I went to a pain management specialist a few days ago because the pain in my back is not going away. His diagnosis was scoliosis. I guess it’s late onset or has been incubating a while and only a trained eye can spot it. He has scheduled me for an injection into the spine. I’ll need a local or general anesthesia, it’s my choice. We’ll see. He has also prescribed physical therapy and I’ll be starting that next week.

I’ll need, also, a cat scan of my back and I got myself a 3 p.m. appointment today but I missed it because I was hit by a car. I mean, me, personally, not my car. I was on my way to the Radiology facility and parked on my side of the road so I could cross and drop mail into the Post Office box. I didn’t drive into the Post Office mall because it is on a deep grade and backing out of it is tricky since you are backing into a main road.

There were no cars in sight, safe enough. The cars parked in the Post office mall were not moving. But just as I got into the middle of the road, a car pulled out quickly and ran right into me. It was Peter, a neighbor two houses down from us. He hit me on my left side, I fell onto my back and my head banged into the asphalt. When he got out of the car and I recognized him, I cried “Peter, don’t you look?!” And he said he had looked but what he meant is he looked left and right for other cars and not straight in front of him for a possible human bean.

A woman who owns a little spa in the P.O. mall ran out, said she was a nurse, got me into her shop and applied ice and asked me pertinent questions like what year is it and who is the president. I almost said Eisenhower. She called the EMTs. I asked her to call Ed and he rushed right down. It was decided he could drive me to the hospital so the EMTs left. We went to the emergency room at Lee Memorial and they have the only other trauma center between here and Miami, so it was a good choice. Still, I didn’t see a doctor for three hours. Then I got a cat scan of my head and x-rays of my left elbow and my left thigh. Doctor was worried about hematomas. I also had a non-stop bleeder on my right elbow and they bandaged it, but no swelling.

We got there about 3, and we left about 8. Lots of waiting. They checked the film right away and I have no internal bleeding and no fractures. Ed had been worried that I might have a fracture in my left femur. So they said I could go home.

Ed picked up two roast beef dinners at Sandy Hook and we stopped by the lot where I’d left the car and I was able to drive it home, following Ed in the SUV.

After moving around in the house a bit, I am walking much better. I attribute this to the massive stretches I do and the weight lifting and the biking. As for my clothes, I was told I could soak them in hydrogen peroxide to get rid of the blood.

I’m glad Peter finally woke up to the thud and applied the brakes.

Meanwhile, my back is bad and I’m going to bed.

xx, to all, Teal