Back in Stuff

I’ve done my back in, somehow. MAN it has been painful. Happened sometime on Monday, I think, but it’s hard to pinpoint when exactly. I guess I’m just getting old and falling apart haha. I will have to resign to these things happening more and more. I remember I felt it at gym and I’d gone to the valley gym instead of the city one, and I was working out chest and the valley gym doesn’t have an elevated floor like the city gym does, so the angle on which I need to put the weights down is a little further and awkward, and I think that’s where I’ve twinged my back out. It’s all I can think of. And I’ve done so well for so long without any back pain that I am hating being reminded of how painful it was (last time it happened, I was moving milk crates at work).
Anyway, so come the rest of the day, I was nearly immobile, I was in so much pain. Having to get up, or even move slightly, so much pain. Back pain is a special kind of pain. I think being punched in the balls is less painful than back pain lol. Okay, maybe not quite, but yeah sleeping last night was near impossible, so much so that I managed to wriggle my way out of bed and back into the lounge to re-watch one of the Kath & Kim movies. It was good to have something to distract me from the pain for a little while. If I remained still, I wasn’t in pain. A hot shower seemed to help a little. Gradually trying to stretch out my back. Getting back upright involved pushing my hands on my legs to take the pressure off the back. Man, painful. Still is. But at least today I was somewhat mobile. I knew staying still was not going to help me and that going for a walk, as painful as it was, would do me a world of good, and I think it really has.
I was even looking into chiro’s and physio’s in my area, but yikes, $150 for an initial consult and a $75 follow-up? Sure I get some off with my health insurance, but fucking hell, the cost of living is out of control here a it is. So I decided to stick with Googles suggestion of walking it out. I’m sure it’s muscular. If it were a slipped disc, it would feel more tingly, and then I wouldn’t have a choice but to fork out that moolah. I may still need to if this hangs around, but I’m cold turkeying it at this stage and hoping to gradually stretch it out with hot showers and walks.

It doesn’t help that my outdoor setting might be delivered tomorrow (according to the tracking website anyway). If it’s not, I’ll just have to come home from work. I tried to time to ordering so that it would potentially arrive on a day that I am at home on my days off, but it was complete guesswork as to if it would work out or not. And then this back shit happened and I was like, “Well I’m fucked now” - especially yesterday when I was afraid to even move an inch without wincing in pain. How the hell am I going to transport 5 huge boxes from the dock, into the elevator and up to my apartment at the end of the hallway? And then construct them together. If it does arrive tomorrow, I think I’ll at least be able to move, but I sure am worried about putting my back out even more, as it’s certainly vulnerable right now. Yay to getting old!

So due to being immobile and certainly not being able to go back to the gym until I feel a lot more healed, I’ve been watching a hell of a lot of TV. Loved the Formula 3 and Formula 1 races, I caught up on the new Drag Race All Stars Winners episodes (Snatch Game was hilarious!), I watched the entire season of “Young Royals” which was kind of cute (it was recommended since I loved “Heartstopper” so much) and I even found a show on Netflix filmed in Melbourne that I didn’t know about called “Why Are You Like This”, which I also watched the whole season of.
I did manage to go for a few short walks around my suburb today to stretch so that was good, and was able to bend myself up and down enough to put a load of washing on (it’s crazy how much you need you back for simple tasks!) and then tonight I watched the new Ricky Gervais special on Netflix. Man, watch that one before it gets axed I tell you what, LOL. It made me laugh and I knew what to expect with Ricky’s humour as he just tells it like he sees it and doen’t care if he offends anyone - in fact he actively tries to. Which is in contrast to his series, “After Life” which is actually quite sweet. But I’ve always respected how real he is in both his series and his stand-up, and I find myself thinking, “Yeah he’s got a point there,” even if I think some things are controversial and over-the-line. Like I’ve already seen some articles online complaining about how he has offended trans people in the first 2 minutes of his show, when at the end of it, he explains that of course he supports trans rights etc. But of course they would have switched off well before he got to that bit.
I think I like how he’s fascinated with human behaviour and how we react to and are offended by certain things, and I very much am too.

Anyway, I hope, if the outdoor setting does arrive tomorrow, that I’ll be okay moving it. I don’t think the boxes will be overly heavy due to them being mostly wicker. But I also think it’s probably wishful thinking that it’ll arrive tomorrow instead of like in a few weeks time or something. I know it’s not the same delivery company that I had trouble with last time, so that’s something. I just know there will be boxes everywhere, much like there was when I had my sofa delivered, but once that boxes are out of the way and it’s all set up, it shouldn’t look too bad.

I was wondering if I’ll be abl to go to work this week, especially yesterday. There’s been so many new staff starting at work it’s been crazy. One day, the nightfill manager came up to me and told me I had a helper, when I had like a half-hour of my shift to go. I had been told NOTHING about this. If I had, I could have created work for her to do, but instead, I (and her) were thrown in the deep-end, and she was finishing an hour after I was. Ergh. At least this worker turned out to be really good and had worked in a supermarket before, so that was really helpful. A few of the others are to be desired. Anyway, I just had to delegate a few things for them to try and tie up after I’d left. I had one girl doing tickets and I told her to just leave whatever she couldn’t find for me to do on Sunday, and of course I came in the next day to basically the entire pile left over lol. I mean, I couldn’t expect much from a newbie who still doesn’t know where everything is.
Our store manager was off with Covid last week, so I feel like I’m the only one at work who hasn’t had it yet. I’m so cautious with a lot of things though, despite not wearing a mask. When a customer asks me for something, I always turn my head to the side (also so I can hear them better) and I touch surfaces with my knuckles and backs of my hands and always sanitise after collecting trolleys from the carparks. I’ll wear a mask if I feel it’s getting too crowded at work, and on the bus if I catch it.
It’s moreso about lessening my chances of getting it. I still think I’ll get it though, which I’m not looking forward to. It seems inevitble, but so far so good. Now apparently the flu is running wild here, so much so that our Premier has offered everyone free flu jabs, and now there’s monkeypox? My God, Disease-World, give us a break already, k-gurrl?

I kind of want to go see LANY perform again this Sunday, but I have already seen them twice, and I’ll be seeing Ryan’s final improv show at the same time anyway elsewhere, so I’ll have to give that a rest, so I’ll have something to do this weekend, even if it is only one thing. James’ birthday last Saturday went well. He liked the pink chess-piece candle and socks and beanie I got him as a present, and I got to see his best friend Jay again. Scotty was meant to be there, but bailed and was in a mood because of his controlling boyfriend (who none of us like). I feel like I haven’t seen him in years now.

Anyway I am off to have another shower and hopefully not put my back out in the shower lol.