Ok, Thursday Feb 6th, 2025 has begun for me at an early time, I woke at 4am. But, it is the first time in over many years my back is not killing me. I actually have less pain then I had before, the steroid shots I received and it seems the Doctor found the disc in question when he did two shots. The first he did was in the L-5 disc area and I barely felt anything except light pain and pressure for that one. The L-4 disc area was the one for sure for when he started I jumped more than on once and he had to re-numb the area with a higher dosage of pain meds, to get the steroid in. I survived the shots, and when I left, I was ok, they made sure I could walk without stumbling or falling, and because I drove myself in for the shots, I had to wait over an hour to be able to leave.
I have been living with my back pain and injury since 1982, while serving in the US Navy, after a fall aboard ship on duty. I was carted off the ship in a stretcher back then and my long journey of pain began. I fought the Navy, for seven years over the injury and pain problems and was finally Discharged in July of 1989, on a Honorable Under Medical Discharge. Ever since then, I have have gotten medical attention in all ways through the Veteran’s Administration and Disability Payments also. You can’t work if you have all I have, six herniated discs, three in my neck and three in my lower back, plus, PTSD. So, you learn to live with the pain, and keep complaining and asking for help until you get it. I know I did.
This was not the first time I received steroid injections for my disc injuries. but it is the first time since 1982, a Doctor hit the l-4 disc with steroids the way this one has. It has now only been a day, since the injections and procedure and the pain has lessened for me, and the Doctor said it would not take full effect for seven days. If that is the case I shall be much better I am sure. My next Doctor Appointment is in 5 weeks now. I am glad the Veteran’s administration authorized the procedure and I think it is going to help my condition going forward. Thanks to the Veteran’s Administration.
Next up is a slow easy relaxing time with my back and being able to do things I couldn’t do before. I am hoping I can get back to walking again in warmer weather, and doing some sports like pickleball and bowling again. One needs to keep physically and mental going at my age and the more I can go, the better off I shall be and the longer I can live hopefully. Never thought I would still be alive at 69, but here I am, I lived a life that led me to believe, I wasn’t going past 40, lol. Yet here I am, after two marriages, 16 years service, two daughters, and I survive my second wife passing from cancer as I had a lobe and a third of my right lung removed in 2013 for lung cancer myself. I am guessing that there is still a purpose for me here on this planet and the Good Lord, is waiting for me to complete what he put me here for.
As time goes on I wonder why I am here, for my belief has always been, all of us were born unto this world, for a mission, we have no idea what it is to complete. The Good Lord knows is all I can say, and any day, we can awake, open our eyes and get out of bed and move, is a good one. None of us really know what we are here for, we tend to go through the motions each day we live to our fullest, and hope to wake up the next morning after we sleep. We we are that lucky to do so, as many are, we are still in pursuit of whatever mission the Good Lord has deemed for us and we have not completed it as of yet. So forward is the only direction we can go, knowing that at some point it will all come to an end. But as long as I am here I shall help who I can, how I can, when I can, and try to live and laugh the best I can. That’s when life is the best for me.
I am not rich, I am not famous, I write, blogs like this on many subjects. I write in The Military, Politics, Health Issues, and more. I also write short stories of which I have done 51, and numerous poems also. It is now a part of me that I use to keep me going each day. I look for places to walk, to do things like playing pool, bowling if possible of course, pickleball if possible also. I read when I find a good book I may like, I build puzzles and hang on to life each day. I believe the Good Lord wants me here for a reason and I just haven’t completed that as of yet.
Life is not a game for fools folks, and as one Singer put it Only The Good Die Young, right. So, I do not ever claim to be perfect or above anyone else. I communicate well enough, I avoid anger, I avoid people who get nasty or upset, and in the end I talk to only those I like or get along with. And I believe that is what all of us should do in life, for no one will ever get along with everyone.
As we go further into 2025, I hope at some point to find female companionship again, if it is possible. I do not chase women, for I am no a predator, or stalker in anyway. Nor do i approach just any woman out there, even if I enjoy the females around me. I have set myself up as a widower, that just goes day by day, and hope is all. If I meet someone it is destiny, if I don’t I shall survive, for I have proven I can do so as a single person and a widower. I take care of myself, I pay my bills and I keep going forward the best I can. I know at 69, I am not the best man a woman is looking for, most want bigger men in physical proportions, or richer men than I. Most want better looking than I, for I am not Mr. Handsome or Mr. Personality either. I am an average man in many ways, I think. I try to treat all with respect who I meet, laugh with them, not at them and hope all the best. So, I doubt I will ever have another woman in my life again, because in today’s society in America, people don’t find companionship and romance, at my age. we get set in our ways, do what we know to survive and to avoid danger of being taken for money, and avoid emotional turmoil’s as we do. So you see, when someone reaches a certain age in life, the possibility of anyone of the opposite set even noticing you lessons. and since I have never pursued women, I don’t really know how to flirt, never learned in my lifetime, even though I was married twice, it will probably, be a slow, single life for me from now on.
Some have asked how is it possible, I was married twice, and never learned to really flirt? I don’t know what to answer that with except both of the women I married, came after me, after I met them. I didn’t pursue them they did me. In the end one divorced me, for her own reasons, and the second died from cancer leaving me behind in my 60’s here. The total time of marriages in my 69 year old life was 40 years. I had two daughters and two of everything really. I have six grandkids also out there, so I did something right, produced as a man should. When I stop to think about it, I was alone for many years in my teenage years. Then, till I married the first time at 24. Then 12 years late rit ended, it took me a good three years before I found my second wife, and we lasted 28 years together, till her passing from cancer. Now for over three years it’s just me again, lost in a world, with no one to hang with or be with. I will just go on hopefully, and see what happens next is all.
Macattack56's Blog 
excellent story. we all have a story to tell and for many of us, they are riddled with hardship and pain, but the true character of a person can be seen by how they dealt with the pain and how they survived and used their past as a learning experience and became a better person in the end. i wish i could find good friends like yourself. it seems like the most difficult task nowadays is finding really good trustworthy people as friends
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