The Runaway Walking Stick

Joke: Mine. Picture: ChatGPT

Battling with one immobilising injury is pretty bad. Battling with four at once is hell. During March and April I could hardly move and even working from home was really difficult. Ive been on crutches for a little while in January and then a walking stick since then. But, now the walking stick is needed less. Like the one in the picture, I'm often losing it, but its me that walks away without thinking. I had a couple of slipped discs in my lower back which became a serious problem quickly when my wife and I bought a new firm mattress last spring, 2024. I thought that would improve existing minor back pain, but it got much worse and I had pain across my right gluteal area. I started sleeping on the nice, soft couch. Then I started sleeping in a sitting position with cushions for lower back support. I got better gradually with physio treatment and I was doing okay by the end of the year.

Then, on Christmas day 2024 at my brother's house I was going to get stuff from the car and I launched myself down from a step onto uneven ground. I rolled my ankle. My wife, my son and I each heard a cracking sound. As I hobbled to the nearby front fence I couldn't face what that sound implied and convinced myself it was just dry twigs and leaves on the ground and I'd only sprained my ankle. But an x-ray taken the next day revealed a fracture. My left foot and lower leg inflated like a balloon and it was crutches for the next little while.

All the while I knew without the slightest doubt in my heart that God was not going to let me languish with a fracture too long. It was a kind of euphoric feeling, actually, every time I thought of that. The result of unquestioning faith like that is normally that good things happen. After two weeks I no longer needed crutches to get around the house and do basic stuff. I also enjoyed being waited on by everyone else. That was cool. Another 2 weeks and I returned the crutches to the pharmacy. That's a 56 year old guy who officially has broken bones.

But, using crutches made my back unstable and there was greatly increased pain. I continued to sleep sitting up but the pain got worse over time. After toughing it out until March/April I was barely able to move and I cut my work schedule down to just a trickle. (I have a desk-based contracting job). At brief moments the pain was murderous - sincerely. I started seeing a GP, got prescribed some meds, started with a new Physio and a Chiropractor. Then I saw a surgeon. The diagnoses were L4/L5/S1 disc prolapses, meralgia paraesthetica and right hip arthritis. At one time I told my physiotherapist I'd been leaning so far to the left (to avoid right hip pain) that I should have joined the Labour Party.

Long story short, by now the inflammatory pain remaining in my left ankle is long gone and I can wear all my shoes again. My back has regained a full range of movement. Gradual improvement resulted in surgery being put aside. Now I'm back to a reasonable work flow and I've cut out all medication at last. The walking stick can go jump some day soon.

Now, at last, the moral of the story. Living a life with a strong reliance on faith, you find at times you have really tangible support, even to the extent of miracles happening when and how you need them occasionally. But at other times, bad stuff keeps on keeping on and you have to try hard to see how there is something good growing out of the difficulties. In my case, it was humbling to be so incapacitated and to feel that God was not so interested in my whims and fancies after all. But it was also heartwarming that I had a family being so considerate, and to see other people being nice when they didn't have to be. It drew me closer to my creator because I forced myself to understand all the better the importance of the moral benefit I was gaining and I adopted a more submissive and self-denying stance. I was able, due to his work in my heart, to overcome feelings of bitterness and self-entitlement that were occupying the back of my mind earlier on.

And in spite of that pain and hardship, my faith grew stronger still.