In the last part of August, I developed a sciatic nerve problem. At first, it was “just one of those things” one deals with, and I firmly believed it would go away in time. It usually did, but this time, it didn’t. It got worse. Much worse.
I don’t know what started it, and so far, nothing has worked. I was on three different medications, now only two. The medications didn’t do much, anyway. It was like throwing marshmallows at a tank. I went to urgent care twice and scheduled an appointment with an orthopedic specialist.
Degenerative arthritis, the x-rays showed. The orthopedic specialist said it was moderate to severe. I asked for an MRI, but she said I needed to try physical therapy first. Okay, I’ll try it.
I go in twice a week for therapy, and I do the exercises he prescribed for me at home. At night, I’m on a heating pad and my legs are propped up with a pillow when I try to sleep. So far, nothing has worked.
I know I’m not in great shape, but I’ve lost twenty-five pounds, and I try to watch what I eat. Mostly, I watch how much I eat and have cut down considerably.
This November, I turn seventy-years-old, which is still pretty young. My oldest living sister is in her eighties, and my oldest brother is seventy-seven and both are still going strong.
I’ve always been self-sufficient, but I am finding it is the little things that bother me.
I now walk with a cane, and I sincerely hope it is temporary. But it bothers me that my leg is not strong enough to use on its own. I am also finding it too painful to put the sock and shoe on my left foot. Kim has to help. I swallow my pride and ask her for help.
I am also finding it excruciating to drive even a short distance. It doesn’t matter if I drive or if I am a passenger. The pain is almost unbearable, and that is no exaggeration at all.
The little things, the things I have taken for granted just about my entire life, I cannot do at least for this short time. I pray it is only for a short time. I have taken pride in being self-sufficient.
Pride.
Asking for help when I need it. Not driving, but being a passenger. Sometimes sleeping on the couch because I’m afraid my tossing and turning might wake up Kim. Worrying my body is giving away well before it is supposed to. Feeling old before I am old … at least in my mind.
I
know I’m on the backside of the mountain, but sixty-nine soon to be seventy is
too young, isn’t it? There is still too much I want to do, need to do. Again, I’m
hoping and praying this condition is only temporary and not long term. It
should be short term. I mean, I’ve had issues with sciatica before and it
always went away in a week or two. I don’t understand why this time it lingers.
I guess the point, and I’ve repeated this in most every post, is to appreciate the here and now. To take delight in sunrises and sunsets. Appreciate the smell of freshly cut grass, of homemade bread. To make sure those who are dear to you, know they are dear to you by letting them know not only with words, but with your actions. Because you never know when the next opportunity might be the last opportunity. Something to think about …
Live Your Life, and Make A Difference!
To My Readers:
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Author Website at: https://www.jrlewisauthor.com
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Fan Mail is now
available FOR FREE and it can be found at Book Funnel
and at this link: https://books.bookfunnel.com/endofsummerbookblowout/enp4tnldmk
Fan Mail: A
Reader’s Favorite Silver Book Award Winner! A Maxy Award Finalist, an Eric
Hoffer Award Nominee, and a Literary Titan Silver Book Award Winner!
A barrage of threatening letters, a
car bomb, and a heart attack rip apart what was once a close-knit family of
adopted brothers. Randy and Bobby, along with fellow band member and best
friend, Danny, receive fan mail that turns menacing. They ignore it, but to
their detriment. The sender turns up the heat. Violence upends their world. It
rocks the relationship between the boys and ripples through their family,
nearly killing their dad.
As these boys turn on each other,
adopted brother Brian flashes back to that event in Arizona where he nearly
lost his life saving his brothers. The scars on his face and arms healed, but
not his heart.
Would he once again have to put
himself in harm’s way to save them? And if faced with that choice, will
he?
Fan Mail is a
coming-of-age story embedded in a tight thriller-mystery. It is told through
Brian’s eyes, who holds his brothers and his family, first and foremost, in his
heart. This time, it might cost him his life.
You can leave a rating and review at
this link after you read it: https://amzn.to/3eNgSdS
My other books in order
of most recent to oldest:
Blaze In, Blaze
Out: Best Action Crime Thriller of 2022 by Best Thrillers! A
Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner! A Readers’ Favorite Award Winner! A
Reader’s Ready Recommended Read! A BestThriller’s Editor’s Pick!
Blaze In, Blaze Out is
Now Available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! https://www.audible.com/acx-promo\
Eiselmann and O’Connor thought the
conviction of Dmitry Andruko, the head of a Ukrainian crime
family, meant the end. It was only the beginning. They forgot that revenge
knows no boundaries, vindictiveness knows no restraints, and ruthlessness
never worries about collateral damage. Andruko hired contract killers to
go after and kill O’Connor and Eiselmann.
The killers can be anyone and be
anywhere. They can strike at any time. They care nothing of collateral damage.
Andruko believes a target is a target, and in the end, the target must
die. https://amzn.to/34lNllP
Betrayed: Two
Top Shelf Awards: 1st Place Fiction-Mystery; and Runner-Up
Fiction-Crime; A PenCraft 1st Place Winner for
Thriller-Fiction! A Maxy Award Runner-Up for Mystery/Suspense! A Literary Titan
Silver Book Award Winner! A Reader’s Ready Recommended Read Award Winner! A
Reader’s Favorite Honorable Mention Award Winner for Fiction-Crime-Mystery!
Betrayed is
Now Available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! https://amzn.to/3AfUUpS
A late-night phone call, a missing
kid, a murdered family, but no one is talking. A promise is made and kept, but
it could mean the death of a fifteen-year-old boy. Greed can be all-consuming,
and seeing is not believing. No one can be trusted, and the hunters become the
hunted. https://amzn.to/2EKHudx
Spiral Into Darkness:
Named a Recommended Read in the Author Shout Reader Awards!
Would you recognize a serial killer if
one spoke to you? Vincent and Shirley didn’t, and now they’re dead!
He blends in, is successful,
intelligent, and methodical. So far, he has murdered eight people. There is no
discernible pattern, no clues, and no leads. The only thing the FBI and local
police have to go on is the method of death: two bullets to the face- gruesome
and meant to send a message. But it’s difficult to understand any message
coming from a dark and damaged mind. Two adopted boys, struggling in their own
world, do not know they are the next targets, and neither does their family or
local law enforcement. https://amzn.to/2RBWvTm
Caught in a Web: A
PenCraft Literary Award Winner! Named “One of the Best Thrillers of 2018!” by
BestThrillers.com
Caught in a Web is also
available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! http://bit.ly/2WO3kka
They found the bodies of high school
and middle school kids dead from an overdose of heroin and fentanyl. A violent
gang, MS-13, controls the drug trade along the I-94 and I-43 corridors. They
send Ricardo Fuentes to find out who is cutting in on their business, shut it
down and teach them a lesson. But he has an ulterior motive: find and kill a
fifteen-year-old boy, George Tokay.
Detectives Jamie Graff, Pat O’Connor
and Paul Eiselmann race to find the source of the drugs, shut down the ring,
and find Fuentes before he kills anyone else. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CKF7696
The Lives Trilogy
Prequel, Taking Lives:
FBI Agent Pete Kelliher and his
partner search for the clues behind the bodies of six boys left in various and
remote parts of the country. Even though they live in separate parts of the
country, the lives of Kelliher, 11-year-old Brett McGovern, and 11-year-old
George Tokay are separate pieces of a puzzle. The two boys become interwoven
with the same thread Kelliher holds in his hand. The three of them are on a
collision course and when that happens, their futures grow dark as each search
for a way out. https://amzn.to/34nXBH5
Book One, Stolen
Lives: Editor’s Pick by BestThrillers! Literary Titan Gold Book Award
Winner! A Crime Thriller finalist in the 2021 Best Thriller Book Awards!
Two thirteen-year-old boys are
abducted off a safe suburban street. Kelliher and his team of FBI agents have
24 hours to find them or they will end up like the other kids they found- dead!
They have no leads, no clues, and nothing to go on. To make the investigation
that much tougher, Kelliher suspects that one of his team members might be
involved. https://amzn.to/3oMo4qZ
Book Two of the Lives
Trilogy, Shattered Lives:
The boys are home, but now they have
to fit back in with their families and friends. Their parents and the FBI
thought the boys were safe. They were until people began dying. Now the hunt is
on for six dangerous and desperate men who vow revenge. With no leads and
nothing to go on, the FBI can only sit back and wait. A dangerous game that
threatens not only the boys, but their families. https://amzn.to/2RAYIk2
Book Three of the Lives Trilogy, Splintered Lives:
Three dangerous men with nothing to
lose offer a handsome reward to anyone willing to kill fourteen-year-old Brett
McGovern. He does not know that he, his younger brother, and a friend are
targets. More than anyone, these three men vow to kill George, whom they blame
for forcing them to run and hide. A fun vacation turns into a nightmare and
ends where it started, back on the Navajo Nation Reservation, high on a mesa
held sacred by George and his grandfather. Outnumbered and outgunned, George
will make the ultimate sacrifice to protect his adoptive father and his
adoptive brothers- but can he? Without knowing who these men are? Or where they
are? Without knowing whom to trust? Is he prepared for betrayal that leads to
his heartbreak and death? http://bit.ly/SplinteredLives
Photos courtesy of Road Trip with Raj.
