We are replacing our old brick terrace in the back garden. We are still deciding what we are replacing it with. But we are certain that it is going. It was a beautiful morning so I had no excuse. I went off to Kiloutou and rented a Jackhammer to start some serious destruction. This was the first time I ever used one of these and probably the last. This power tool is basically every boy's dream: a powerful machine which allows me to break things, make a big mess, crush and shatter, make a lot of noise and show man's absolute power over naturally big and hard things such as rocks and stone. I have to admit it was a great feeling breaking up the stone in to little bits.
Feeling as healthy as I do lately, in sharp comparison to how I felt a year ago, I forget that I am not Superman or even just a man about 20 years younger than I actually am. About 10 minutes after starting I knew I had made a mistake. However I had rented this thing for the day, the job needed doing no matter what and I was damned if I was going to give up. Sheer stubborness has got to be the cause of the greatest number of accidents and physical ailments. The jackhammer itself weighed a ton (actually about 18 kg but it felt like a ton). Lifting the thing, holding it in place precisely where one needed and then angling it to displace the pieces and such while the shuttering operation was basically slowly destroying my lower back was just plain painful. I went upstairs and got my "back belt" and I would break up rock for 10 minutes, bend over and pick out the pieces from the rubble and pile them up, sit down for 5 minutes in lower back agony leaning up against the wall, and repeat the process over and over again. Sheer stubborness won over and the job was done. I'm sure a younger man, or one if reasonable physical shape and not a physically lazy office worker such as myself, would have finished the job in an hour and a half, gone off and had a couple of beers and then gone off and tackled another rock quarry somewhere else. I, on the other hand, finished the job, took a shower and immediately took a couple of pain relievers and lied down. I knew perfectly well who I would be calling first thing Monday morning: my beloved chiropractor.
I will be seeing my chiropractor as quickly as possible as of Monday morning. I haven't seen him since I was sick so he's in for a bit of a shock and a story. But I am really hoping he's going to put me back in shape quickly. However I've learned a bit more about just how bad chimotherapy was. Up until cancer treatment the worst pain I had ever felt was my various episodes with sciatica and my herniated disc in my lower vertebrae. Not being able to stand up straight, not being able to walk without a crutch sometimes, painfuly in the slightest movement. That was really some of the worst pain I had felt. Some of my back episodes were worse than what I recall of appendicitis. Severe back pain was just plain deblitating and crippling. This is the first time I've had it again since my cancer treatments. Although it is extremely painful, and probably just as much as before, it has made me realise how bad chemo was because this is nothing in comparison. Everything in life has become even more relative than before, even pain and maybe pain more than anything else, as I know for certain... this too shall pass.
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