In 1980 we sold our home in San Jose and moved to Lake of the Pines located between Auburn and Grass Valley, CA. We were excited about the move. The movers had picked up all of our stuff. It was the day they were to arrive in Lake of the Pines on Woodhaven Drive. Our home in Lake of the Pines was beautiful. It was a two-story home. They started unloading and both myself and Kathy and the kids were all moving things around after the movers brought them in. It was a long day and we were all tired near the end of the day. I was approximately 35 years old at the time… really in the prime of my life.
After the movers left and we had arranged most of the stuff in our new home I sat down in an easy chair in the family room on the first floor. I hadn’t been sitting too long and I was thirsty so I tried to get up. I am not kidding. I couldn’t get up. Oh my God. I just moved to a new area, have a new home, I am only 35 and I can’t get up out of a chair. Let’s just say a lot of bad thoughts were running through my mind.
We called the doctor that was just outside Lake of the Pines. It turned out that he had been the resident doctor at Yosemite National Park for years and that he also was one of our neighbors about 3 houses away. He said that he would write a prescription for some muscle relaxant and that I should take it easy and come and see him the next day. We picked up the prescription and I took a few. It was great stuff and I was feeling no pain. The next day Kathy took me to his office. I went into see him Dr. Richardson. I explained what had happened and he says… well our bodies aren’t really designed to walk upright. I told him that most of the people that I knew and had known did, in fact, walk upright. This was incredulous to me. I was almost speechless… I said almost. Was he kidding? I really didn’t like what he was saying and decided to keep taking my muscle relaxant and hope for the best. After all according to him I wasn’t suppose to be walking upright anyway. To this day I will never forget those words uttered by that Doctor. I now believe there is a good reason to have Doctor/Patient confidentiality… I wouldn’t want that comment by Dr. Richardson to get out to the public. I did recover nicely and fairly quickly and I am still walking upright like everyone else. Apparently, I had strained my back by lifting heavy stuff repeatedly and my body was simply saying to stop and take it easy. Not start crawling. The muscle relaxant worked wonders. Maybe I misinterpreted his comments… let us hope so.
