Bad Back

My back is officially OUT. This always happens to me when I get stressed (Is it December already?). I was carrying water buckets to the animals the other day and I felt my back just go. It was like a little “hitch” and I knew it was all over for me.

The trouble is that I simply don’t have time to deal with this. I have tons of shopping still to do and I haven’t even ordered Christmas cards yet. (I’m actually considering New Year’s cards at this point. There is NOTHING wrong with that.)

For now, all I want to do is lay on the couch and moan in agony. But that’s not really an option for me. There is still dinner to be cooked (and cleaned up), children to be cared for, bathrooms to be cleaned, groceries to be gotten, and so on. I just haven’t scheduled a back injury into my day.

Isn’t this always the way for us women though? We could be on death’s door and we’d still feel obligated to do all of the stuff that we normally do. Now men, on the other hand, don’t seem to have this problem. When Joe’s back goes out, the world (apparently) stops revolving. He will make the announcement that his back is hurt and he’ll go straight to the couch where he will faithfully remain for about a week.

I, on the other hand, will not slow down my schedule one bit. I can’t afford to. I will press on, getting up earlier to account for my lack of mobility, and get the jobs done. Of course, this means that my injury will hold on for about three weeks instead of one because I won’t give it a chance to heal.

In my mind, I get it. I understand that I should do what needs to be done to heal myself. Putting on my oxygen mask first and all that. Still, I just don’t really know how to put it into practice. If I let everything go then, 1) nobody else will do it and 2) it’s just a bigger mess for me to clean up in the end.

So here I sit (which is my most uncomfortable position, by the way) at work, showing up and doing my job. I’m trying to keep my moaning and whining to a low level so I don’t disturb others…