My Spine\u2019s Story<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hey, this is me talking to you. I am important:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hold your head and protect your spinal cord. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
How did you end up this way?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Started when you were young, I was an inkling<\/p>\n\n\n\n of what I was to become. At 19, one of those cushions<\/p>\n\n\n\n between vertebrae ruptured. L 4-5 I think. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Back then, you stayed in bed for 2 weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now I hear they get you up right away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What could you do after surgery?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n By summer\u2019s end, I had healed enough so you could hit<\/p>\n\n\n\n tennis balls with your friend. You weren\u2019t ready for horseback<\/p>\n\n\n\n riding for 6 months. On your first ride, I got jerked<\/p>\n\n\n\n up a small slope, thought everything had torn loose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Growing older, I have become more of an \u201cS\u201d;<\/p>\n\n\n\n become a living devil, Pain. Now, at 71, my curve is 70 degrees,<\/p>\n\n\n\n some of my vertebrae are fused; my bones soft.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n What about surgery to straighten you?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n That is out of the question, surgery would be long, bones not solid<\/p>\n\n\n\n enough to hold the pins, recovery a year or more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Might end up worse. The doctor agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So today, I am bent like a snake, have shrunk 4 inches,<\/p>\n\n\n\n thrown my center of balance way far forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Can\u2019t reach up high anymore; have to use a stool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From my chair, I count wrens, chickadees for Feeder Count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do what I can in the yard and lumber along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knee Brace Press<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2024<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My Spine\u2019s Story Hey, this is me talking to you. I am important: I hold your head and protect your spinal cord. How did you end up this way? Started when you were young, I was an inkling of what I was to become. At 19, one of those cushions between vertebrae ruptured. L 4-5… Continue reading My Spine’s Story<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","category-published-poems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":507,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506\/revisions\/507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}