Tales of Hoffman: Get Back

Posting has been pretty light this week, what with dealing with the new puppy, plus I've been suffering all week with a bad back. About three years ago, I was having back pain and numbness down one of my legs when I went to bed at night. I went to a doc and had an MRI and was told I had a compressed disk near the bottom of my spine. "Basically, you'll want to live with it," said the doc. "You don't want to have back surgery unless it's totally ruining your life, and if you just lose a few pounds and watch what you do, you won't have to worry about it.

So that's what I did. I lost about 20 pounds last year (still proud to have kept it off...ok, well, most of it) and really haven't had a single back problem since.....

Then on Sunday, I went to my daughter's soccer game (btw, watching a bunch of 5 year old girls playing soccer? priceless!). It was really cold here in Westchester last Sunday. Typical blustery October day. So in order to keep warm, I jumped up and down once or twice. OK, more like 20 or 30 times. Gee, I wonder what gravity does to that compressed disk at the bottom of my spine when I'm jumping straight up and down as fast and high as possible?

By the time I got home, my back was feeling tight. By nightfall, I was in some pain. By bedtime, I had trouble getting into bed. By morning...I couldn't move. So here I've been all week. Trying to work from home while lying in bed with a pretty endless procession of heating pads. The only plus side to all of this has been getting to use my TiBook for work all week (it really is a sweet machine). I'm finally starting to feel close to normal. I can get up and down the steps with no problem and I've even been able to bend over and pet the dog. It feels good to be back...with a semi-healthy back.