Wednesday evening, I pulled the 20 pound trash compactor box  out
of the compactor in order to do some cleaning behind it.   Stuff
is always falling behind the box it would seem.  I went to  lift the box
back into place and felt a little tug in my lower  left back and hoped it
didn't mean much.  A little later that  night,
before going to bed, I pulled a one gallon bottle of  distilled
water out from under the kitchen sink and felt a big  tugged in my
lower back.  It was hurting enough that I slept on  the couch
because I could get into a more comfortable position.  I  slept
very well and awakened about 6:30 this morning but when I  got off
the couch, I could hardly stand.  I went and tried putting  on my
clothing for the day but suddenly I was having severe back  spasms
and I could not even stand.  I literally had to lay on the  floor
to slip my clothes on and the pain was getting worse.  By an  hour
later, I could not stand or sit.  I literally had to crawl on my
elbows and knees to the bathroom but I could not get to a standing
position so I had to crawl back to the living room, no easy task,
with my grandsons helping me along the way as they could.  I had
to keep my head down and my bottom up because otherwise, trying to
crawl on hands and knees, sent enormous waves of shocking spasms
across my entire lower back and when that would happen, I would
have to lay on the floor till I could gather enough strength to
even continue crawling on my elbows.  My son came home from work
and all my family and I talked about how to get me into the car.
It wasn't going to be possible.  By 11 this morning, I was only
able to lay on my right side, twisted into a pretzel, and any
movement at all, sent my lower back into monstrous waves of
unbelievable pain.  I have had various measures of pain over the
years but this was the grand daddy of them all.  We called an
ambulance because there just wasn't any other way and we decided
that to try and get me into a car might make it worse or cause
some other injury to occur.  I spent, with my family, several
hours  in the emergency room today, Thursday, as they pumped
various  drugs into me.  I finally was able to come home but
brought a  walker with me because when I walk, I have to walk bent
forward and the  walker allows me to do that without putting
stress on my lower  back.  Your prayers would be appreciated.  I'll be
living unfortunately, on pain killers for the next few days and after seeing
my family doctor next week, I likely will be getting physical therapy, too.
Financially, we have a larger co payment when getting physical therapy so
that's of concern, too, but our insurance should cover everything I had done
today, and thank the Lord for that.  It was the hospital Sandy works for,
too, to which I was taken by ambulance.

Phil.