Taking a Break

When Your Body Needs Fixing

This is our bus, a 38 ft Astoria by Damon.

This is not what we planned at all, but as we all know, sometimes plans change.

Tomorrow, we start the trek home. Our original plan was to stay here in Dolores, Colorado until mid October and then fart around for a few weeks here and there, eventually landing in Yuma, Arizona for the winter.

Luckily, we hadn't booked it yet, because my back had other ideas. This has been a chronic problem for a couple of years now, and the meds and recreational micro-doses aren't cutting it anymore, nor are the back stretches and exercises, walking, and swimming has been done since we left Florida.

Dave says he can't keep doing this in a motor home, “this” being dealing with me and my locked up back, the dogs, and everything else. Well, he does do it all, so I can understand but then again, I never asked him to. He won't let me do a lot, supposedly to help me out but that just leaves me sitting too much.

I have a few problems like so many others, including spinal stenosis, arthritis, bone spurs, and bulging discs. These are pinching nerves and tiny bones sometimes click or move out of place rendering me unable to walk until I get the inflammation down. The first time it happened a few weeks ago, I had to be treated in the ER with IV pain meds and sent home with more and told to take the steroids I just happened to have from my time in Florida.

Last week it happened again-who knows why- and I was able to handle it on my own using ice, heat, and mild muscle relaxers. But Dave freaks out every time it happens and has this knee-jerk reaction, so this time I just said, “Ok” cause I agree that I need to be close to a VA to get anything done about it. There just aren't any around here unless we want to drive from 47 minutes to 4 hours away. The actual VA Hospital is 4 hours away. In my experience, it will be the hospital that does the most for me.

Not sure if I'll have an ablasion, or another nerve block injection, but something must be done soon. The fact is, I'm gaining weight and that isn't helping either. Its a vicious cycle of inactivity due to pain, feeling better and trying to do more, hurting myself, and here we go again. My medication is not strong enough either, even though I've requested it, so I end up microdosing with CBD/THC gummies and drinks. My primary says my mild muscle relaxer will make my hormone ineffective, but I've been needing to use half of one every other night or two to get my lower back muscles to relax.

So, we will head to Ft Worth and stay with my brother while we work a few things out.Also, we need to find a home base of our own, and we have been thinking a lake house near a VA facility like maybe Lake Palestine. That is close to Tyler, Tx. and if nothing else, they have lots of medical facilities. As a veteran, I can also sometimes get permission to go to an outside doctor if a VA isn't close, but that wasn't happening here except when I had to go to the ER. And still you must get permission before you go if possible.

Enough of this long-winded drivel, I mainly wanted to give you a heads up that we are leaving early. Maybe I just wanted to kind of write about it as well to clear my own mind and make peace with it. More to come!