Sort of Back

[Finally, Blogger is accepting photo uploads again!]

Our internet was out this whole past week, except for a few times during which it came on for, say, five or ten minutes. I have also been transportationless during this time as my car's in the car hospital having its transmission fixed or, more likely, replaced. Therefore I've got a lot of official catching up to do, though I'd sit around and blog given my druthers.

The other problem I've had is that my sacroiliac (where hips connect to spine) has a nice little trick it occasionally pulls, in which it goes out of joint and gets inflamed, making it impossible to sit or stand without a lot of pain that actually goes down to my knees. Sitting a lot (as in school work) tends to make this happen.

Also, pregnancy makes it worse. The additional several pounds of weight on my front (considering leverage) puts 50-70 pounds of strain on my lower back area, according to various uncredited sources. On top of that, my body is preparing for the birth by producing relaxin, which (logically enough) relaxes one's ligaments so the hip bones can open up enough to extrude someone's head. (Particularly that same sacroiliac area.)

What this means is that I can't sit anywhere for long. Sitting in the car is agonizing, and being at dinner at a nice restaurant this weekend was very difficult. Naturally, sitting to do my work is especially bad. I have had to arrange the sofa cushions to support me in a downward-facing position with my arms hanging over the end of the couch to do my dissertation work. While this hurts my neck and cuts off circulation in my arms, it's still better than sitting on my behind!

I do have a chiropractor, but she'd have to come to my house every day to keep this in line. And when I went to a standard physician for it, they gave me an anti-inflammatory and basically said to quit sitting for a while. This is going to be extremely hard advice to follow while I'm trying to finish my diss data! (Hence the new couch position working arrangement.)

Meanwhile, just writing this has meant sitting too long, so... so long for now.