middle age sag

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SAM gets a free pass for a year. All praise and no ragging. He saved my day. And I'm hoping, my back.

My lower back has been speaking to me again. After a morning at the grocery store, I bent over to pick up something off the floor and felt the twinge.

The pain isn't the thing. It's the fear.

Will I have to give up tennis? Will I be blogging from the floor for eternity?

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "Can I see this in sleek and sexy, please?"

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Will I miss time on the job? Will I be the one lieing on the couch while my patients sit in my roller chair? Will they care?

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My job requires sitting long hours. So back injury wreaks havoc with my career, with my patients' treatment, with my finances - no sick leave or disability benefits in this psychologist's self-employment package.

Breathe deep. Fears aside. Focus on a solution.

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I've been noticing that our $1800 latex mattress has been sagging. Waking up with back feeling achey again. Bought said mattress after a particularly lengthy and scary tennis injury two years ago. Stretched our budget in order to get proper support for my back. Guaranteed not to sag. Yada yada.

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After this latest twinge, I just know it's the bed.

Spent all evening searching, searching, searching through the file cabinets, the clutter piles, the junk drawers for the warranty. Finding every focking receipt to every focking other purchase ever made, including the old mattress purchased 15 years ago, but not finding the warranty for this bed! Argh!

In a last, desperate, ditch effort, SAM looks under the bed.

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Aha!

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The boxspring was bowing miserably. We take the bed apart. It's such a duckwad design, this twice-as-costly, firm support guaranteed for 27 years, bed. The boxspring is supported by two long skinny strips of wood running the length of the bed, head to toe.

Who engineered this? Four-feet-tall pygmies who sleep sideways?

............................. Chief Executive Officer,

............................ Pygmy Mattress Engineering, Inc.

So last night at 10:30pm SAM gets out his saw and three slats of 1 x 6 boards that happen to be in our garage (thank you, thank you), and on our driveway, under the light of the moon, he proceeds to cut the boards to fit across the bed frame.

And oh my goddess, what a difference! Support! I woke up feeling like a million bucks.

SAM called me this morning to check in and see how I slept.

As sweet as that is, I did not fail to note this certified middle age marker.

Phone calls no longer about "Was it good for you last night, too?"

It's now, "How's your back pain?"