Ouch!

After more than three weeks of suffering with a back ache, I finally made a doctor's appointment for today.

I was planning to ride this out, because I didn't want to pay the co-pay. I also didn't want a repeat of four years ago when I ended up being referred to physical therapy. (They wanted me to come twice a week at a cost of $50 per visit. I declined because I had three kids at home and wasn't going to pay $100 a week for PT in addition to the cost of a baby sitter. I went once a week instead and a friend covered for me by watching the kids.)

But with summer approaching, all three kiddos are about to be home full-time again. There isn't enough time or money for PT!

And I just bought a really neat new exercise DVD that I tried once despite the back pain only to get freaked out that I might actually do some extensive damage. I'm a rule follower... and that warning at the front of the DVD about not exercising without first clearing it with your doctor bugged me. Partly because I'm pretty sure what caused the back pain to begin with was an overzealous re-entry into the world of exercising along with another DVD.

Did I mention that summer is approaching? Yep, it's been hot enough for shorts this week. But I haven't worn any. Because it hurts my back when I bend to shave my legs. I take the pain on Sundays so I can wear a dress or skirt to church. But the rest of the week gets uglier as the days go by. The unshaven gams are kept under wraps out of consideration for all.

Plus, I was tired of moving so stinkin' slow all the time. It was getting way old... and I was feeling even older.

Thankfully, my spine x-rays looked fine today.

So instead of shelling out big bucks for PT, I forked over only slightly fewer bucks on prescriptions for an anti-inflammatory medicine and a muscle relaxer.

And I get to go ahead and do the exercise DVD as long as I take it easy. Now I have a good reason to avoid sweating.

I feel better already.