Pro: Thank you to everyone who suggested exercises for my hip/side/low back thing. They worked! It's basically gone!

Con: This morning I managed to strain a completely different area. It's my upper left back, around the shoulder blade. This is a weak area from an old injury and I know what to do about it in the long term. (It's from when I cracked my T8 vertebra in a high-speed, rollover car crash in 2004.)

However, it's been... wow... sixteen years since I had an acute back injury rather than a chronic one. It hurts to take a deep breath. It hurts to bend over or lean forward. Etc.

I'm sure it's some form of muscle strain, not a disc injury or anything along those lines. That is, I do not think this is anything which requires a doctor's care.

Advice solicited. I have ice/hot packs and diazepam which I can press into service as a muscle relaxant. Also acetaminophen/paracetemol and various NSAIDs.

(I don't know exactly what I did, but I'm going to go out on a limb and assume it was gardening-related. I do know the proper way to lift but I've been doing a lot of heavy lifting, watering, bending, squatting, etc, and all it takes is one wrong move.)

Speaking of which... HELP. MY GARDEN. We're currently having a record heat wave (99 degrees for at least the next week), I have a bazillion plants scattered all over the place, and I have multiple projects in process that would be hard to explain to others.

I think I can offload some of the heavy watering on neighbors, but would it be disastrous if I did a little watering/other light work? What if I just eliminated all heavy lifting and did tasks very slowly and carefully? Like if I used a tiny can so I'm doing more trips back and forth to the watering can, but I'm never carrying anything heavy?

Advice that I am NOT soliciting: suggesting that I consult a doctor or PT. I already made an emergency doctor's visit this week for a completely unrelated matter (ear infection, it's fine now) and no fucking way am I exposing myself to the plague again. The receptionist didn't wear a mask and I got charged $500 for a ten-minute visit, then I got prescribed the wrong medication, then the pharmacist gave me a completely different but also excitingly wrong medication, then I had to literally grab the correct medication and run after the pharmacist nearly snatched it back because the doctor hadn't told me how long I was supposed to take it.

So fuck American doctors. I'd love to see a PT but not at risk of my life.
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