Broken

"All the king's horses and all the king's men, couldn't put Humpty together again." - Lewis Carroll

Week nine and still down.  The problems with my back have gotten worse.  One step forward, two steps back.  Three herniated discs, now mostly resolved followed by a dislocated hip that doesn't want to stay in the socket no matter how many times my physiotherapist puts it back. The as yet, unconfirmed diagnosis is a labral tear. The pain is breathtaking. 

I've been trying to carry on with some semblance of a life in spite of my current challenges.  I sucked it up long enough to attend a business lunch last week, even driving myself downtown for the meeting.  I spent the next two days flat on my back.  Sunday was the day on which I had long ago committed to attend the theatre with Courtney, her mom, Jan and sister, Sarah.  We had tickets to see Wicked, my favorite musical as a belated celebration of Jan's fiftieth birthday.  Given that Jan's partner had a serious heart attack last week, she really needed this celebration and the tickets were ordered many months ago.  I had told Courtney that I would take everyone out to lunch before the matinee performance and I was determined I would keep that commitment, no matter what it took.  There was a lot of ice and a lot of pain medication involved but I did it.  We had lunch at Joey and then three hours sitting at the performance.  Though I had a few tense moments when I wondered if I could sit any longer without fainting from pain, I managed to find my Zen space and I thoroughly enjoyed the show. 

Admittedly, I was pretty wrecked by yesterday.  A visit to my physiotherapist in the morning followed by a visit to my doctor's office and an xray clinic exhausted whatever little reserves I had.  Grocery shopping today, so sapped me that I sat in the driveway for about ten minutes after getting home today, my back and hip in spasm and me unable to get out of the car.  All things pass.  Eventually I got into the house, took some pain meds and collapsed on the sofa.  A half hour later I was revived enough to get up and put away the groceries.  Two hours later, I was able to make the bolognese sauce for tonight's dinner.

Clearly, I'm broken.  I hope the doctors have more luck putting me back together than the king's men had with Humpty.