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I just got off the phone with the orthopedist’s office. I apparently have a herniated disc, which is likely what’s been causing me pain in my left leg. This isn’t great news, but it’s nice to put a name to it, especially when it’s something that will hopefully respond well to treatment. I absolutely hurt my back when I was in New Orleans at the end of March*, but I’d felt like I had made a full recovery right away.

Well, maybe not. I don’t know that the herniated disc has anything to do with the slight but persistent numbness I’ve been getting in my opposite toe, but I have an appointment with the orthopedist next Wednesday to discuss all of this — and one with a neurologist in July, if it turns out to be unrelated.

Again, it’s not great news — hooray! my spine is falling apart! — but it’s preferable to being in pain or discomfort all the time and not knowing why.

* Did I mention this? How I went to the convention center across the street from the hotel, carrying maybe forty pounds of books, only to discover (after I first registered at the wrong conference and walked three or four city blocks carrying those damn books) that the conference I was looking for was actually inside the hotel? I was in a little bit of agony the rest of that weekend. It didn’t help that the hotel bed was ridiculously soft and high off the ground.

No, I didn’t get my economic stimulus package. But I got a letter telling me how it should arrive by June 20. The check, as it were, is in the mail.

And I haven’t heard anything back from the state of New York, contesting my assertion that I don’t owe them any money. I did note, with what I guess was amusement, that the envelope they enclosed with the bill really was big enough only for the bill portion, not the the form you fill out if you’re contesting the bill. Including the whole thing, plus my explanation of why I don’t owe them anything, took some creative folding.

The MRI wasn’t unbearable, even if it’s not an experience I’d like to repeat any time soon, but I really wish I didn’t need to wait a week and a half to discuss the results with my orthopedist. They released the films to me (which, not surprisingly, I don’t know how to read), and I have an appointment with the doctor next Wednesday. On the one hand, I’ve waited this long… On the other hand, though, I’ve waited this long. And my leg still hurts.

There are a scattered few things to like about Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales. Unfortunately, almost none of them make any sense, or seem like they belong in the same movie together.

I’m posting this from my notebook computer. I have a working wireless internet connection again.

Now if only there was a tech support number I could call about the pain in my leg…