The answer isn't 42.....

As I mentioned a couple of entries ago,  I threw out my back. Well it feels more like I'm fighting an infection, like the flu, rather then just being muscle aches. 

Originally the pain was at the usual spot, the last disc in my spinal cord. That's the one that locks in certain conditions, and Sunday the pain was there. But by Monday it had migrated to surrounding area to that disc but n the right side. Tuesday it was spreading on the right side, but I figured I'd be fine for work Wednesday. I went to work Wednesday but in such pain, mostly in the back and a bit on the right. My back still hurts, but now it's also all my right side, from the hip to the knee. The muscles and connecting tissue hurts.  Getting up from sitting is uncomfortable at best, painful to the point I moan, groan or downright scream if no one is in earshot.

I walk so funny due to the pain that people I've never spoken to at work, asked me if I was ok. Yes I'm ok. Yes I'm in pain. Yes I'm walking funny.  No I really don't want to talk about it.  I just want to hide. Normally at the speed I walk, I can hide. But walking slower then a turtle, seems to take forever to get from my desk to parking lot and people have a chance to catch up with me.

I ended up doing really boring tests today, because I could stand  in front of a cart, and just move my arms and do the test. It involved doing 20 insertions on 9 connectors, to check the robustness of the new source for those connectors. Normally I'd assign a task of this type to an underling, usually an intern.  But today I did 180 insertions of cables into connectors. It's about as exciting as watching paint dry, but it's important work.  If we have to start using this part on 4 different product lines we still sell, it had better work. This testing took about 2 hours of my day but at least during those two hours, since mostly only my arms moved I wasn't in much pain.

People have suggested I see a doctor, to what end? So I get told I have a sore back? Or muscle aches? And be giving pain killers, which I won't take because they just upset my stomach but don't relieve my pain.  I'm almost sure this is viral and the reason I'm in this much pain is because I'm fighting a flu. In the same time frame as this back ache has been nasty headaches, where I feel someone is stabbing me. on the right side of the head.  I've also developed cold sores in my right nostril. That all points to fighting a flu. There are plenty of viruses going around at work.  So far I don't have respiratory symptoms or digestive ones, and I'm going to hope it stays that way. I'm in such pain when I move right now, it already makes going to the bathroom difficult I can't imagine having to run there in those conditions.

Despite being annoyed by the pain, I'm amused because I visualize how I would look like if I was in an animated cartoon. Most days I feel like I'm still 16, today I felt like I was 85. I guess in the end it all balances out.