About a month ago, while doing nothing out of the ordinary I seemed to have slipped or herniated a disk in my lower back.
Working at the school of medicine has it’s advantages, as I have a wealth of information at the ready. When this happened, I was meeting with one of my MD faculty members, assisting in the countless and newfound quirks in this new building.
After standing up from my desk, I began feeling an immense amount of pain in my lower back, of the burning kind. I continued on my way to meet with the faculty member, who noted that my back looked “too straight”. I think he was referring to my lumbar region.
The next day, the pain in my back was gone. Instead I had severe pains in my upper left thigh and hip when I put any weight on my left leg. It made me feel as if I needed a new hip. I could barely stand the pain. 2 MDs and a PHD (she writes the Anatomy text book) agreed, I had a slipped disk that was pinching a nerve. Located somewhere in the L4 or L5 region of my spine. Even sending me a handy-dandy graphic from her textbook.
I got on the horn with my primary care physician who got me in rather quickly. She prescribed me some oral steroids, and told me to call back in a week if I wasn’t feeling any better. The steroids definitely helped but the pain was not gone. I called her office after a week, and have yet to hear anything back.
On the recommendation of one of my MD faculty members, I then reached out to my Neurologist. I was able to get in rather quickly by seeing their nurse practitioner. She advised physical rehab and stated that I would be contacted regarding scheduling. I have still not heard anything.
I have been using my girlfriend’s TENS unit, and she ordered an inversion table which recently arrived. They are the only things that have provided any sort of relief.
On this date in 1951, my father was born. In the sixty-three years he roamed this earth he had many adventures. Adventures I’m sure would have continued had his heart not beat it’s last beat in 2014.
It was a fitting way to memorialize him, by placing all of the things he loved on his marker
This day has become a solemn day for me. Primarily because it was always a day of excitement before the old man kicked the bucket. I loved celebrating my dad’s day of birth. I no longer have that same feeling of excitement.
My father worked hard, and lived even harder. The tales he told of eating piles of mashed potatoes at the Westinghouse cafeteria, boxes of girl scout cookies or entire boxes of Twinkies for lunch were plentiful. While I didn’t know it when I was younger really, my father also smoked until he passed. His last pack of cigarettes are still in his truck where he left them. I tried to get my parents to switch to vaping, but neither of them enjoyed it.
Knowing the things that led to his downfall, have given me clear signs of what to avoid. I used to have my own snack cake addiction, Zebra cakes to be exact. I used to drink soft drinks like it was going out of style. I no longer do that.
He was the kind of man that never met a stranger, and it annoyed the hell out of me. It’s the exact reason why I am not as open. Quick visits to the grocery store or gas station could take hours.
I often wonder what dad would think of the life I have rebuilt from the ashes of his passing and my eventual divorce. If he is proud of his one and only child. It’s a bit of torture that goes through my head each and every day.
Anyway, happy birthday old man. I love you, we didn’t say that enough to each other. We had our own way, and I don’t think that can be captured with someone else again.
Last Wednesday while at work, I stood up to go meet a faculty member for a session on familiarizing him with the new technology in our new building. That’s when it happened. My back started hurting tremendously. To the point where I laid down in the gurney that just happened to be in the classroom I was in.
For the rest of that day, it was just intense back pain. Of course it couldn’t stop there though. The next day, I began having intense pains in my left thigh whenever I would bear weight on both legs. This then proceeded to move to my hip.
Upon this movement, I reached out to my primary care physician and asked to get an appointment as soon as possible. They called me quite swiftly, and I was able to get an appointment the next Monday.
Meanwhile, I just laid around. Moving from bed to couch and vice versa. No OTC pain medications would help, so I did my best to keep from receiving the pain at all.
At my appointment, my doctor said the left side of my back was “very tight” when compared to the right. My blood pressure was through the roof too, at 150/110. She had me do bends, moving to the back or left resulted in levels of pain that I could not bear. She provided me with a prescription for steroids, and told me to call her if I was not better within a week.
Under this amount of pain, it has been impossible for me to physically go to work, I have done my best to do as many things remotely as possible. Working at a medical school, those I work for are understandable.
Here it is, late Thursday and the pain has subsided substantially. It is still there, but I no longer let out moans of pain uncontrollably when taking steps. I’m going to give it a go tomorrow and see how it goes. Right now is crunch time for me, taking a day off in August when you work in higher education is a bad thing.
On our last “adventure day” on our wonderful get away, we did something I always wanted to do, we went on a legitimate Mississippi river boat. It was also July 4th, our nations birthday. I found this to be the best way to celebrate our country, to learn about one of the first engines of our capitalist nation.
While I wanted to go on the Natchez, it’s apparently out of service with “The City of New Orleans” fulfilling it’s duties for the time being. I chose the Sunday brunch cruise, not too early not too late. Perfect for us.
The line to board took me this far away
Personally, I had a blast. The adults enjoyed the food, which included grits that were so fine I originally thought they were mashed potatoes, red beans and rice and jambalaya.
The interior was pure 19th century recreated
While not an actual steam boat, The City of New Orleans gives you a similar experience, with it’s paddle wheel and large stacks.
Kira was originally scared of the paddle wheel, out of a fear of something I had done earlier when we went to the Children’s museum. Amelia showed her that it was nothing to be scared of, and I assured her that I would not throw her overboard or hurt her in any way, and she relaxed.
I can see it in her eyes, “don’t throw me into this thing.”
The cruise involved a jazz band, who’s music was streamed all over the ship on TV and audio, they were stationed on the 3rd deck. There was also a gentleman who narrated the history about the areas we were traveling through and past.
Many onboard, didn’t take the food option and grabbed seats on the decks instantly, so we didn’t have the opportunity to find a “good” place to see the sights on the river, but that was okay. I didn’t take too many photos because I was again on water, and after the swamp tour I was a bit on edge.
While there are some changes, I can only imagine this is somewhat similar as to what people saw hundreds of years ago as they came to the French Quarter.
The French Quarter from the Mississippi River
This is definitely something I would recommend any family do if vacationing in New Orleans. It was nice and fun, suitable for all ages. Not something that is applicable for all things New Orleans.
I’m thankful Amelia gave me some good photos, it’s such a rare thing anymore
The next day we planned our exit strategy and packed up. It was a wonderful time in the crescent city. The big easy pulled all of her charms on me, and opened my mind on so many things that had been closed for years.
After getting back from our jaunt to Florida, we took a day to rest. We got back late, and were all exhausted.
We took two day trips to two uniquely different locations that are as far south in Louisiana as you can go. Following The Great River Road, led us to Venice, LA where they even have a sign.
If you look closely, you can literally see the end of the road.
There isn’t much to do in this area of Louisiana, but there is much to see, to take in, to experience. With the loss of swamp lands due to the engineering of the Mississippi river, these lands could not exist within a few years.
The area is primarily filled with bunk hotels and heliports for oil rig workers. There are also many echoes of the past, with buildings that have been destroyed by hurricanes. Some are time capsules of sorts, as they appear untouched.
There is one pretty interesting place on the way to Venice however, Fort Jackson. There is another fort across the Mississippi river from it, but we had no way to access it. It was wet, and so we did not have an opportunity to access the interior of the fort itself.
From Wikipedia
We parked at the entrance and proceeded down the wood bridge to the gate, unknowing what we would find. The area was flooded, and it was soon fairly obvious to us that we were not going to be able to enter.
What we arrived to. The wheels were used originally to open the door that protected the fort
I didn’t know that any American forts ever had moats, but this one did. We then ventured over to the cannon battery as it looked like something we could catch a case of tetanus on.
It had some very hard to read but interesting plaques and memorials on it. Most of which I still have not read fully.
The views from the gun battery helped show the fort in better contrast. It’s very old, damaged from hurricanes, but it still stands today. I didn’t even know about this place until I was reading a very interesting story on the destination I was heading towards.
We didn’t visit the museum that is just down the road from the fort, but did stop at this very interesting memorial, which sits on the bank of the Mississippi river.
Walking up to it, I thought an animal tried to attack meCavelier De La Salle 1640-1687
On our way out, we then made notice of these brick and earth shelters that littered the grounds outside of the fort proper. I could only assume that they were storage bunkers for things such as gunpowder and ammunition. They were wildly fascinating to me.
The next day, we went to the other southern tip of Louisiana, Grand Isle.
I did all of the driving, so I was unable to get any photos of our trips to either destinations. This trip was more residential however, and was filled with plenty of ship yards. It was quite fascinating. The last leg of the journey involved a toll bridge, that I honestly didn’t mind paying the toll to use. The views were quite breathtaking. Now mind you, this wasn’t a regular bridge. This was a several mile long, Louisiana bridge.
Then we made it. Lyndsey and I enjoyed the laid back atmosphere, and thought it was adorable that all of the homes along the main drag had names. I noticed a trailer park that had all of the trailers in the air about 25 feet, with further reinforcements so the trailer did not fly off it’s supports. I had never seen anything like that before.
We proceeded to the state park, where we just made it in time. They were about to close the gate for the evening. There isn’t much to the park itself, there is a camping section, and a day use section. We ventured to the fishing pier where I enjoyed the views of the oil drilling platforms in the distance.
The Deepwater Horizon was out there somewhere…..The fishing pier is very photogenic
Just when we got there, a dolphin was almost at the shore line. The image I got would make you wonder, but others said it was a dolphin and not a shark.
Da da…….da da………She’s was in heaven when by the sea
We then made the arduous journey back to defend New Orleans which was made very complicated. The road we had taken in was closed on our way back. We didn’t learn this until our GPS took us to a complete dead end. For a while we were driving blind, in the middle of nowhere. It wasn’t until after about 30 minutes or so that we were shown signs of detours. This detour took us to Houma, where we ate and then continued on our way.
One thing I noticed on our way back on both trips was what I only assume is one of the protective systems Louisiana has. At one point, I noticed a large door/gate that blocked the entire road off which was accompanied by a levee the same height as the door/gate. I found this very fascinating and interesting at the same time.
