Earlier in week: sore lower back from work related sitting. It got better. Saturday morning: humped bike with overnight kit, bottle of wine and several books in panniers up stairs at Waverley because the lift I needed seemed to be out and I was going to miss train to Carlisle (on way to cycle about with @sallyhinch woe). Got on train as excruciating pain developed. It'll stretch out, I thought. Erm. Not so much. Got off at Carlisle, lay down on platform, found I couldn't get up until two young transport polis levered me off floor. Back in spasm, could hardly walk, called home for aid. @sheeptoucher dispatched in car.
Three hours flat on back on waiting room floor. One 20 minute trip 20 metres to the loo and back. Three calls to NHS direct finally resulting in a 21:30 out of hours appointment at the Western. Drugs and an anti inflammatory injection in the bum.
Still can't sit, standing / walking possible but slow and very painful, transition between lying / sitting / standing excruciating. Very bored of bed already. Not convinced 500mg co-codamol is doing its job!
Verdict is it's almost all muscle - lower back totally locked up in a spasm. Can't bend forward at all. Not going to lie, I'm catastrophising - worrying I won't be able to ride a bike for weeks or months. Reassurance, anyone?
NB friends have offered help / drugs / groceries / physio contacts, so faith in humanity unusually high as a result. And a Virgin employee at Carlisle let me into the accessible toilet as I was trying to make my shaking, sweating, limping way to the ladies, held my bike while I used it, guided me to the waiting room while pushing my bike (I could barely move just myself) and then insisted on fetching me ibuprofen and a stick on heat pad from out of her own stuff in her locker. Which was all very kind!
Later on was clinging to a wall in the car park while @sheeptoucher fetched the car, another lady approached me and asked if I was the one with the sore back. She'd been looking on twitter for Virgin Trains info for Carlisle, and read my tweet about helpful heatpad lady. She put two & two together and came over to say hello - and to offer me Tramadol because her daughter had recently had a hernia operation and her prescription was in the car. Yes I accepted her offer.
Lesson of the day: "a stranger gave me strong drugs in a station car park" = a heartwarming story of human connection in the age of social media.
Lesson of weekend: get to station earlier?
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