Over the past week, I had an adventure.

Drove to Phoenix to spend time with daughter and family. Came down with Covid (finally, after staying clean for two years) and then a severe episode of sciatica. The latter was so excruciating that on Sunday morning, I passed out in the bathroom, toppling over backward and hitting my head on the tile floor. I was completely unable to move and had Claudia and the VRBO landlord call an ambulance. I was taken -in agony- to the Mayo Clinic, where they took a head CT, chest X-rays, and hip X-rays. That's where I learned that I had not only Covid, but hip arthritis plus sciatica.

I never thought I would utter the sentence "I've fallen and I can't get up" but that's exactly what I said to the ambulance tech. He thought that was proof that I was out of it, and he was likely right.

Anyway, after resting for a day, Claudia and I managed to drive back home, arriving just a while ago. I am now Mr Gimpy, hobbling around with a cane and gobbling Tylenol like it was Halloween candy. Will see the local Doc as soon as I can and see what lies ahead.

We'll never know who gave what to whom, because our daughter was feeling bad when we arrived, but now all five of us have Covid. My case was no worse than several winter coughs I've had in the past, but it is true that some things do taste weird now. Hoping that Claudia's case is also mild, as she is now in only her third day of it and she managed to drive the whole way home.

Hang in there Rocky. Get well soon!

Things will get better, pal. Hang in there.
Speaking generally, I have confidence in Mayo Clinic.

So sorry to hear your misfortunes. I hope you and the Missus both get better soon.

Tough stuff Rocky. Well wishes from here.

Hey, the good news is there's no more flu!

So there's that.

Will it away. Hope the whole family recovers quickly. Maybe for Turkey day.

Hang tough Rocky, this will pass.

You're tougher than this. Speedy recovery.

Hope you are back up and and feeling well soon.

Rough episode! Glad you're ok. Hope they didn't give you the Vax.

Hang in there, sir!

Man - that has been a rough combo, and hope you are feeling a lot better by now. On top of the discomfort and injury, it came in and messed up up some nice family time. Best wishes, and get well quickly.

Damn, that's some bad luck. I get sciatica every few years and that's bad enough without the covid mixed in.
Hope everyone heals up good.

Get well Rocky

Hope you're feeling better soon Rocky.

Get well soon, that includes the whole family!

Tough with the arthritis, bloody thing. Lucky you didn’t do yourself a real injury with the fall.

I’ve had COVID twice since June. Not fun at all and I don’t get paid for not working.

Take care and hopefully you ride these ailments out ok.

Sounds like a rough trip. There’s not much worse than feeling like hell while puking and driving long distance. Years back we did a week long boat trip up lake Chelan to Stehekin. We had a fantastic trip but the last day I contracted Beaver Fever (giardia) and was miserably sick. I had an 8+ hour trip home towing the boat through July 4th traffic. I finally couldn’t do it any more and about 45 minutes from home I did the Chinese fire drill on the Tacoma narrows bridge.

We all took ivermectin at the first sign of the symptoms of covid and it seemed to set us straight within 24 hours. Good luck to you all with your recovery…..you’ll be fine.

Hang in there, Rocky.

Hope you feel back to your old self soon!

Fallen and I can't get up?

Sounds like your new tag line, Rocky. A supersonic recovery to you all.

I'm sorry to hear of your fall, injury, arthritis, and contracting the Chinese virus. It appears you got hit with those all at once. I've long thought the worse place in the house to fall (outside of falling down a long flight of stairs) is to fall in the bathroom. Everything in there is HARD and SOLID. Lavatory, counter, toilet, bathtub, tile floor, etc. They don't give much when you hit them.

I hope you recover soon, and also have a pleasant-as-possible Thanksgiving.

Best regards.

L.W.

Well, Rock, the good news is you can drink good Scotch while taking Tylenol. Don’t listen to the ninnies that are gonna say “No you can’t”.

Drink up, youngster. It will help with the pain.

🦫

Seems you got the triumvirate of bads out of the way with one swell foop.

Hope it doesn’t affect your enjoyment of T-giving.

Yuup.

Livers are overrated. 🍺

Crap brother. Sorry you have had a rough go of it. I have heard that sciatica can be brutal. Heal well.

God bless you with a speedy recovery.

Hang in there Rocky !

Brutal Brother, just brutal......

Sciatica is a huge pain I hope you heal fast Rocky.

A buddy of mine used to tell me that growing old ain't for Pussies, as I age I learn how right he was.

I skate on the thin edge of sciatica myself so I can relate. Only major episode was about seven year back, takes about six weeks to go away. Strangely enough I could ride a bicycle no problem. Standing upright/walking, not so much.

I’ll pray for the Covid to go away.

Does not sound like fun.

Damn, hope you all feel better soon.

Hope you heal up real quick like, Rocky.

Yep. Been there done that. Sciatica really sucks. Like 1234Mag says, getting old is no fun. 😬

Prayers for Rocky’s speedy recovery!

Tough stuff, I hope you and your family the best thru it.

Osky

Best wishes to you. Remember the frozen OJ and shave your...

There will be better days.

Rocky, not your best landing and you might not have been able to walk away, but you've survived so heal up - you've still got a lot of touch & go's left my friend.

Man...
Glad you are Allright.
Pretty scary for a older guy.
Take it easy and relax as best as you can.
Look forward to your next rocket postings.

The Artemis finally got off the ground...
SMH....
I still think the platform is a money pit and better modern designs should be used instead of reworked old tech.

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Hoping you recover quickly.

Welcome home and glad you made it. Prayers sent. E

Checked in with my local Doc. He scheduled me for an MRI to see what's going on in there. Updates as they occur.

Enjoying some brown medicine right now.

While your on the MRI table, have them check your head as well.

A lot of people, my father included, had lingering issues from a fall in the bathroom, including strokes.

I wouldn't want that to happen to you.

Good luck and take care.

They did a CT scan of my head at the Mayo. They said my brain wasn't any more damaged than beforehand. (Their joke.)

Before I forget...Sincere thanks for all the good wishes, folks.

I thought if you run Linux you never get a virus.

Sorry to hear this.

Hope you get to the bottom of what is happening.

On a side note some folks are glad they have a hard head,i know i am.

Clipped a sink back in 76 on the way to the floor.

Best wishes for speedy healing pard.

Get well, thankful you didn’t do worse damage to yourself. We never know what the day will bring.

Hope the best Rocky. Get better!

Throw in some Benadryl to help you sleep and it put the kabosh on my last episode of Covid in May. I got it the first time 3 years ago. I was down for 12 days but when I started using the Benadryl to help me sleep it cut the fever and helped with the headache. This was before the official start of covid so I was on my own to figure it out. For the sciatica I suggest some stretching. I have nothing for the hip arthritis. Get well soon.

kwg

Must be all those un-synced decibels doing idiot circles in the mixmaster over the HCM trail - so bored out your gourd, you were praying for a Praire Fire.

"Patience, Hell! I wanna kill something."

Smilin' at that.

Just did 20 minutes of stretches after waking up totally locked up. Have found that the most excruciating thing is the toilet seat - with all my weight on my hip bones. Can hardly sit there long enough in that pain to achieve "movement".

It is snowing this morning, and I laughed at the idea of me running the snow blower. City ordnance be damned. It can just melt. Gonna try a shower in a bit and then put on my "sick suit" which is a heavy workout pant and hoodie. It's my "woobie". Sooooo glad we put in a walk-in shower.

I hope all of you get well soon!

Wishing you a quick recovery from all the ailments!

Alright, Rock.

That's enough whining.

Time to go golf.

Hang in there, Colonel!

Will throw in with the sentiments of others and hope you feel better soon.

I am curious after your covid diagnosis- what did they do to treat it - and were you vaccinated? I just wonder if things had gotten better in hospitals in that regard. Am sure glad you are out of there.

that's hard sledding man, hate to hear it.

passing out is scarey, glad you are safe

Sorry to hear of this about you and your family…….God’s Speed to you all for complete recovery! memtb

This is so incredibly painful. What has given me temporary relief is to lie on a 10-lb barbell wrapped in a towel (or similar object), positioning it under the hip bones. Experiment with the location. It provides a form of acupressure. If you do it just right it hurts like hell, but the pain does subside as the muscles begin to relax. And it really brings some relief. Also try icing it. Do not use alcohol as that will exacerbate the inflammation, even though it may dull your pain.

Hope you figure it out. Sciatica or any back problems are the worst!

Rocky,

I discovered this trick for sciatic pain relief you might want to try. I got one of the dog's "Kong" balls (super hard rubber balls). Lay on the floor or sit in a recliner and put it on the muscles around the pointy bone in your ass. Move it around with your weight on it massaging the tight sore muscles. You will know you are on target by how sore it feels.

It is relaxing the muscles and releasing the tension. It hurts good if you know what I mean. It will cut your recovery time down and you should find some relief pretty quick. I works for me and I have had some pretty bad bouts with that stuff.

Give it a try and let me know if it helps.

Best wishes.

I'm Praying for you Rocky.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/lJuZ9KE.jpg?1[/img]

Dang! Hang in there!

Hope you are back to normal again soon. Btw I tried the hanging and swinging thing. No worky for me. Needed a cortisone shot. Temporary but I’m enjoying while I can. MRI showed 2 bulging disks, bone spurs, arthritis, fore and aft Vertebrae and stenosis .

Good to hear you're off the leeward shore, Rock.

Heroin is a lot of fun.

At first.

Rocky, hang in there and recover soon! Sending you positive thoughts and prayers.

Whatever happened to Strider 1?

Sorry to hear. Get better soon.

Rocky, I actually had wondered why I hadn't seen a post from you lately. I hope your recovery is complete and quick.

Today’s random thoughts, by Wabigoon