Breaking Radio Silence 2.0

 

I''m back.
After a long, long stretch of inactivity on this weblog, I've returned to the (digital) airwaves.  A lot has happened since I last posted, most notably, during the first week of January I managed to injure my back. Not a parachute jump injury or a tae kwan do bout gone wrong, I simply forgot that I wasn't nineteen anymore and stacked a cord of wood (thoughtfully provided us by my daughter Phoebe's boyfriend, Odin, as a Christmas present). It turns out that the movements involved in bending over, picking up and stacking a split cord of spruce and hemlock is just what it takes to herniate one's disk (in my case, at L4/L5.)

After seven months of increasingly severe pain, my doctor confirmed the herniated disk with an MRI and sent me to Seattle for an epidural injection of cortizone, which, since July 15th has been slowly getting better (thanks in large part to my physical therapist-thank you so much!)

It turns out that weeks and weeks in constant pain is both exhausting and distracting. However, it has given me a more profound and sympathetic understanding of the lives of those who live daily with chronic physical pain.  (And to appreciate how many people, especially the elderly and the disabled, bear the struggles and suffering that comes with chronic pain with such grace and fortitude.)   As I shuffled through the winter and spring I  was pleasantly surprised to be welcomed with kindness and sympathy over the past seven months into the company of those similarly afflicted, to greater or lesser extent, with a back injury and consequent back and leg pain.

The upside of no longer being in pain (at least for the time being -- epidurals don't come with a guarantee) is that I've got the energy and focus again for reading, reflection, writing, drawing and painting.

So stay tuned.