Whoosh

Time keeps on slipping...slipping...into the future...

Wow, it's been so long since I blogged in here. I've been sick. So sick, I'm sick of being sick. Went right from the whole stomach nausea-ness to bronchitis, but I'm almost done with that now (yes, have the thing where I sound like an 80 year-old woman who started smoking at age 3). Also started going to physical therapy for my back/leg. That's going pretty well. I'm kind of sore afterwards, but I'm starting to improve my range of motion (my right leg has about 1/2 the range of motion of my left).

The funny thing...eh, well maybe not so funny exactly...at least, not in a *funny* kind of way...more like in a funny-sad kind of way or maybe, well, maybe just not funny at all. Anyway, one of my "trouble spots" is the big 'ol muscle that basically makes up the right half of my butt. (oooh! I said butt!) Actually, it's officially called the piriformis. Heh, you can even see a picture of one (kind of) here. And no, that definitely isn't me. My butt hasn't been that small in a long, long time. And I don't wear granny underwear. That poor girl. But then, she looks like she must be about 10, so she shouldn't be wearing sexy underwear anyway.

Anyway.

The piriformis is the muscle that sits over the sciatic nerves and some lateral rotators and basically attaches your spine (sacrum) to your hipbone. Well, anyway, mine doesn't work right anymore. The one on the right side, anyway. It's constantly clenched up tight like a fist, which annoys the nerves, causes me to have searing (and/or shooting and/or dull throbbing) pain and sometimes numbness (sometimes down to my toes), and is generally a big, uh, big pain in the butt. (hahaha) It may or may not be related to the whole bulging-disc-into-the-nerve-that-goes-down-my-right-leg-thing.

To get back to the not-so-funny-funny-thing...so, part of the physical therapy is them trying to get the darn thing to loosen up and whatnot. That involves some big physical therapist guy (or sometimes, a woman...and they tend to be big too) to basically have to do a deep tissue massage of the area. And like poke and prod it. So...yeah, I go and get my butt massaged. Isn't that something?

Of course, that isn't all I do. I have to do stretches and some exercise machine things. The stretches don't look like much, mainly because there's a fine line for me in my current state between stretching and aggravating. Basically, certain of my muscles have turned into permanently grouchy charlie horses. Oh, and they hook me up to an H-Wave machine too (kind of similar to the TENs device the chiropractor used to hook me up to, but this does both high and low frequency stuff). Yeesh, I feel like Frankenstein. But with stuff attached to my butt instead of my neck.

I tell ya, though, it still feels weird to just lie there while they massage your butt. And it kind of hurts. But in a good-bad way. Like at least something is being done. Sometimes a little extra pain is better than the same pain. Does that make sense?

At least I seem to be able to sit at my desk for 30 minutes at a stretch before it gets unbearable. Hmmmm, hey, that sounds like another excuse for my not having updated the blog, eh? It's true, too, so bonus!

Anyway.

Tony is gone all this week, poor guy. Two days in Deerfield and then 3 in Toronto. The big art show I've been slaving on for ages now is this weekend, starting on Friday. I volunteer in the beer booth Friday morning and then I have to do some judging after that. Maybe Saturday will be my wander-around-for-fun day. I also have to find a pair of earrings for Pam to replace ones I gave her before that disappeared.

And I'm running a daily contest on the site until Oct 13th, so I'm keeping up with that. I have a HUGE stack of books to review that I've already read (I can read while laying down; it doesn't aggravate the back as much). I desperately need to update the Prize Bucket. And do a mailing. And...and lots of stuff. I'm always behind.

There's other news, but it'll wait for now. Gives me a goal so I'll come back and get back on this puppy.