return of the back pain

While I am no gimp like Jia (OOH BURN), I suffer from recurring lower back pain that seems to be localized to the lower portions of my erector spinae. The pain typically flares up when I use those muscles, usually when I sleep weird or do excessive lumbar flexion when breaking. It also happens when I don't lift according to proper technique in transfer labs at the U of A hospital like when I was moving my fellow classmate from the chair to the floor. Or when I sit for hours at a time with flat back posture studying 528 notes which ironically instruct me on how to not aggravate back injuries.

Interesting segway, newborn children have no lordosis in their L-spine or C-spine. Instead, their entire vertebral column is one giant C-shaped kyphosis, and it's not until they begin to put weight on the column from sitting or weight-bearing that they begin to develop the natural spinal curvature. As I always remark, a visit to peds is warranted.

Anyway, back to disability. I was walking back to the train platform after visiting the police station to get my security clearance when I noticed a man using a wheelchair as a walker. He looked confused and forlorn, seemed to have a limp and walked quite slowly using the not-very-stable wheelchair. I went up to him and asked him if he needed any help with anything and in very garbled speech he responded that he needed to find an elevator so he could get to ground level.

We were at Churchill station and I had no realization that access to elevators was so incredibly difficult for those with disabilities. He sat himself down in his wheelchair when I offered to push him, and it became evident why he had a wheelchair - he only ambulated around either with his arms (which looked tired and hung at his sides) or with one foot, dragging himself around. I pushed him down a long hallway, then we went to the wheelchair access to the elevator, which was another long hallway but uphill and not at an angle suitable for tired arms. That hallway led into another hallway about half that distance in length with a door that led to the elevator - at least the door had a wheelchair button that worked, I've been to the back door at Den/Pharm and their button never works. That distance felt like the walk between Corbett Hall and the University Hospital.

We reached the ground floor and I bid him adieu, then rode the elevator down, all the way pondering the inadequacies of our city's wheelchair accessibility.