As the night went on it got worse. I was having to hold myself a certain way in the booth seat at the restaurant and by the time we were left dinner just getting into the car took a good deal strategy to not fall down in pain.
When I got home there was very little to do in the way of cleaning because my mother had been watching the children and unlike a sitter, the house was in better shape when we returned than when we left. And this was a wonderful thing because I couldn’t really bend down to pick up the eleventy-twelve children’s toys that typically litter the floor after a good night with a sitter. By then, bending down took planning and sitting was a careful endeavor. I ended the night with a hot bath and a muscle relaxant and got in bed…carefully.
I had written two blog posts the prior day, dating the second one ahead to post last night so I didn’t have to do more then get in bed and turn out the light. But sleeping was going to be a challenge. Changing positions (which I do during the night) jarred me awake. When I woke up this morning I had to slide off the bed, turn around and brace myself to stand up because things had gotten worse overnight.
I texted my chiropractor asking if he was free today and did he perhaps want to have that playdate with our dogs because I could bring mine to his house if so? Oh, and I had wrecked my back. He said come on over as long as the dog wasn’t going to go to the bathroom in his house. I promised him I could make no promises on that front and that I’d be over shortly.
When I got there I went to the side yard gate to let my dog into their back yard before going in their house. Just at the gate, Matisse pulled on the leash. I wasn’t expecting it and wasn’t ready to brace myself for the pain. I crumpled down, fortunately not dropping my purse with my laptop in it, but I did spill my coffee and lost hold on the dog’s leash. I said something aloud like, “what a pathetic human being you are right now” while I lunged forward to step on the leash and stop the dog. I think I got to her in only six swear words time.
Dog deposited in the back yard, I went inside. I knew something was up with my back and I knew it was alignment-related with my spine. It was the worse situation I can remember ever happening like that. One of those things where someone says, “I bent over and then couldn’t stand back up.” That type of thing. And yet I wasn’t concerned. If I didn’t have the long experience I do with chiropractic; if I didn’t know this could be fixed; and if I didn’t know what was happening to me, it would have been scary. But I wasn’t worried. I knew it would settle out quickly after being adjusted—and it did just that.
My left SI joint, T12 vertebra, T12 rib and L5 were all out of alignment—which is a lot. The distance between T12 and the SI joint is a pretty big span. Things had sort of locked in place and when I moved it was putting pressure on the nerves. My muscles were in spasm and there was a lot of inflammation.
Ten minutes after arriving, my chiropractor had adjusted my spine, putting the bones back on the proper track and things began to calm down. An hour later and I was in a much, much better state. I’m sore now from the muscles spasming and inflamed, but it’s better. So much better.
While this was going on, my dog and their larger dog, Izzy, were playing in the back yard—and Matisse was loving it. They played for a good while until Matisse figured out she could wedge through their gate, thus ending the unsupervised outside play. Inside, Matisse investigated all of Izzy’s things, including her cage, food and water bowls and toys. Izzy was respectful to her, never being territorial. She was almost motherly. The dogs kept getting on Izzy’s bed together, although by the time we got the picture Matisse had fallen off the back.
My back is no longer locked up from the unknown insult that happened for no apparent reason yesterday and my dog is tired, sleeping in her cage. It’s a good Saturday afternoon here.
Best Girlfriends: My dog loves the girls. There are several other children that come over to play at our house. The ladies like to take Matisse into their bedroom and play all sorts of things along the lines of “family” with the dog included. They’ll bring up all her toys, make a bed for her with a towel or blanked, get her water in a dish from the kitchen play toys and even bring her treats and food (which we’ve said isn’t allowed in the bedroom but they somehow keep forgetting, so they say). Initially the dog wasn’t so sure about being shut into their bedroom but now she expects to be part of the group—getting upset and incensed (whining) if she’s not included. We put her in the cage a bit ago because they wanted to play a different game and I have never heard so much prolonged whining from her. Usually she’ll give up after less than a minute and go to sleep, but not this time. To give you any indication of how much she loves playing with the girls, she abandoned a game of fetch—outside—to go inside to be with them. This dog never wants to go inside.
The Big Boy Update: I had been out for a while the other day. It wasn’t that long, but my son had missed seeing me at bedtime because the meeting I had went long. My son was so kind the next morning as he greeted me saying, “Mom, you must have gained some weight since I’ve last seen you."
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My parents had a special day planned for my daughter today. They were going to take her on a train ride to a nearby city, have lunch there and then return. My mother had prepared for the trip well, going to the train station to find out everything they needed to know including parking and what might be close to eat near the destination station that would work for the one hour window they had before the return train departed. Only things didn’t go as planned. My parents picked up my daughter at 8:45am to get to the station in plenty of time for the ten o’clock departure but something was happening downtown. They think it was road work although it seemed like an accident at first. They tried to get to the train station from as many alternate routes as they could for an hour but had to abandon the trip when they realized they wouldn’t it in time. My daughter is disappointed, but she got to play at Mimi and Gramp’s house instead, which she always enjoys.
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