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 I think.
Back then, you stayed in bed for 2 weeks.
Now I hear they get you up right away.
What could you do after surgery?
By summer’s end, I had healed enough so you could hit
tennis balls with your friend. You weren’t ready for horseback
riding for 6 months. On your first ride, I got jerked
up a small slope, thought everything had torn loose.
Growing older, I have become more of an “S”;
become a living devil, Pain. Now, at 71, my curve is 70 degrees,
some of my vertebrae are fused; my bones soft.
What about surgery to straighten you?
That is out of the question, surgery would be long, bones not solid
enough to hold the pins, recovery a year or more.
Might end up worse. The doctor agreed.
So today, I am bent like a snake, have shrunk 4 inches,
thrown my center of balance way far forward.
Can’t reach up high anymore; have to use a stool.
From my chair, I count wrens, chickadees for Feeder Count.
Do what I can in the yard and lumber along.
