Man, I have been away a good long time. I only realized tonight I have not been on DIS in at least 2 months, if not 3 months. So much has happened.
Mid March (17th) I injured my back. It's an old injury that flares up every few years since my early 20's. Normally 3 or 4 days and I'm back to normal. Once it took a week. This time, well let's see, I just passed week 7...
I wasn't too worried at first (Wed) because two nights later (Friday) I was walking again. But Saturday morning I thought my back was going to literally break as I forced myself to stand up out of bed. My back later spasmed hard while I sat on the couch and that was it. Major pain and I could not walk without leaning heavily on a cane. Getting in and out of bed was painful. I could only sleep on my back. We're talking three 375mg naproxen and 3 muscle relaxants daily. No relief.
It took SEVENTEEN days before I finally felt no pain for the first time and could walk without a cane! 17 days!! Every day I went from bed, to the couch and bed again. Heating pad behind me back, alternating with a cold pack. Lots of pillows shoved behind the packs. I would fall asleep (sitting upright) and snore away from the muscle relaxants. But I was too scared of the pain getting out of bed caused to even think of lying down during the day. I couldn't concentrate on anything. The kids had to step up and clean & cook & bring me food & drink. lol
I've slowly lowered the doses and last week I stopped the muscle relaxants completely. However, I'm still taking naproxen (two 375 mg daily) as my back still tightens up and hurts without them. I'm hoping to lower the dose again next week though and see how it is.
I've been going to physio (first time ever) and was surprised to find it really does help! Wish I had started that years ago. The best thing he taught me was HOW to move/roll over/and ease out of bed so there would be no pain. OMG!
So I have not worked my Crossing Guard job since March 17th. Just when I thought I could go back, after the April break, (my physio therapist was hemming & hawing), schools were shut down. Kind of a relief as it gives me more time to heal.
Ohh.. and one of the worst parts was I had JUST started a second part-time work-from-home job on the Monday, two days before my back pulled this nonsence!
The second week, for 3 days, I forced myself to sit at computer long enough to complete my hours (I really didn't want to lose that job). Picture a kitchen chair with a thick pillow behind my back, heating pillow on my back, and a cushion on the chair to sit on, and trying to keep my back ramrod straight. I'm still not sure how I did it. On that 3rd day, the 3rd party contract ended up getting cancelled anyways, putting me out of that job. So no income whatsoever... ugh
Bright side, the lady who was training me, about 3 weeks later, found me a position in a different dept (same company) and I love it! This will be the end of my 3rd week and I just love the job, the hours and the people are so so friendly!! If school starts up again before the summer, I can still do that as well.
Anyways, enough about my back. I never wish back pain on anyone!
My brother moved to St. Catherines. My SIL is very sick with cancer. We're not sure how long. A year maybe?
My daughter may have an opportunity to move out & live with her friend. Her friend's mom reached out to me to see if we could get the girls settled on their own with a lot of assisted living at first.
This year so far has been a bust with Air Miles and PC Optimum/Points for me.
It looks like I wrote a story.
Sorry about that and thanks for reading! I'm happy to be back - I've missed DIS and everyone!
Why do people STILL not understand that when you need to enter a medical facility that you will need to go thru a screening process? or that you MUST wear a mask while waiting to do said processing?? OR that they will expect you to use sanitizer???? GOOG grief people, get with the programme 
They need to woo me back. 
) When I go into the hospital I need to take off my mask and put one of theirs on, need somewhere to store mine while I'm there. The material is laminated so I can wipe it clean if I need to. Rather pleased with myself
