I don't think this counts as #38

I am up way earlier than usual this morning because I am going to the hospital.

Again.

I am going to a pain management clinic, mostly because my pain is becoming unmanageable.

Today we are going after one of my constant companions, lower back pain.

Many things cause lower back pain. In my case, it's something on the order of 16 years of climbing up and down (or jumping up or down) Tanks and other Armored Vehicles, and when I'm not bouncing around in those same vehicles, walking all over this big blue marble with my 100+ pounds of "super lightweight" gear.

Then again, it's far more likely to have been exacerbated by going ass over teakettle (at whatever speed the explosives launched me) off of a bridge and into a canal, while wearing body armor (which stops, coincidentally, at the lower back) and landing on my head. Back's been generally bothersome since then.

By generally bothersome, I mean that on a good day my back hurts. On a bad day, I can barely walk without a cane. On a really bad day, I can't get out of bed without crying out.

So today a doctor is going to dope me up, stick a needle in my spine, and fill it with all kinds of modern chemistry. It should help, assuming the pain is caused by muscular injury. Less likely to be effective if the injury is to nerves or discs. Then it could be as fun as another needle, followed by a cauterizing wire to fry the nerve endings. Fun as that sounds, we'll take the epidural and hope for the best today.

Either way, I don't think this counts as surgery.

--Chuck