Getting Old(er) is a pain

But it does beat the alternative.
Or
There and Back Again

Almost four weeks ago we had a heavy wet snowfall here at the Aerie that measured around 8 inches. If it had been dry flaky powder, I would have used the snow blower to clear the driveway but it was so wet that the blower wouldn’t/couldn’t blow the snow more than a foot or two and that made it impractical. Instead, I took the shovel in hand and cleared the drive the old fashioned way by muscle power.

That was a mistake. In the last decade or so I have had two back surgeries for a herniated disc and a cyst, both in the lumbar region. I’ve also had to have a process whereby the doctor flooded a partially herniated disc with cortisone to alleviate severe pain also in the lumbar region. My surgeon has told me I suffer from lumbar spinal stenosis , which, as I understand it, means the nerves radiating from the spinal column pass through unusually narrow passageways. Any inflammation to those nerves results in a very negative feedback whereby the inflamed and swollen nerve presses against the walls of that passageway and becomes even more inflamed. He warned me that any stress to my lower back could result in another bout of incapacitating pain that could be “cured” only by lots of rest and drugs—or surgery.

After last year’s log home construction project, during which I was initially very careful but grew more reckless as time passed and I suffered no back pain at all, I felt, well, invincible. So, with shovel in hand I proceeded to dig my own grave, so to speak. Two hours of tossing heavy, wet snow and I was at the end of the driveway where heavy, wet snow mixed with the plowed up mud of the road and that’s when the inevitable occurred. I wrenched my back.

The next day, and the days to follow, I began to pay for my actions. Pain started in the lower back and left buttocks and progressed down my left leg passed my knee into the shin area. When they didn’t go away after a week I went to see the doctor at the local clinic. He prescribed some medication for pain and muscle spasms. (I knew it wasn’t muscle spasms and tried to tell him of my history but he was taking the normal steps for my symptoms.) When those medicines didn’t do the job after a week I went back to him and got a stronger prescription that did relieve the pain but made me more drowsy. At least I was then able to sleep through the night.

During the past three weeks, walking for any length of time was painful but things were improving. When I wasn’t going birding I did a great deal of resting. Finally, yesterday I felt well enough that we were able to make the long drive up to the Bolt Hole. This was something we had been putting off because of the weather (lots of snow up north in April) and then because of my discomfort. Driving for four hours was not something I was looking forward to but it had to be done.

Back in February, when I was last up to the Bolt Hole, I had discovered that the freezer door of the fridge had been left ajar and mice had raided the butter and other fatty items in there leaving empty wrappers and droppings galore. Luckily, the unheated cabin was cold enough that the venison that we had put in the freezer never thawed out so I was able to salvage nearly all the very lean meat that the mice didn’t want. I also discovered that the propane gas that fuels the stove was not flowing to the burners. My buddy, Mark, turned off the tanks for me and we waited for spring to reach the northlands.

Anyway, yesterday, Terry and I made the 200+ mile drive to see what we could do about cleaning the freezer, fixing the propane problem, turn on the water and see what else we could bring back to the Aerie. It turns out that the propane regulator, which is located on the north side of the cabin and only a foot or so above ground level, was buried in the snow that slid off the roof and the air intake was clogged. When the snow melted, the air could flow again and so could the propane. The refrigerator and freezer were still working. I had feared they might have burned out, what with being open for the entire month of January. Mice were/are definitely a problem but one that will take several days (?) of trapping to fix. We found some clothes of Terry’s, three captain’s chairs and some pictures that we loaded into the truck to bring south. We finished what we wanted to do in about three hours and, in part because I was still feeling okay, we drove back to the Aerie.

It turned into a long day but because of the lumbar support of the truck seat, I still felt good when we arrived in PA. With luck, and some careful, low impact exercise, I should be back to normal in a week or two. Lord knows I’ve plenty to do around both properties.