Stuck Like a Scrawny Pig

This Thursday I followed in my big sister's footsteps with an epidural injection into the junction of my L5 and S1 vertebrae. Hopefully, genetics being what they are, the shot will be as effective for me as it was for her, although my steady improvement even before the treatment means I won't know if I'm just benefiting from a body that still seems willing to repair itself. Hey, regardless the reason, I'll take it!

And yes, my condition has been steadily improving, so not only did I spare friends shuttling me by riding to the bus stop, I even managed to pedal, gently, on the rail trail from Amherst to Northampton, then pick my way through the back lots of various car dealerships and other businesses to the last couple miles of biking up Route 10. I crossed the line into Hatfield a few hundred yards before arriving at my appointment, mostly under my own power except the six mile assist over the Holyoke Range Notch by the PVTA bus. Movement is a form of freedom!

Mobility in time for harvest finds.

Apples are now ripe.

The ultimate tested organic certification:

A worm hole!

I continue to move more freely! At three days after the injection, it is still on the early side for me to benefit from the effect, especially since sis was on the long side with nine days passing before she first started to feel improvement. Who knows, but in those days since, I've twice mixed just half a caplet of Gabapentin into my morning cereal, and in addition to learning that it's rather bitter, the small dose has sufficed to settle my nerve pain and see me through the rest of the day without any other pain reliever. Yay, and yay again!

I like my body. Yes, at times recently it has complained with some unpleasant pain, but I think that's fair. I've asked much of it through the years, and it has given me access to some fantastic experiences that are worth paying with a dollop of discomfort. No, it isn't perfect, gosh no, but it doesn't offer unreasonable resistance to my movement through this world, nor did it fight the doctor who injected the cortisone shot. They use a really long needle, but afterward I was told they didn't need much of it. There's just not that much to me.