Stu News and Photos

Let me be clear, everything is good. Having said that, I've been a little preoccupied lately, as Leslie threw out her back on Sunday.

It's been an interesting, and marriage-solidifying 36 hours.

Sunday afternoon, around 2pm, Leslie and I were hanging in the library, sans kids (they were with their father), listening to music and talking. At some point, Leslie mentioned her back was a little stiff, so she laid on the floor. After a bit of shifting, she said that it wasn't helping. We talked it over and agreed that the spine-aligner that we use (here's the link), which is a simple plastic platform with two rails - you lay your back into the rails, which are shaped into a doctor-approved spine position, allowing your spine to align properly. It really works - five minutes in that contraption and I feel like a million bucks, as does Leslie.

So I get the spine-aligner, she gets onto it, spends five minutes talking about how good it feels, and then pulls herself off, whereupon she lets out a blood-curdling scream. (Later on, she'd report that the pain was on the same level of Braxton-Hicks contractions)

For the next two hours, she could barely move. We discussed options, including an ambulance, but logic ruled the day, and as she had no other symptoms, she agreed that it was best to ride out the initial pain, as there were no other symptoms. Eventually she was able to get into a position where she could swallow some ibuprofen, whereupon, after fifteen more minutes, her pain subsided enough that she could get up and walk to our bed.

The next morning, she was still in noticeable pain, so we talked about going to our local health clinic. I laid down my bet that she had muscle strain and that they would give her an anti-inflammatory of 800 milligrams of ibuprofen and some amount of a muscle relaxant. We got to the clinic, saw a doctor, who diagnosed muscle strain and prescribed the ibuprofen and the muscle relaxant, along with prednisone (a steroid). Within an hour of ingesting the meds, she felt way better, and this morning, got right up with little stiffness and almost zero pain. She's still gonna take today off, but she may go back to work tomorrow.

It was pretty rough for Leslie, but she kept her cool. I'm not big on pain, so I can't imagine what I would have done - you know what they say: If men had to deal with contractions, the human race would have died out a long time ago. As always, I'm so very impressed by her. She is both a delicate flower and a rock. I'm lucky for every day she puts up with me.

I welcome emails if anyone wants updates, but if this morning is any significant sign, she's well on her way to recovery.