I woke up one morning last month with a truly terrible cramp in my lower back/upper right butt. As I already know finances are tight, I refused to miss a day from work. After all, I'd missed a lot of days in December and was looking forward to a string of 40 hour weeks. (We don't get a holiday until Memorial Day.)
I've dealt with sciatica before and knew what I could be in for. Three years ago, I went to a pain management doctor who'd prescribed muscle relaxers for me. Easy enough. I popped one down and hobbled my way out to the car.
At work, I realized that maybe even one muscle relaxer was too much. I was sitting at my desk when my boss's boss Jane walked by. It was about two in the afternoon and I'd been messing around with Microsoft Explorer. Jane stopped. "Becs, are you on lunch break?" It is customary at the company for people to eat their meals late. I've often seen deliveries at 3 p.m. I said no. "What are you doing?" I told her I was goofing off.Her eyes widened. "Something's not right. You're not right. Look at me." I did. "Come with me."
I staggered down the corridor to Marcia's office. I immediately sat down.
"Look," Jane commanded Marcia.
"No," Marcia said. "No, there's something wrong."
Then began the interrogation.
No one asked if I was feeling okay because it was obvious that I was off in a swirly, whirly world of my own, a place where everything was distorted.
"Did you hit your head somehow?"
"No."
"Did you do A?"
"No."
"Did you do B?"
"No."
Meanwhile, significant looks that I can't interpret pass between Marcia and Jane.
Finally, Jane asks, "Have you taken something?"
"No...wait. I'm having an attack of sciatica and I took muscle relaxers."
"OOOOooooohhhhhh."
Jane and Marcia both tell me I shouldn't be at work. I agree.
The mystery solved, I went back to my cubicle and finished up what I was working on. Then I packed up and headed for the car.
I questioned the wisdom of my driving, but had no other way to get home. Later Jane told me that she was getting ready to call Uber, but I had already left.
We were both right, I shouldn't have been driving. Luckily, the five miles home is on back roads, but I noticed that I wasn't maintaining proper speed and my turns were awfully sloppy. Miraculously, I got home and didn't kill anyone. I stopped at Walgreens and bought myself a heating pad.
I took the next day off, took one muscle relaxer, and spent the entire day sleeping. Next day I went to work with my heating pad and all was well.
Later, a friend said to me,"If you hadn't told them you'd taken a muscle relaxer, they would have sent you for drug testing." Yikes, I realized, my friend was right. And what if I hadn't remember that I'd taken the muscle relaxer by the time I got to the testing facility? It does not bear thinking about, my friends.
Another narrow escape.
2 comments:
I often have lower back pain, and the ONLY thing that works for me is plain aspirin. Three first thing in the morning and then two every four to six hours thereafter. It takes down the inflammation, and that's what's causing most of the pain, and it dulls the nerves. Everyone is slightly different, though. I've been walking bent over for the past week, and I think it's the weather - rapid changes are not good for wonky backs. I saw the surgeon last week, and she said that she'd seen three people with "back out" just that day.
That's good to know about the weather. I usually feel Gary's back goes out for spite. I'm sorry you have sciatica, Becs: no one I know has any way to deal with it. Glad to hear muscle relaxers work for you.
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