A couple of days ago, I went to a specialist for a set of steroid injections in the base of my neck. This came after more than a year of physical therapy to remedy my neck issues. While PT helped strengthen certain neck & back muscle groups, and really improved my posture and lifting, I still kept having problems.
I've had neck and back pain off and on since high school, seeing many chiropractors over the years. About 5 years ago, in a jiu jitsu class, I got kneed in the side of my head, which apparently torqued my neck in such a way that two disks at the base of neck herniated, bulged, and began to pinch nerves painfully. After chiro and PT of and on for a couple of years, the symptoms mostly disappeared. I resumed my active lifestyle of weight lifting, running, martial arts, etc.
This past February, my neck issues came back with a vengeance, this time by simply sleeping in a guest bed at my parent's lake house. I could barely lift my head level without severe pain for several days. Chiropractic only made it worse this time, so I started active physical therapy again. I was experiencing pain and tingling across both shoulders and down my left arm, at times even into my fingers. Over the past year, I underwent two 4-month sessions of PT, then was recommended for the steroid injections.
My first injections came last Thursday, and were strangely painful. I sat upright, only slouching slightly over a pillow, and the doc injected lidocane to numb the area. That hurt, getting a needle in the base of my neck! Once numb, he stuck a long needle deep into my spinal column. That didn't hurt actually, but I felt the pressure as he pressed it deeper into my spinal disks. As he began to squeeze the steroid medicine into my neck disks, I felt a weird pain, sort of hot and cold, in the center of my spine. I've never felt pain there before! Hard to describe. In fact, the more he injected, the sensations seemed to trickle down my back, and out my right shoulder. In about 5 minutes, it was over. I felt stiff for a few minutes, then as the day went on, I felt odd pains in my head, my elbow, my right knee, all of which the doc had said could happen due to the cortizone travelling not only into my neck, but around my body. Unusual pains, in unusual places.
I'll go back the first week of April for "round 2" of injections, which the doc thinks will be enough to relieve the swelling around the disk and nerves, and hopefully I can begin to get back to normal in about a month. Until then, I guess I'll just take it easy, try not to aggravate anything, so everything will begin to heal.
Its tough getting old...

The other night we were channel-surfing after dinner, and found a special on one of the networks called, "What Would You Do?" hosted by John Quinones. They staged various situations out on the community, to see how people would respond.
One situation they staged was two-fold. First, they had a sharp-dressed woman walking down a busy sidewalk suddenly collapse, seemingly unconscious. With hidden cameras placed around, they recorded how people reacted, and how quickly. Every time, almost immediately, people came to her aid- touching her, talking to her, calling for help. Second, they had a man dressed disheveled, clutching a sack and a beer can, collapse the same way, in the same place. No one stopped, most barely looked at him, even right when he collapsed. After about 50 people passed by on either side, the most unexpected thing happened. A bent-over old black woman, walking with a cane, herself seemingly homeless, hobbled over to him, bent over, and began to touch and talk to him softly. After trying to revive the man with no luck, she stood over him, asking everyone who passed by, "Please, help this man." After another 30 or so people passed by, ignoring both of them, she began to tear up and looked skyward, seeming to cry out to God, "Why??" The woman took the empty beer can from his hand and threw it away, hoping then that someone would stop. She even gave a name to the man, talking to him softly and calling him "Billy." It made the situation somehow more personal, and her more connected to the man.
Finally, a woman stopped, called 911, and stayed for awhile until the crew came out and revealed the experiment. Even as the man got up, showing he really was fine, the black woman still kept calling him Billy, and kept stroking his jacket. She eventually ambled off, like an angel with a walking cane. It was moving.
With the premise of the show being "What Would You Do?", it got me thinking about how I would react. Everyone's first thought is that they would indeed help, but would we? Would I? I went back and read Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan, with new eyes. God calls us to be a real "neighbor", and not pass by those we can offer the life & love of Christ to.
Give me Your eyes for just one second
Give me Your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me Your love for humanity
Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted
Ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me Your eyes so I can see
-Brandon Heath, "Give Me Your Eyes"

I was off yesterday, the weather was finally good, so I took off for a day of riding up in the north Georgia mountains. The further north I went, the higher in elevation I rose, the more the temperature cooled, aided by cloud cover over the mountains. I was glad I brought some layers under my leathers.
I stopped at a gas station outside Clermont, to warm up with a cup of coffee. As I stood in line to pay up, a woman entered with 2 boys, that looked about 15 and 10. I don't know if she was their mother or not, but they went to the back of the store, and came to the front carrying big cases of beer! All three were carrying them- each toted a case up. As they stood in line, I looked at her, the case she carried, then each of the boys, and their cases. I was shocked that this woman was bringing these boys along, and using them for this purpose. Not only that, as they approached the register next to me, the woman said, "Hi, back again! We took the last of your cases." The cashier said, "Looks like a huge party." To which she replied, "Oh yeah, the beer's gonna flow!" The boys were giggling behind her, holding their beer cases.
I couldn't believe all I had just seen and heard. What an absolutely terrible example she was setting with these boys. They were being set up for a life of drinking & drunkenness at an early age, not only by what they apparently see all the time, but forced to get involved in. Pathetic.
I hope and pray my life never leads others astray- intentionally or by accident. The Bible says, "It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin." Luke 17:2