Comparative pain studies

1) This weekend, I did some evilness to my back, which re-awakened the much more serious injury I did a couple of years ago. This is already passing, but a few days of limping and having trouble getting out of the car is enough to re-energize my efforts to become more flexible (yoga!) and get in better shape (biking to work!)

Ironically, of course, I can't do either of those things until my back is better. With a little care and plenty of what my physical therapist called "belly time!", I should be OK by this weekend.

2) I had lunch with my friend Scott yesterday, who told me his tale of passing a kidney stone while his young daughter was at a birthday party last weekend. Anything that causes one to lie curled up on a hospital bed whimpering is not a good thing. "I didn't know pain could get that intense," he told me, "and then it got worse."

3) Scott, on the other hand, called a friend of his, who spent the weekend in a hospital because his appendix had burst.

4) My back ain't so bad.