[Tendinitis: Inflammation of a tendon, usually the result of microtrauma from overuse.]
On 07-07-07 I took that dreadful entrance tests, which lasted from 9 AM to 3 PM, with only an hour break in between. The tests consisted of two parts, aptitude test and English test, and the aptitude test is further divided into several parts....oh well. I don't think I want to elaborate on that.
They weren't easy, those tests. I had clearly made a mistake of thinking I would have aced the verbal test, assuming that I was a "verbal person" instead of a "numerical person" all these years. Turned out that I gaped at the verbal test questions 80% of the time, unable to answer. Strange. The numerical test was much more manageable, but the realisation that I didn't do well in the verbal part shook my confidence that I would get past the minimum threshold grade.
But I quickly forgot about those tests, because in about 24 hours after, I had this menacing lower-back pain. People have always told me I look "terrible" when I am writing, because I tend to bend down all the way to the tabletop, my face 2 inches away from the paper. So I knew that my backpain was caused by that 4,5 hours of sitting in an awkward angle during the tests, and I am actually no stranger to lower-back pains. Funnily though, this time the pain was so bad that I couldn't stand up at all. I tried three times to get out of bed, and all three times I was paralysed and broke out in cold sweat while enduring a pain so sharp it felt like I was having a lightning bolt shooting through my brain.
I spent 24 hours practically unmoved in bed, not eating and drinking, tried to go to the toilet once, and was paralysed midway between the bathroom door and my bed. The pain was so severe that looking at my bed, and that bathroom door, both only half a metre away from where I stood, I was devastated. Until then I had never realised how fortunate I was to be able to stand up, walk, and drive without pain.
That was on Sunday and I knew I wouldn't be able to work the following Monday. Standing up was unbearably painful, how could I even sit and drive to work? (Yes, sitting pained me even more than standing up.) On Monday I couldn't stand more than 10 minutes, clearly unable to sit at all, and it took me so long to put on my clothes, so the plan to see the doctor that day went down the drain. I went to the doctor on Tuesday instead, and when I had to have an x-ray of my vertebrae taken, it took me two people to help me lie down. The pain was bad, bad, bad. It wasn't the kind you would have after you trained too hard in the gym, I'm telling you.
Anyway, I drove to the office today. The pain has lessened a great deal, though not completely gone. Some of my colleagues actually had the nerves to tell me that many people they knew with severe backpains ended up paralysed for life. Evilfuckers. Now that I know I do not have bone or nerves problems and it was merely a tendinitis, I can swear at them. But last week, when I couldn't move unless I was being heavily drugged, hearing about the prospect of spending my life in bed was devastating. Hope those evils develop incompetence in the very near future.
Through the internet I found out that tendon healed slowly, which explains why the doc prescribes me three weeks' worth of painkillers and muscle-relaxers. The funny thing is, one of the painkillers I'm being prescribed is one usually used to ease post-partum pain. [For the fucking love of God, if this is what after-labour pain feels like, I guess I'm not interested to find out what in-labour pain feels like.]
And now for that tests. The result will be out in a week or two. For the record let it be known that I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and yes - my back all nice and straight.
