Down on my knees with pain

Cleary-Camp — 2000-06-17

The weather has suddenly changed. Dark clouds cover the sun and it’s drizzling. On the way to the fireplace I sneeze several times and all of a sudden, a surge of pain hits my back and makes me sink on my knees. All the joys of the preceding day have vanished and I feel bloody miserable. „What happened?“ Tanja asks. „I’m afraid this is a terrible case of lumbago!“ I moan. My condition deteriorates noticeably within the next hours. I’m hardly in a position to walk, let alone do anything productive. The evening is unpleasantly cold. It rains and gusts of wind blow the ashes of the fire into the dark sky. My spirits hit rock-bottom and I worry about the further progress of the expedition.   At 2 in the morning I can bear the pain no longer and, for the first time on an expedition, take a potent antiphlogistic drug.   I feel close to tears and long for a warm and cosy bed. I begin to be troubled with existential fears, above all the question how to proceed from here. I can only hope that the „Voltaren 100“ will take effect and my intervertebral disk doesn’t simply give up the ghost.