The Week That Was, Back-wise

   Today is Saturday and six days ago, on Monday, I put the garbage out. Afterwards, as I was sitting on the couch, I found myself having a difficult time making my lower back feel comfortable. It didn't seem as if any amount of twisting and turning did the trick. This not usually a problem for me and I tried to figure out what I might have done to trigger this minor discomfort. That's when I remembered the garbage.
   There had been one bag that was particularly heavy. Heavy garbage bags are not uncommon and generally if I need to handle them there are no issues. For some reason I had assumed this one bag was way lighter than it actually was and I'd gotten myself into a body posture that would really only accommodate a lighter bag. Then I tried lifting it. I realized immediately the error I'd made and put it back down but, by then, the damage had been done. It was not that I was in a lot of pain but I did realize I'd gone slightly past my limit. I finished taking the rest of the garbage out, was feeling okay, and then went back inside to sit down.

The way my week went. Or just product
placement, one or the other....

   As I mentioned before, I had a difficult time sitting comfortably. Before bed, I took Doralyn's suggestion and rubbed in some Voltaren. This helped. 
   On Tuesday, I had a day off and did nothing really strenuous until the evening. From 8-10, I went and played pick-up ball hockey. I hadn't played ball hockey since last summer and I hadn't played this particular brand of ball hockey for probably about eight years. You can read about it here, if you want. After this, my whole body was so stiff and sore that it took me a couple of days to recover and I hardly even noticed my back. Then, on Friday, I moved a couple of couches. 
   You might want to ask why I was moving couches when my back was ailing. Well, the short answer is that I thought I could. All through the time I was moving them, I didn't feel a single twinge. In fact the most problematic thing I did on Friday was help give someone a bath at work, wherein the issue was not a weight-bearing one but simply having to lean over the side of the tub for fifteen minutes. Friday night (last night) was the iffiest night of the week, comfort level-wise. On top of everything else, it felt as though I was coming down with a cold, so I've been dosing myself with Vitamin C for the last eighteen hours or so.
   So my plan for the weekend is nothing heavy-duty, apart from lifting the Advil bottle. Normally I'd be doing yardwork this time of year but we're also under a snow-squall watch, so the yardwork might need to wait. Which would be better for my back, actually (unless I end up shoveling a ton of snow!)
   So that's kind of the week that was, back-wise. Just a constant reminder that I'm not the young stud I (never) was, anymore. There's seems to be a fine line between being active so that your body doesn't hurt and being over-active, so that it does.  In this kind of a constant voyage of discovery of mine, I might have tripped over the line a touch!