My Aching Back

Back in February, I dropped the few things I had on my desk and gratefully accepted the assignment to complete The Essential Superman Encyclopedia. That seemed to change numerous work habits and I spent the next four-five months totally committed to the desk.Right around the time the book was done and delivered, and I allowed myself to exhale a little, my middle back started to ache. It began right under my right shoulder blade and radiated around to the front. I took Advil, struggled through it, and after a few weeks it passed.Just before leaving for San Diego, though, it returned with a vengeance. By mid-August, Deb decided I needed to have it looked at. Blood work and an x-ray ruled out many options, letting my doctor to confirm her initial diagnosis that this was muscular in nature. The x-ray did show, though, I had a mild touch of scoliosis, explaining its slight curve.She sent me off for physical therapy and after two weeks, I’m feeling somewhat better. Andrew, my therapist, says that it’ll take several weeks for this to work out and that it’ll be months before I reteach myself better posture when at the keyboard and dining table. Meantime, I need to perform exercises every few hours to break up my marathon desk sessions. He also talked about how stiff my spine had gotten and that all of our time together was designed to loosen it up and regain lost flexibility. Now, Kate and Deb have been on my case about flexibility for a while so they can smugly say, “told you so”.