I was on a road trip from Maryland to California in June 2013 when My back began to really hurt. At first I thought I could put up with it. I’d hurt it a few months earlier and it had bothered me ever since but now I was was in a lot of pain. I was gritting it out until one night when we got to our hotel I sat down on the bed and couldn’t get back up. I tried everything to no avail. Finally, I had my husband bring me a chair and I told him to pull me up by my left arm while I pushed down on the chair with my right arm.

Just sitting there was out of the question, I needed to get up because I nature was calling very loudly! It was horrible to say the least. We tried about every conceivable method we could think of but nothing seemed to work except being pulled to my feet though the searing pain.

Finally, I was standing, crying, screaming, shaking, ready to faint, throw up, with beads of cold sweat pearling on my forehead. It was bad. And it only got worse, because once I was standing I found I could no longer sit down (like on the porcelain throne!).

For the next three days, I had to find a bathtub to stand in to relieve myself! My poor patient husband had to care for me as if I were a small child again. I tell you this not to gross you out but to stress how rough of shape I really was in.