Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Forced Vacation

I was having a pretty nice weekend. On Friday night I saw the high school play with my daughter and her friend. On Saturday I did some quilting. I loaded my blue and white nine patch on the machine and got it mostly quilted. I was accomplishing things. On Sunday morning, the girls and I went to church. We stopped at the store on the way home. I had a full day of quilting planned...I was going to finish quilting the nine patch and get the binding on. Was going to run the vacuum so I wouldn't have to do it on Monday. The best laid plans...

After church I decided to get comfy...flannel pants, a turtleneck and a sweatshirt. I went into my closet, bent over to get my pants off the shelf, and I heard it. Two very loud pops in my lower back. And I felt it...the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in my life. I dropped to my knees, made it over to the bed and stayed on the floor for a lifetime...or about 20 minutes. I couldn't move. I was lightheaded. It was awful. I managed to change my clothes while I was on the floor, then I crawled down the hallway and scooted down the stairs on my bottom. The pain was tremendous. Holding onto walls, railings and furniture I made it to the sofa and tried to get comfortable, all the while trying not to cry. My daughter wanted to take me to the emergency room, but I was afraid they'd admit me. Since my husband is in Frankfurt for the rest of the week, I didn't want to have to call him and tell him I was in the hospital!

I called the doctor and he told me to take two of the 500mg Naproxen tablets that I have for my migraines. If that didn't help, he said I should go to the ER. It did help some, along with the heating pad, although I still couldn't stand or walk. I found my Vicodin and managed to get through the night.

Yesterday morning I called the doctor. The recording said the office opened at noon. I managed to make it until noon and called again. The recording said they were out to lunch until 1. I called again and managed to get an appointment. The results? One was that the recording was wrong and they were really open at 8:30! Second was I most likely have herniated two disks in my back. I am out of work at least until next Tuesday. I am on lots of happy drugs. :o) I can walk again, albeit painfully. But I will survive. And I have to stay on the sofa with my heating pad as much as possible. So that means...

I've had time to knit the adorable little baby hat you see here. I saw these on Suze's blog, The Thread and I and she was kind enough to share the pattern with me. They work up quickly and are so cute! I plan to make a few and donate them to our church's "Caps and Laps" group which makes baby hats for the local hospital and lap robes for senior citizens. When I finished the hat, I started working on my newest pair of socks.

This morning I started cutting away the batting on my trapunto. It is a tedious job. I worked on it until the Percoset kicked in...then I stopped. I didn't want to cut the quilt top! Although I can't work at the longarm right now, I'm hopeful that I'll be able to stand up straighter by the end of the week and I can finish the nine patch. The good news is that one of the most comfortable chairs in the house is my sewing chair...it's cushy with lots of support. On Saturday night I cut out a new quilt, so I should be able to get some piecing done too. I'm doing my best to turn this into an opportunity to get something accomplished. I'll keep you posted!

13 comments:

Melanie said...

I hope you feel better real soon. Look at it this way--- you've got guilt-free rest headed your way.

Paula, the quilter said...

Oh. My! That sounds so absolutely painful. Keep your chin up and get well soon.

Rose Marie said...

Ouch ... I can feel your pain all the way here! Get well soon!

Libby said...

Oh my - the description of the sound almost gave me a headache *s* Be a good girl and don't overdo.

Elaine Adair said...

I am sooo sorry to hear of your painful episode. Poor baby! Well that sounds trite but I really feel badly for you. Take care. Rest.

Doodlebug Gail said...

Oh dear - my sincere sympathies for all that pain. I've only had that happen once and it was once to many times. Glad the "happy drugs" are working and how wonderful that your sewing chair is comfy. Take care of yourself and rest when you need to.

Sweet P said...

I feel your pain . . . literally . . . I hurt my back last Friday. Please take it easy and do what the doctor tells you. You'll be better soon.

CONNIE W said...

I'm so sorry that you had such a horrible experience. I was almost having sympathy pain here just reading your post. I do hope you have a good recovery. Please take care. :)

Patti said...

Oh Carolyn - I'm so sorry! I can just imagine your pain! I've been there - sort of - when I've bent over and sent a back muscle into spasm and pinched some nerves. One of the episodes was the day before my longarm was to be assembled and I was to have two days of lessons! I was on Vicodin and Flexerel during those two days of lessons - happy with my drugs and unable to remember much of what I was shown. I had to take both of them in order to stand up straight enough to pay attention!

I hope your back gets much better very soon, and that you are able to sit and piece. There must be a silver lining somewhere in this cloud.

Helen said...

Ouch, ouch, ouch! Take it easy and give your back time to heal. Hand stitching comes to mind!!

Meredith said...

I hope you get better. If you need anything please let me know!

Gail said...

Its been a day or so now, how is the back coming along? Hope you are taking things really easy and doing as the doctor says. Back pain is sooooo bad! Hope you can feel improvement.

Tazzie said...

Ohhh my goodnes, I hope you feel better soon. Take all the rest you need, you sure deserve it.
*hugs*
Tazzie
:-)