Bad back blues

At my grandmother's 84th birthday party, I managed to do my back in. No, not at a wild, alcohol and drug-fueled extravaganza, where I danced madly all night and woke up in a compromising position with someone I hardly knew, but had had such an amazing night that I put my back out. No, it was a tea and cake 84th birthday party. This meant that for the next three days I am walking like I've had a serious pants accident and am pretending I am not in substantial pain, which no amount of painkillers can alleviate.
Eventually, I am convinced to go and see an Osteopath. Turns out it is a teaching school, which is fine; it's cheap and cheerful, it's clean and bright and I have complete faith (and am in too much pain to care much.)

I stand in my (non-matching) underwear in front of two students, whilst they scrutinize my lumps and bumps, ask me a lot of questions, including how do I think I've hurt myself (I think about giving the wild version of the story, but chicken out and have to endure the smirking of youngsters young enough to be, well, they're young enough.) They draw pictures of my back, poke me about a bit, come to the conclusion it isn't serious but that I need a treatment and go on to bend me about a bit, which feels good at the time but then I spend the next two days walking like a tortoise.

The bad news is I have (obviously) not been able to run all week - in fact it's over a week since my last outing. This is disappointing. I have also to admit that I have had a few consolatory pints and rollies, over the course of the week, as I have been feeling very silly and sorry for myself (and of course, that lack of willpower thing I think I've mentioned before...)

The good news is I'm on the mend, another appointment tomorrow (I shall spend most of the today washing and sorting the contents of my underwear drawer so I can choose something suitable for standing semi-naked in front of strangers; big enough to cover everything that needs covering but not to the point where I look like my Gran, but, well, let's face it, she's the reason this all started in the first place, maybe I should wear my biggest pants in tribute...