|
03 01 00
|
 |
|
Cramps. moan Just before dawn, I woke up in pain. My entire abdomen was on fire. I lay there, trying to ignore the pain... but it wouldn't let up. I kept thinking Someone just rip out my uterus NOW. I finally got up and discovered a new pain. Seven years of bus driving have ruined my back. It doesn't hurt all the time, but when it does it's relentless. And when I have cramps, I also get a backache. Joy. I was driving again today, the adult daycare folks again. At the daycare only one bus can load at a time, and the slowest driver in the world was in front of me. One of my passengers was sitting outside smoking. Lucy is a wonderful old lady who uses a walker. She lives in one of the poorest slums in the state, but she's always happy and cheerful. I sat next to her on the bench, enjoying the vaguely nippy air. As the workers were walking a very small, hunched lady to the bus in front of me, Lucy leaned over and whispered to me conspiratorially. "She ninety-five year old," she said. We watched the lady shuffle forward a few more steps. "Ah hope ah can walk that good when ah get that old." Lucy chuckled and added, "Ah ony sixty-five now, and ah gotta use that old thing." She gestured towards her walker. "Day'll be comin' that ah'll be inna wheelchair." I smiled at her. "You're not that old." "Go on, girl!" Lucy cackled. The next passenger to be loaded was a spry old man who walked himself into the bus. He was toting a backpack, and he winked at us as we went by. "Now him, he a hoot," Lucy said. "He keep goin' on 'bout his vegetarian food. He keep goin' on to me 'bout my smokin'." She waved her cigarette around to make her point. "Ah been smoking for over fifty year, and it ain't killed me yet!" She gave me a toothless grin. "'Sides, it give me a 'scuse to get outside away from all the old folks in here." Keep smoking, I thought. You'll end up in a wheelchair and on oxygen like Mr. B. I took a drag from my own smoke. The last three passengers to be loaded were in wheelchairs. They were rolled to the door, ready to be put up on the lift. Lucy glanced them over and leaned towards me again. "Ah jus' hope ah'll never have to be confined to a chair," she whispered. "Usin' a walker's one thing. Stuck in a chair all day is another. No sir. Ah'd go nuts!" I chuckled and stood up to toss my cigarette butt into the ashtray by the door. I groaned as I stood, and clutched my back for a moment. "You ok?" asked Lucy. "It's just my back," I explained. "You too young fo' that!" She frowned. "How old are you? Twenty six?" "Twenty-five." Lucy shook her head. "What you been doin' to give you pains like that?" I sat back down, trying to ignore the pain for the moment. "Bus driving. All that up and down, rumbling around on buses with no shocks." "You need to find youself a new job," Lucy said wisely. Yes I do.
|
Back Pain When I first started having back problems, I went to my medical provider... Which at that time was the university Health Services. Also known as the Death Center.They gave me X-rays and a scoliosis exam, and then presented their diagnosis: Psudo-arthritis. I got what now? I asked for an explanation, but didn't get one. I told Sammy what they said, and she couldn't find any reference to it in her medical texts. Of course, this is the same health center that told a girl she had a sprained ankle ("Keep walking on it and it'll feel better in a few days...") when she really had broken her ankle in four places. And this is the same place that asked one of my male friends when he had his last menstrual cycle.
______ of the Day Today's quote is: "Where is my Midol??"
|
contact