on my back), I managed to get a full night's sleep. Friday it was back to the office to finalize the data I had put in and then start on the less time-critical stuff. My back was actually quite a bit worse, but at least I had slept so I managed the best I could. Every move hurt. It was all I could do to shower and get dressed. Have you ever tried getting dressed WHEN YOU CAN'T FUCKING BEND IN ANY DIRECTION? I nearly abandoned the underwear and went commando. Interestingly enough, the only thing that seems to not bother my back is walking, though it's much slower going lately and I've taken nearly everything out of my backpack to lighten the load.

And then there's the cats. Mind you, they've been very good at trying to nurse me back to health. Simon is constantly giving me shoulder rubs and he'll actually lie on my stomach to help straighten out my spine. Billie gives me leg rubs for encouragement. But everything I have to do to care for them requires bending, squatting, and crawling around on the floor. Friday morning I dropped Billie's dish, scattering a few kibbles outside of it and eliciting a dirty look from her. She ate her food anyway, then promptly horked it all back up. Which meant being on the floor to clean up that mess. I'm always spilling their water, trying to replace the water dish and am always begging Simon to move out of the way so I can pour his kibble into his dish. DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON DEALING WITH THE LITTER BOXES!

So that brings us to now, nearly 10:00 p.m. Saturday night. I'm still in an unbelievable amount of pain: I managed to write this post because I found one particular way to position myself in the chair where I'm not in constant shrieking agony and I ain't moving unless I absolutely have to. I still have trouble showering and dressing. This afternoon, after my shower, I stood in the doorway to my bedroom, holding my underwear and sobbing because I had spent ten minutes trying to get them on and could not. Once I was finally "dressed", I ended up watching most of Bread and Tulips (a very sweet Italian movie) standing up because I couldn't find any way to sit that wasn't excruciating. This is the closest I've come to not being able to take care of myself and it is terrifying and depressing all at the same time (which probably isn't going to help me in recovering from this).

At this point, I'm going to see if there's any way I can see my acupuncturist or find a chiropractor that uses ultrasound therapy (that used to help). But I'm also hoping that it will respond to a couple of days of rest. I'm not sure I can take much more of this. Physically, I'm beyond my breaking point, and emotionally...I'm pretty damn close.

Labels: back pain, cats, domesticity, furkids, gah, JesusBloodyChrist

   ~~ victoria on 10:17 PM ~~    0 comments

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19 April, 2007

The eMac. Now with 40% less cursing! 

I had to leave Luna at the Subaru dealership early this morning (I was on the road at the ridiculous hour of 6:30 a.m.!) so I could get the CD player replaced. About a month ago it was happily playing my Dharma Bums iMix, when suddenly it skipped wildly. I ejected the CD and then re-inserted it. It spun for several seconds, the ejected it. Same with the next CD and the next. Anyway, got that taken care of and it was under warranty so I didn't have to pay for it, so Yay!

I left work early (since I got there 1:15 early) and picked up Luna, then headed to Pet Club for Feline Essentials (i.e. litter and Petromalt). I decided to stop at CompUSA, just to see what price they had on a 512mb memory stick for Fiona (the eMac, which came with a shamefully skimpy 256mb. Shame, Apple! Shame!). I was seeing them online for anywhere between $50-100 (the average being in the $50-70 range) and the last time I checked at the CompUSA on Market St., it was in the $90 range. I must have had good RAM Karma because they had some for $69. It was about what I'd have ended up paying online after shipping, anyway, so I got some.

It only took me two tries to install the memory and have Fiona successfully read it, which made me happy. And now I can play iTunes and have Firefox open and Mail and upload photos in 1001 and not have any combination of those leave me sitting, waiting and cursing for several minutes. Yay!

(Oh yeah, Simon reminded me that I must mention how absolutely HELPFUL he was, sitting off to the side while I installed the memory. He didn't stick his paw in the computer or try to shove his mousie toy in it or anything! Good Kitty! But no, you don't get more goat cheese, sorry.)

Labels: domesticity, upgrading

   ~~ victoria on 8:36 PM ~~    2 comments

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28 January, 2007

I only did three things today, so why am I so tired? 

Oh yeah. Laundry at 6:30 a.m. (you need to keep odd hours to get into the laundry room on weekends), which is 20 pounds of schlepping from one end of the apartment complex to the other and back.

Then running all over trying to find chipotle peppers to send to the BFF who lives in chipotle-less Manchester, England. I finally found them at the Annoying Alameda Yuppie Market. They had one bag. ONE. And I got it! Yay!

Then, I had an eggplant in the fridge that I needed to do something with and for some reason I had a bee in my bonnet to make eggplant and zucchini lasagna. I had forgotten how labour-intensive lasagna is (especially when I don't use the no-boil noodles). About an hour into the process, I remembered why I only make lasagna once every five years or so. It sure is tasty, though! But next weekend I'll go for something less fussy...like risotto milanese (mmmmmmm, cheesy-saffron-y goodness!).

Both cats are zonked out and I don't know why because neither of them did any household chores or cooking today!

Labels: cats, cooking, domesticity

   ~~ victoria on 8:50 PM ~~    0 comments

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22 November, 2006

A Person I'd Like to Meet 

The sadistic bitch--or bastard--who came up with duvet covers! It is just simply not possible to get the damn comforter spread out evenly in the cover. The hilarity and hijinks don't end! Try shaking the cover/comforter ensemble out, only to realize that it is so damn heavy because THE CAT SLIPPED INSIDE THE DAMN COVER!

Gah!

Labels: cats, domesticity, furkids, gah, ranting, Simon

   ~~ victoria on 10:35 PM ~~    0 comments

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