Grand Canyon: Fire Queen

A vacation is not really a true adventure without a little bit of drama. Today while dressing, Mr. Rogue threw out his lower back. Now this is not something new, in fact he gets this about once a year and has refused to see a doctor about it since after about two weeks it goes away on its own. I have done research in the past about it and basically all a doctor will do is prescribe muscle relaxers but the man is stubborn and it is his body so other than begging I have not done much to force him to go. That was all in the past. When he threw out his back today and STILL refused to go to the doctor I threatened to start packing. Basically I gave the man an ultimatum, either we go to the emergency room and get him muscle relaxers OR we pack up and go home.

I abhor ultimatums and therefore never bandy them about lightly but there was no way Mr. Rogue was going to be able to sleep in a tent for another 10 days let alone do all the hiking we had planned to do. He gripped, he groaned, he even said let’s give it a few hours and see if it goes away. I gave him until lunch and then we were off to the emergency room.

Good thing about being at the Grand Canyon is that they have their own little emergency clinic, with all the traffic they get I assume they get pretty busy at peak seasons. Thankfully fall is defiantly not a peak season and we were in and out of the hospital in 2 hours, a record time and a relief to both of us. The doctor prescribed extra strength Ibprofin and the muscle relaxers and within TWO days Mr. Rogue was feeling so well we were back to hiking again. Now I tried very hard not to say I told you so, I actually think I managed not to utter those words to him but he did eventually admit that he was glad that he went and got the medication and that in the future he will get treated right away instead of living in pain.

Side note: I was not allowed to document this episode with photos like I wanted to. Mr. Rogue was pretty adamant about not wanting his hunched over walk photoed or crabbiness documented. Personally although I am sad not to share the imagery with you.

Although the two days of light rest for Mr. Rogue, which included no lifting and only short walks, made a TON of extra work for me we were both happy that his recovery time was so short and we could get back to our plans so quickly. My favourite thing about his back going out is that for the first time in my life I got to tend the fire.

Now this may not seem like a big deal to most but there have always been other people who have done this and although my father did teach me the basics of the tepee vs. the log cabin and the whole tinder thing I never actually got to set up the fire, tend the fire, AND put the fire out all by myself in one night. Silly but it was super fun and very primal. I created fire.