Brokeback--Unca

Here's the follow-up on my back: I broke it. Long story short---about a week and a half after I fell off the ladder they x-rayed my back and found I had a compression fracture of the fourth lumbar vertebra. My regular doc said there wasn't much to do about it but I pressed it and finally (and this is a story all by itself) was able to see an orthopedist. You would think that here in Iowa City with the largest University owned teaching hospital in the country and a host of clinics all over the place that people would be waiting in line to get a look at my back--NOOO. The first time I tried to get into a local clinic here they told me I'd have to wait until the middle of November! Anyway, with special pleading I got into the ortho clinic at the University and am now sporting a back brace and treating my back with ice and doing some exercises. I'm told it usually takes three months to heal. Meanwhile some depression has set in (worse than the injury) and increased OCD symptoms. I'm hoping I'm on the mend on all fronts, though. No more ladders for this cowboy.