The Castle Aaargh

I found another reason why I would be a horrible undercover CIA agent.  The list is surprisingly long already.  I imagine most people keep a similar list.  What I found is when I'm under extreme duress I am very compliant.  Torture me and I will give you anything I have, information, puppies, boxes of chocolate, you name it it's yours.  I have two times in my life that fit into this category, labor and this back thing.  Now labor was 22 years ago but still a vivid memory but I think there have been a couple of times that this current event surpasses it for pure pain.  That's saying something since labor is the main reason I only have one child.  "Where is this going?" you might ask yourself.  Well, the first surgery was an easy decision, I was in debilitating pain and surgery was scheduled for the next day.  This scheduled surgery too, same story....but then the insurance thing caused a delay and I've had too much Internet time to freak out about it.  I've started to second guess myself.  That is its own torture.  

"Please tell us more!". Well if you insist!  I had what I considered a good day yesterday.  To qualify as a good day anymore is surprisingly easy.  I was just uncomfortable all day.  See, the bar is set fairly low. But it was good enough I thought maybe I'm getting better!  To test this hypothesis I set up an experiment.  I made brownies.  I was careful, didn't lift anything too heavy like the flour container, bent with my knees if I needed anything I couldn't reach, I wasn't trying to hurt myself.  It took about 20 minutes and it felt like an hour but all in all it went ok.  Please remember the evolution chart, I am still not walking upright, that has not changed at all.  But I'm feeling pretty cocky, like I just summitted Everest or something.  The brownies were my Everest!  Actually, that's not true, turns out standing upright and laying flat is my Everest.  Who knew?

So, part two of my experiment.  I was going to skip my nightly dose of Flexeril muscle relaxant drug (but keep it close at hand, just in case) and SLEEP IN MY BED!  I laid down with a pillow under my knees for support, I mean I wasn't going to dare devil this thing, and prepared to sleep.  Well, that's not exactly what happened.  Pain, that's what happened.  I flailed about and knocked my water over, oops.  After about two hours and a muscle spasm later I caved and took the Flexeril.  I try to not take more than half a pill during the day because a whole pill quickly renders me unconscious. That is a reliable outcome, but not this time. I had another spasm, and couldn't sleep through the pain.  After about 4 hours, I gave up and staggered downstairs to my chair home with my heating pad.  

So, I'm not doing as well as I thought I was.  Surprise!