Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Out of Commission - Again

As I write this entry this morning, I should have been at 45,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean returning from several days work in Amsterdam. As you can see, I am not. Instead, I am sitting at my desk in my home office with a sore back. As I prepared for the first part of my journey (day trips out the San Jose, CA and then Salt Lake City, UT) I threw out my back - AGAIN. It is amazing how my back goes out - I wasn't doing anything - I just moved from one keyboard on my desk to another. I rotated my body perhaps 60 degrees and WHAM! I felt a twinge on the right side of my lower back. I knew instantly that it wasn't good, even if it didn't hurt too much. I took two Advil and went right to bed.

I had a very early flight the next morning, so I had set my alarm to 3:30AM giving me only about 5 hours of sleep. When the alarm went off I could hardly get out of bed. I was mobile, but barely, and I knew that my domestic travels were done. I went back to bed for a couple of hours and then called travel to cancel my itinerary. I had three and a half days until my flight to London, so I hoped for the best.

I worked not from my home office last week, but from my living room couch. It was the only place I could sit at for long periods, so with a TV tray on my lap and wireless network connectivity to the Internet, I worked as normal. Angie took care of me while I did so.

Saturday came and I thought I could manage the trip, but the plane ride really scared me. Nine hours to London in coach sounds long enough, but add the prospect of back pain, or worse - spasms, and I was terrified. I spoke to my boss and we decided it was best to cancel.

So, I've been up in my office this week but have some to the conclusion that I need to replace my chair with something a little more "quality". I'll reschedule these trips for December and January, so I will have lots to talk about. I have been to Amsterdam many times, but not within the last several years, so it will be a homecoming of sorts.

You know I'll blog about it.

SL

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