h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Spent almost a fortnight on my back. Not fun. Taking lots of codiene for the pain and lots of extra lorazapam to relax my muscles. Could walk for 3 days. could walk without the aide of a zimmerframe for week after that. Couldn't sit for all 10 days. The strain on my lower back caused pain to run through my legs, my pelvic floor upto my neck and shoulders, Gave me nasty headaches and strange sensations in my arms and hands.
The first few days after it suddenly got so severe were quite scary for me, feeling trapped and the loss of my independence. Took a while to accept that there's nothing I could do but lay back a rest it and wait for it to right itself enough for me to exercise it by trying to simple things like stand-up or walk ten feet.

But I didn't lose perspective. A woman cared for by the same care group as my mother was left bed-ridden for five days without a visit. I doubt the defectives persecuting Huntington Life Sciences would understand the simple moral theory of Aristotle that makes me more concerned about that one woman I've never met or a shareholder in Glaxo than I or any reasonable being ever could be about a 1000 animals used to test a substance that will aleviate the suffering of other aware beings.

Are you OK? What happened?

*worries*

3 weeks ago I woke up one morning and tried to get out bed. I achieved the goal but noiced some pain in coming from my spine in the region of my lowe back. I found sitting and walking downhill etc uncomfortable, but not unbearable. I mentioned it to my GP a few days later on our regula meeting. He told me words to the effect that I had an unhappy ligament in my back. A few more days go past, I'm at my mothers when suddenly I can't sit anymore. The pain is enscruisiating. I stand-up and pace little and ty to sit back down. Nope. Even more painful, gradually the pain of standing gets worse and worse, I can't walk my legs are like jelly and about to give ways under me. My back is the same. It's like I've suddenly become an invertibrate and a breathless one at that because the pain is sapping all my energy.

That's what happeneded and was followed by what Ithings are are m tried to describe in the first post.
Now, I'm OK [ish]. I have to be very careful in my movements and give my unhappy ligament due respect, but today I have been able to move about fairly freely.

Oh dear- I wish there was some advice I could give. I hope you feel better soon.

... I did wonder...

Ouch! That is some severe bit of pain! Get well soon (or as zdt said - if you can't, a pond will do)!

What a horrible thing to happen to you! Was there anyone to look after you? Did you stay at your mother's during that time?

It must have been boring as hell, as well as painful.

Yes, I stayed at my mother's. I wasn't in a state where I could travel, let alone look after myself properly here. I wouldn't have been able to go to the shops or when at it's worse even stand-up and move about long enough to prepae a meal and clean-up afterwards.
It wasn't until Sunday night I was free enough to travel in a car back here.
And only yesterday did I reach a state where I could walk any meaningful distance or spend time in a sitting position.

Spending days on a bed only daring to move for necessities, having to eat meals laying on my side and not flexible enough to dress wasn't so much boring as inprisoning. I can 'accept' tedium more easily than loss of indepedence.

And thank you for the well wishes.

I shall be gone for a period of time.
I may have killed my iMac. I'm hoping whatever harm done it won't be fatal and is something easily and cheaply dealt with. However, I'm fairly ignorant on these matters so I'll just have to see...

btw Saturday I'm in the Horseshoe Inn on Melior Street near London Bridge Station from about 12. If I'm up and about early enough I'll wander about Borough Market first.
We'll be doing some mad stuff I expect, we will at least be talking ballcocks and drinking so join us.

"I shall be gone for a period of time."

Like, for how long? Or is that up to your computer?

Enjoy the mad stuff. Sorry I can't join you! But I'll drink some lapsang souchong on your behalf, and maybe watch some telly.

Baad bad me for being busy elsewhere! My parents were in London for a long weekend, and you were only half a mile away! If I had realised this, I would have set you up to meet!

They even visited Ye Olde London (so now they know where I go...) and dad had a good time at the FOrbidden Planet!

Come back soon!

FP is a cool place; I have a great time there if I'd just aquired huge funds.

I've tried using the intall disk to get at the disk utility and start-up disk stuff or even the clean reinstall but it simply won't acknownledge the disk. And I wouldn't feel confident I knew what I was doing even, if could get at it. The disadvantage of my having a mac is that I don't know any macgeeks, least of all ones that could pop 'round. And I'm a complete technophobe.
So, I'm taking my iMac to Brighton and hopefully it will get fixed within about ten days.

I'm in the library.

Perhaps pop a question over on Ask?

with the Mac.

I saw a cool new Mac the other day and I haven't even used macs for 15 years... It filled me with wanting! So nicely designed interface - M*cros*ft is such a poor copy, when you compare...

Is your back OK now?

How was the London trip?

The lad is back sooner than expected.
Managed to get the machine up running once I was able to log in and restart from safe mode.

The machine had stopped recognising the disc in the drive and attempts to use the repair utility had failed to change anything prior to that anyway. And good job that it had stopped recognising the disc because the next thing I would have done in my desperation would proabaly have been to do a clean install.

But thankfully someone who knows there mac alot better than i do [I know nothing!] on the orchard forum told me how to try to get it to start in safe mode which simple act has been shown to be possible and have given fruitful results.

My back is not completely OK, but as long as I don't do the ligaments any further harm then it should continue to improve. I'm not in the pain I was, it's just prone to occaisional weakness or stiffness.

The London thing went well. I did eat, I did drink and did spend most of my time laughing.
I missed the main item I wanted to see because I was hunting for kangaroo steaks in borough market, which is place where one faces great temptation because it's got beautiful cheeses, meats and fruits and juices and sweets, deserts and even more...
Failing to find the kangaroo steaks and developing an appitite I had osterich burger which lovely and resisted the temptation of the best stilton I ever tasted and went off in search of the Horseshoe Inn with only 200g of terrifyingly expensive truffles and bag of terrifying hot but inexpensive chili in my pocket.
I met Rachie and her new chap and joined them for a drink and set about smoking and reminising and drinking and catching up and so on whilst various madness of a geeky bent went on to laugh at and that was much the theme of the evening.

I wish I were a fly on your shoulder!

So, I'm away again. No net or home phone due to a error in judgement on my part as to just what wire I was wrenching out of the wall.
I do mean wall, not wall socket.
I do know how to plug a phone in.
And, until this decorating is done I can't afford to get the place re-wired.
I just spent £120 on getting new locks fitted.

Argh! No chance of doing a bodge job to fix it? Bit o' masking tape, or whatever?

So a guy from BT turned up earlier this morning and has drilled a new hole in the wall and put a line around the outside of the house, so I have a functioning socket in the livingroom.
I don't have a working one in the bedroom now, as that's connected to a dead wire that terminates at the bedroom door rather than running out through the bathroom from behind the toilet cistern of all places, [a factor in it not occuring to me I was tugging on a still live part of my phoneline,] to a junction on the back of the flat across the hall.
I don't know how much this cost me, or, when the next direct debit goes to BT, which I am guessing a serice charge will be talied onto as the guy didn't hand me an invoice.
I'm hoping that the wiring will mean clearer calls and maybe slightly better internet speeds as the last one must have been 15 - 20 years old if were a day.
I do know that it's against my tenancy agreement to let folk go drilling holes in my walls.

should be ok, unless they knocked out five bricks and you need to use Achtung-tape to hold it together (that black and yellow stripy tape, you know...)

one needs to have phone and interweb access!