Just going on my mom's back problems, and my own sciatica when I was pregnant, anything where the pain is traveling down one leg sounds like pinched nerve to me, too. It doesn't have to be a disc, though, like Steph said.

Your poor mom. That kinds of pain is awful.

With my herniated disc, leg pain was also involved. That required an MRI to diagnose.

Why are you attacking literacy?

It's actually Attack OF Literacy: [link] The authors are attacking that poor helpless dame. But I know you can't see all that in the Bat-crotch picture.

Oh my lord, erika, are you fucking kidding? I mean, I know you're not. But damn. That takes a special level of self-centeredness.

That required an MRI to diagnose.

Now that I think about it, she had a CT scan and then an MRI last Thursday. Maybe she'll get a real diagnosis tomorrow.

I'm hoping it's something can be treated without surgery, because I doubt if that would be advisable for an 85-year-old with congestive heart failure.

It's just sad how limited her life has become. She can't see well enough to sew, which was her main passion in life, along with antiques. She doesn't get around well enough to do much antiquing. Fortunately, my sister is being a trouper about this. (Okay, my sister is not all bad.)

It's actually Attack OF Literacy: [link]. The authors are attacking that poor helpless dame. But I know you can't see all that in the Bat-crotch picture.

I love that shirt, but that "of" is so goddamn hard to see, even when you're looking right at it. Everyone misreads it at first.

I know, smonster. I know he's scared and in pain, but dag!

Dear Erika's brother,

If you'd like a better understanding of being a "fucking cripple," we can arrange that.

Seriously, I'm sometimes baffled by people who get some kind of ailment or pain after a lifetime of good health and act like theirs is the only pain in the world. It's like the Steve Forbert lyric: "Some fool sits stuck on the runway and says, 'It's only me this happens to.'"