Laura Fernsten

Okay … well belated birthday. You would have been 60 yesterday. We celebrated by going to the Acapulco, where you took mom out on one of your first dates, and were we frequently met Debbie and Gary for dinners, and where you and Gary talked about the latest tools and electrical work stuff. We finished the night by eating butterfingers, one of your favorite treats.

If you were still here, you would currently be furious with mom and the mess she has made of the house, and the paint she got all over your powertools. You would be her calm voice of reason amongst her usual frantic, fast-paced self.

You would have been mad that Rachel still had Wyatt here.

You would have been proud that Nathan is getting married in May. and that he is going to law school (you two could have commuted to SF together!)

You would have gone with Megan to Colorado to help her out with her lungs, and you two would have been making up more and more inside jokes together, that nobody else was let in on.

You would have told me that we will figure out my back together and not to be scared, and would have given me a blessing, and then let me hug you until you made the “secret” noise.

We miss the twinkle in your eye, and when you laughed really hard, a single tear would roll down your face. Not a day goes by that we don’t think about you and miss you.

We miss you. Fernsten family together forever.

This is the size of the needle I had jabbed into my back on Tuesday. I would suggest not getting a cortisone shot unless you need to. ‘Nuff said.

It has stopped the pain going down my legs, but has done nothing to my back pain, and has made it worse. Bah.

So. Tuesday morning I got my back diagnosed. Apparently I have Degenerative Disc Disease. It has to deal with the cushions inbetween your vertebrae in your back. Mine is about half of what it should be (or more). And they said running this summer acted as a catalyst to the breakdown of my cushion. I now am eagerly (ha) awaiting a call from the nurse who is setting up my cortisone shot that the specialist will administer… epidural style (I am going to be numb in the middle part of my body for a while). And if that doesn’t work, then I have to get more tests, xrays, MRIs and probably surgery. Oh boy. Here we go again …

So I went to my long anticipated doctor appointment to see a specialist, and got up at 7am (for me, that is early!) waited an hour, just to be told that nobody could find the specialist, on his cell phone, home phone, or at his clinic, so I got to go back home grab my stuff and head to class, and proceed to limp around with no answers and no hope for my back to stop hurting. I remember the good old days when I sneezed and it didn’t hurt my back, or being able to stand up and walk at a 90 degree angle from the floor when I first got up, or be able to go running !!! …. ah, those were the days.