"Aren't you supposed to be.."

...in Boston, yes. The short story is I'm home, pumped full of drugs, recovering from a particularly debilitating back spasm that hit me Friday afternoon. I woke up that morning with a bit of a stiff back, but nothing too major. I got up around lunchtime and went to the drugstore two blocks from the office to run some errands. On the the return trip, my back just seized up -- it took me a good 20 minutes to walk back to the office. Got to my desk and called Kirsti, who had the day off. When she arrived we found I could not got out of my office chair without stabbing, excruciating pain. Four EMTs had to lift me from my chair onto a stretcher.



My ER treatment was relatively speedy. They figured rather quickly this was a muscle thing and not a spinal/disc issue, so the treatment was to get me drugged up enough to get me out of the ER, and write scrips to manage the pain until the muscles got closer to normal. Injections of Dilaudid and Valium did the trick for the former. Prescriptions of Vioxx, Valium, and Vicodin are taking care of business while home. Needless to say, flying was right out of the question. So here I am. I can putter about the house now, and dress and shower myself, but sitting upright for too long presents a problem thus far. We have received some Christmas eve/day invites from people, and are playing it by ear as to whether we go to either. A big issue right now is my inability to drive on my drug combo.



As for the drugs, Vicodin is wholly overrated. Whatever Brett Favre saw in it is eluding me completely. The jury's still out on Vioxx; it's one-a-day

and it supposedly has ibuprofen-like effects which build up over time. Dilaudid and Valium, however, are a hurtin' boy's best friend. Elvis and I heartily endorse them.