NERVANA!

It was a normal day. Like any other day I get up, make some coffee, get my cereal prepared, plunk myself down in my lazy girl chair and watch a little news on the telley. Once I'm saturated and revved up, it's time to get ready for work. I climb into a nice hot shower to wash and limber up my muscles so I can do my exercises to ease up the pain and improve the movement in my problem left arm. It has been working so well that I can roll the car window up and down without any pain. I can also reach into the drop box at the Post Office to mail a letter, and pluck the cannister out of the pneumatic tube at the drive through banking center to make a deposit without having to open the car door and stand so that I can get this arm into the proper position to perform these tasks. So to increase the already improved mobility of my left arm I continue with the morning stretches.

On this day fate decides to throw a wrench into my little system. I perform my exercises. Upon completion, I realize that my back is sore. It does not want me to be the homo erectis that is my birthrite. I am crooked. I am in pain. I am praying that this problem is not going to last the 9 months that the left arm disfunction has now ascertained. I am praying that this is not MS. Just an overzealous body wanting to attain nervana. I go to work. I climb the stairs the numerous times that are required to get to and from the Purchasing Office and the shop floor. I carry large catalogs up and down. Everything is bearable except the getting up from a seated or crouched position. That seems to be the most difficult and painful movement. I either push up from the desk or, if I have squatted down to get to that parts catalog on the lower shelf, I climb up my own body by pushing up on my legs to get lift. Man I'm feeling old!

I remember a similar event when I was 25. My back went out doing a simple 'lift with the legs' manouver that went askew. I could not stay upright for more than 10 minutes without the need to lay back down again. At the time I thought this must be what it feels like to be old.

I am thankful that this current event is not that bad. It is now day 4 and I am moving better than I was. I am not that old yet. Maybe in my search for nervana, I will find Nirvana!