Tuesday evening, after taking some jump and levitation-style shots, my lower back was bothering me, as it often does. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I didn’t get what I came to think of as a little “twinge” in my  lower back, on the left-hand side, after every set of leaps I executed for photos. Often when doing yoga, that lower-left side would feel tighter than the right side too, and somewhat tender – but honestly, this had been going on for so long I’d come to accept it as just the way it was. I even felt the yoga was helping it some, and that the twinges after leaping weren’t as bad as they used to be.

All that may be true, but this time, by the next morning, the twinge had gotten worse instead of better. By the time I got to work in the morning, I had to peel my fingers off the steering wheel because I’d unknowingly been gripping it so hard due to the pain; by the time I got into the building, I’d knew I’d have to go see a doctor. By the time I got to the waiting room at 10:45 I was actually crying. Not huge sobs or anything, just little tears slipping out the corners of my eyes due to the stress and frustration of trying to ignore the pain for so many hours.

I’ve had kidney stones in the past, and quite honestly I was worried that was what I was experiencing again. The pain was that nagging and throbbing and difficult to ignore, and there was literally no position into which I could sit or stand and feel comfortable. By the time the doc entered the room I was pacing and occasionally texting my friends messages like OMG I CAN’T STOP CRYING WTF?? and I HOPE THIS ISN’T MY KIDNEYS AGAIN SHOOT ME NOW. Fortunately, the doctor did not think it was a kidney infection or stones (and the one difference I’d already noticed between this pain and my previous kidney stone pain was that I could actually stand up this time, whereas with the stones I could only walk while stooped over), but he did diagnose me with sacroilitis, in other words, inflammation in the joint where the pelvis meets the lower spine. He prescribed me anti-inflammatories and sent me on my way, and I decided to call it a day and go home. The meds helped, but also conked me out, so I’m going to stay home again Thursday to try and adjust to them better. I have to take the NSAIDs for 7 days, and the last time I was given such a medication, I found after a day or two they quit zonking me out and I could function.

Truth is, whatever initial injury caused this inflammation probably happened a damn long time ago – as I already mentioned, I’ve had this pain in my lower back for months if not a year or more. I already have some issues due to sciatica, so I always considered this part of that issue – and I do think the two are related somewhat. I always just stretched a bit, took some Aleve, and waited for it to get better; this was the time it finally got worse.

So all in all, this is turning out to be one hell of a short work week. Worked Monday, off Tuesday due to an ice storm, then back to work for two and half hours and now home again until Friday. I could do without the pain, or the stomach upset this medication causes me – but I got some damn nice pictures out of Tuesday’s shoot anyway. I will share more of them tomorrow, I promise – and in the future, I think I am going to have to tend to this sciatica on a more regular basis than I have been the past few years, The yoga is good, but I probably could stand to get regular maintenance like acupuncture or massage to keep things loose.

More pics tomorrow! Resting for now.