Hospitals and Ambulance Rides. Part Five

I am not normally someone who enjoys lying in bed. Perhaps because I am usually awake so often throughout the night, I look forward to getting up and getting on with the day. However the last few mornings I have not gotten up until after 9:00. Actually I am up by 6:00, go to the bathroom, take my medication and then go back to bed to snooze and to think and to drift where ever my brain takes me. It is quite nice and I find myself having to force me to get up.

As I lay in bed, my back feels perfect. I feel strong and as if I could do anything I wanted to. There are no twinges or spasms, no sense of weakness or even the fear of pain. I start to think that perhaps I should leave next Wednesday as planned. That I am being a wimp in not leaving when planned. I could spend a day on the train and then by this time next week I would be on the road somewhere just west of Winnipeg. I get all excited and start to make lists of all of the things that I need to do between now and the time I need to leave for Sudbury.  I get excited.

But then I get up.  That whole exercise is so much easier than it was a few days ago. The back spasms are still there but they are almost ignorable. The back and side muscles remain rather tender and weak, but I get up on the first try and I don't need to rest as soon as I am up. While my breathing is still a bit shallow, it no longer hurts to take a deep breath.  But within ten minutes things are starting to be uncomfortable. And I mean uncomfortable- not painful - just uncomfortable. And that feeling does not go away. This morning I went out shopping for bits and pieces of stuff - some nuts and dried cranberries to make a trail mix for the train, some more muscle relaxing drugs and few things from the grocery store. It was not terrible but it was not much fun either.

I need to make a decision soon.