Log #16 (Mailbox adventure)

One of the annoying things about my back and groin pain is how the smallest task can make it flare up. I'm going to go into some detail about replacing our mailbox today and some of it may seem a little unimportant, but in fact it is when I have to show how these physical setbacks affect my everyday life.

For quite a while we've needed a new mailbox. Our old one probably looked the way I feel, have way hinged at the door, leaning to one side like it's about to fall over, and ready to fall apart at any minute. (Not quite as bad as the picture, but close)

In my need to get out of the house for a change of scenery, I thought about that old mail box and decided it was time for a new one. So we loaded ourselves into the car like it was a major family trip and my wife drove the family up to Lowe's.

Most of the larger chain stores these days have those electric carts for handicap people to use so they don't have to walk around the store. I get embarrassed having to use them. Here I am looking like I'm able bodied and I'm driving one of those carts around. I know I probably shouldn't be so self conscious about it and most people probably don't pay attention to me driving it anyway, but I always feel like someone else should be the one having to use the thing. That is really the biggest factor in my depression--low self image and believing that everyone is judging me.

Well, after spending an hour picking out a new mailbox and all of the things needed to put it together, we headed home. We opted to buy a mailbox post that doesn't need to be cemented in. It's a sturdy steel post that is about 3 inches by 3 inches square and hallow. Not very heavy. The mallet we used to pound the post in the ground is a four pound mallet. Once again, not very heavy.

My twelve-year-old son pulled the old mailbox out of the ground pretty easily and it left a good starter hole to pound the new post into. To make things easier and lighter the post is in two parts, the lower is pounded into the ground to set the mailbox in place, and the upper portion holds the mailbox itself. The two halves are joined by pounding the top portion down on the lower portion with a mallet. Very simple and easy stuff. The mailbox only needed to have the flag and door handle to be attached.

So I did all the assembly I could inside the house sitting on the couch while having my boys do all the lifting and carrying things. So basically, to setup our new mailbox, all I had to do was pound the lower post into the ground, pound the upper post onto the lower, and put in four screws to hold the mailbox on the post. My twelve-year-old did most of the work driving the post in the ground and I finished it with a few hard blows. I didn't do any lifting except for the four pound mallet and the screw driver.

By the time we were done my back was beyond stiff, my groin felt like it had a knife jammed into it, and the pain in my legs was almost so bad I could hardly walk back to the front door. A few Norco tablets later I was able to get things to settle down a bit. It's now ten hours since then and I still can't put much weight on my left leg without shooting pain, plus it's got a numb and asleep kind of feeling.

This is a perfect example of how frustrating this can be. I do so little and I end up with so much pain. This is an example of how useless I can feel if I let it get to me too much.