Life Hurts.

I have not been feeling well these past several days. This cold snap polar vortex winter from hell we have suddenly received has been playing hob with my back. I sound like a geezer, but it seems as if I can predict when another cold snap is on the way by how my back stiffens up and nerves get pinched. Perhaps I will whine to the internet and tell my tale of woe today. Everyone else does it. maybe I should give it a try.

In the summer of 2007, I got hurt at work. I was in a car accident earlier that year that totalled my vehicle, but I had felt well enough after that to go on a cross-country road trip in my replacement car before starting this new seasonal job. This work accident right after starting that new job was bad. I was driving a small warehouse cart about the size of a golf cart, and a negligent forklift operator hit me. It was a large Caterpillar telehandler forklift similar to the one pictured below. When I realized I was about to be hit, all I could to was make sure I was out of the way of the forks, and hang on tight. One of the forks scraped the front of my cart, and the other nailed the seat I was on. My back was badly wrenched. I went ahead and made my delivery run on the job site, because the cart was fine other than some cosmetic damage, but by the time I returned the adrenaline was fading and it was starting to hurt a lot. They took me to the first aid station and took a report. Then the Workman's Comp process began.

The only medical visits I was told I could use were visits to the urgent care centers, not my primary physician. They told me to take Aleeve at a far higher dose than was on the bottle, and kept telling me to try to return to work. I did as they said. I got internal bleeding from the overdosed medicine, and the returns to work meant I never qualified for benefits because I never officially missed enough days in a row even though I could never complete a shift. I eventually received physical therapy, but then the bureaucrats decided my reports while still in shock and coming down from the adrenaline rush of the accident meant they wouldn't cover the subsequent pain that emerged. I had to lawyer up to cover the PT and get any kind of settlement.

This experience is one of the primary reasons I detest any socialized medicine plans. I had personal health insurance and a doctor I visited regularly, but I wasn't allowed to use any of that. I was stuck with what I was offered by the State. I got screwed over because I wasn't allowed to choose what was in my own best interests.

It was a long road to recovery. During that post-accident time, I got a good job at an architectural firm as a draftsman, but this was during the financial crisis, and they ran out of work. I didn't fully understand the Austrian Business Cycle theory yet, or I wouldn't have even attempted to get that job. They kept me on as long as they could, but by late 2008/early 2009, I was running odd errands and I knew they wouldn't be able to keep me on. I was disappointed, but unsurprised, when they had to let me go.

I worked odd jobs after that, including a 3-year stint in the hell of telemarketing. I was on inbound lines, so instead of me interrupting someone's dinner, I got calls from every illiterate yahoo who saw an ad on TV and could muster enough brain cells to dial the 1-800 number. That job was stressful. We were expected to make sales quotas even though we had no control over the people who called us. Sure, we helped a lot of people get what they needed, but the push to sell was bad, and there were so many credit card fraud attempts where we would have to follow the whole call flow knowing full well we were wasting our time because the sale would get caught by our fraud team when we attempted to process it, but we couldn't call out the transparent scammers until that point. And then there were people with no financial sense trying to buy things they shouldn't, e.g. "Hey, can I pay for this with my EBT card?" And of you ever need to call someone, don't hold a squalling baby next to the phone while you yell at your family every minute or two.

Oh, and there's a good reason I had to check the spelling on every name. The spelling had to match whatever was on the credit/debit card in use, so don't get mad at me when I ask to confirm it, OK? You'd be surprised how many ways there are to spell "Megan" or "Amy." Is it "Jon" or "John"? Yes, there is a "Johnathan." I have talked with him. And don't even get me started on the assorted unusual names used by various ethnicities. Parents, if you choose an odd name for your kid in an effort to be "unique," just remember that the kid will spend the rest of their life spelling it to all and sundry over the phone. You monster.

Well, that was a bit of a digression.

In late 2012, I had scored a job as a courier. An inattentive driver for a major corporation rear-ended my car as I was making a turn, spinning it almost 270 degrees and nearly colliding with a new car in the auto dealer's lot where I was to pick up a part. This was just as I was feeling like I had recovered enough from the 2007 accident. This time, I had to fight an auto insurance company for a proper settlement, but my own insurance promptly paid for proper medical care in the mean time. I got a less-than adequate sum from the other insurer in the end, but I had fairly decent care this time around.

Still, I have never recovered fully, and that is why I seem to still have back spasms when cold weather approaches. Yesterday, I was almost incapacitated as it worsened throughout my shift at the library. Today, I can't even function. To be honest, there is a temptation to dive into a bottle of liquor until spring returns, but that's hardly a healthy solution. I don't care for second-hand marijuana, so I am in no hurry to try it first-hand as a remedy. I still get gastric ulcuration when I take any NSAIDs ever since the 2007 debacle. It's just alternating heat and ice for me today, plus some time on an inversion table. I think I have a box of icy-heat patches somewhere, too.

Anyway, that's my story for today. Sorry it isn't a very happy one.