To Be A Teen Again...

Last weekend, my teenage cousin got very drunk and went missing for 12 hours. She was found

unharmed thank goodness. The incident got me thinking of all the dumb things I did in my teen years.

Petty Larceny

I belonged to a summer theater troupe and after rehearsals we liked to drive around and goof off. One particular summer evening, we had a good mix of people in my parents’ minivan that I was driving. The  back row of seats was taken out so half the fun was standing back there while I was driving. We decided that we wanted to steal a street sign. But we wanted to grab one from a deserted area of town. I was driving through an industrial park when my friends and brother told me to pull over. I did thinking that they saw a wobbly street sign to grab. I sat in the minivan with a couple of other people waiting. Then I heard the sound of running feet behind us and looked in the rearview mirror to see my brother running down the street with a newspaper machine and another friend hollering “Pop the trunk!!” I did not think, I did. Once it was loaded in, I sped away from the scene. We were all screaming with laughter. I asked why did they grab the machine. There was no reason, they just did. So, we decided to try to crack it open to get at the quarters. The change compartment was impenetrable. We got a lot of free newspapers. I still remember driving through the night with my friend straddling the machine, beating the hell out of it shrieking, “Why won’t you open!?!?!” You know how you always have that friend whose parents don’t really pay attention? We decided to stash the machine at his house. He tried a sledgehammer and various saws. Nothing worked. Somehow later in the summer, my parents found out and we returned the machine intact. My parents might have clued in from the entire minivan being carpeted in Boston Heralds.

Underage Drinking

The next summer, one of the summer theater kids had a party at their house. Their parents were away on a trip and the house was in the midst of renovation. The house had a wide variety of booze I had never had before. I remember there was something called Aftershock. I also remember getting myself locked into a bathroom because the doorknob fell off. The house was down the street from mine so I decided to walk home. After the first block, I had already urinated on myself. I ran into another theater kid walking back to the party. He claims I told him, “Two blocks, two steps, I home.” Thank God he didn’t notice the pee smell! I walked up to our front door and I think I must have knocked. My mom opened the door and told me that I smelled like a brewery. This is where my memory gets spotty. I remember throwing up in my bed. Somehow being naked under a desk tangled up in computer cords with my mom standing over me demanding, “What did you take?” Then it’s the morning and I was sleeping on the living room floor on a couple blankets. The first thing I saw was my father’s foot. I was told there was a whole other blackout chapter of me puking, my mom and brother babysitting me, lots of spitting and moaning nonsense. Needless to say, I was in huge trouble

Adventures in Chronic Pain

Hello all, a new injury has cropped up from my car accident.  Recap:  on January 25, 2012 I was hit by an 81 year old running a red light.  He did this to my car

And this to me:

I was in physical therapy for 9 months addressing muscle and nerve damage.  What happened to my chest was only diagnosed this Spring.  I have costochondritis and intercostal neuropathy.  Which basically means some of my ribs were stretched off of my sternum from the force of impact so their attachment to my sternum is wobbly and all the nerves along those ribs were inflamed.  I had three rounds of injections into my sternum to deal with the pain.

Then, I had to go to the ER this past summer with my back muscles spasming so badly I could not breathe.  I got injections into my back muscles to unknot them and got a referral to a chiropractor.  It was my first time ever seeing a chiro and I know some of my friends swear by them.  I had tried reiki, cupping, and acupuncture so why the hell not?  The first session went well but it was kinda scary hearing your body make those cracking sounds!

The second adjustment set off something in my neck.  I knew something was wrong immediately after my session.  My arms felt like the nerves were being put through a meat grinder and I had a migraine from hell.   Things settled down afterwards except my left arm.  It falls asleep, goes numb or has shooting pain/pins and needles.  My doctor thinks I have an impinged nerve in my neck.   I can't get a MRI to see until I am bedridden in screaming pain because insurance won't cover it.  For now, I need to sleep in a neck brace, take NSAIDs three times a day, and apply heat twice a day.  I also have to baby my left arm.

Now, I'm trying to figure out what I'll do for snow removal in the winter.  I have had to modify my life so much from these goddamn injuries so dealing with yet another one is disheartening.

I really wish I could get a MRI now so I can know what's going on in my neck because I do not want it to get so bad that I am screaming in pain or medicated to the gills.  I'm not a wuss, I can handle pain but the fear of pain messes with my head!  Car accidents are really the gift that keeps giving.