reeeecap

So in the words of that Johnny Cash song......I hurt myself, today.

Lets recap shall we? I for some reason pulled my back/side muscle area today before parade.  I really can't explain exactly how it happened, but I knew before I got on the float, that it was not going to tickle, and boy was I right. It was just short of the most painful parade I've ever had. Imagine having a very bad sunburn and then being rolled down a steep sand slope...its like that gasping sort of  "GAAAAH, why is this happening-I can't even breathe its so awful-EGH the sensations-sooo unpleasant-kinda wanna die-please make it stop" moment where the pain shocks you so much that you can't think, but somehow you can manage to maintain the sense that it is probably not the complete end of the world. I made it through parade by sheer force of will....and I can tell you it was no small matter. Most of my movements involve either sharp and abrupt, up and down actions or twisty, leaning poses......which as you can imagine, are not good when one's back is hurt.  I was quite audiably crying out in pain. There was, however, about a foot between myself and the outside of me(if you don't know what that means then you shouldn't....so thats ok), so I'm sure no one else could hear it.  The thought in my head was "just get through it and then you can rest" and when I felt like it might be better to just be done early, I would think "if you come off now, first of all you'll have to walk for freakin ever to even get back to the gate...and then costuming will start their rude comments about you not finishing parade.....as if any of them have ever even done it."
Needless to say, upon entering the gate at step-down I pretty much collapsed in a heap of painful spasms as one usually does when they've been holding it together to reach a specific distance/time goal.  I met with the trainer and it was decided that I would go to health services. I then sat and waited to be sent........for about an hour and a half. I feel like that is really backwards and that since I was injured, I should have been sent immediately. However I don't make the rules, I just shake my head in confusion at them. Anyhow, I went to health services and waited there for another hour and a half(you think I'm joking, but parade was over by 4 and i didn't see a nurse until 7:40) to literally have nothing done but paperwork. I then returned to work to painfully finish out the day. All of this in lieu of shift releasing...

....the things we do to pay the bills