Bad Move With A Tool Box

I haven’t run more than five miles altogether since the NewJersey Marathon back in early May. The plan was to take three weeks off after the NJM, but a freak injury bollixed that. Here’s what happened:

Memorial Day weekend. We were up in Basking Ridge, NJ to help the in-laws move to South Carolina. Kim’s father, Sandy, has more tools than Home Depot. We were moving his double-stacked tool boxes onto our horse trailer. They weigh about three hundred pounds each and there were five or six of them.

The strategy was to take out the drawers, move the cabinet box onto the trailer then reload the drawers. It was a good strategy. We had two in place and I was working on the third. All the drawers were back in, and I needed to push the unit up against the wall of the trailer. The cabinet was stuck because one of the swivel wheels was in the wrong position.

So I got down on my right knee, stretched out with my left arm to twist the far wheel while at the same time lifting and pushing against the cabinet. Bad idea. Something popped in my lower back and I went over sideways like a plugged gopher.

I did not scream like a girl. I did lay there on the floor of the trailer for a second or three thinking, “Wow, that was really bad.” Not wanting to make a scene, I quietly hauled myself upright using some hooks on the trailer wall, stumbled down the ramp and off into the grass where I laid down flat on my back.

I laid there for a few minutes planning my next move when Sondra (Kim’s step-mother) came over to see why I was laying in the grass when I should be loading the trailer. I said I hurt my back and could I have some ice? She got it for me. I iced my back for a while, ate a bunch of Advil and got back to work. Carefully. Gingerly. Stiffly.

That was Monday. I got through the next few days with ice and Advil. The back seemed to be getting better but then the damndest thing happened. On Thursday, I sat in my desk chair pretty much all day. Then I went outside to watch Kim teach and I sat in one of those crummy plastic injection molded resin chairs for about a half an hour and that killed it.

By Thursday night, I was reduced to crawling around on hands and knees. I am not kidding, I couldn't stand at all. I told Kim don’t give me any more crap about giving birth there’s no way it’s more painful than this. I am not a whiner. Ask Kim, she’ll tell you. My back felt like Mark Texiera and A-Rod were taking turns wailing away at it with Louisville Sluggers. When they got tired, God put me in a gigantic vise and cranked it down hard.

I self-medicated with some pain pills from an old prescription that never got used and slept through the night. I've always avoided chiropractors because my father had a stroke after a neck adjustment and that seemed like a bad omen to me. Friday morning I called the Chiropractor up the road. They couldn’t see me until Monday. I try to think back on that weekend, but it’s just a blur of pain and drugs.

Make a long story short, I have a bulging disk in my lower back. The one between L4 and L5, they say. I started out going for adjustments three times a week. Now it’s down to once. Eric (the chiropractor) insists he can fix me and I’ll be able to run again, but it’s going to take a while.

It’s been over three months so far. I'm at about 90%, but when I try to run I get these weird electric sensations shooting from my lower back into my hips.  He says that’s the disk bulging and scraping on the nerve and we still haven’t got all the inflammation out. I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but I'm following the rehab program like a new Pentecostal convert.

So that’s the story. I haven't been blogging because I was waiting to give you guys some good news... I don't have any, though. I'm not going to run the Marine Corps Marathon this year, but I did pay a $46 fee to roll my entry over to 2013.

Though I won't be running in the Richmond Marathon series of races either, I will help the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation raise money with TEAM TRF to feed their horses through the winter. You can help us with that, too. Email me or check back here for more details.

My next marathon goal will be either Charleston in January or Myrtle Beach in February. I’m leaning towards Myrtle Beach. Kim’s dad lives nearby and our old horse vet, Heather and her husband David have a running store down there called the Black Dog Running Company.

Kim and I still support the Semper Fi Fund for Injured Marines through a monthly donation, and we encourage you to join us. These people serve the Marines who served our Country and have been gravely injured. They deserve all the help we can give them so open up your wallet and don’t be cheap.