Global Mobility - With Back Ache?

I woke up early last Monday, my back aching as if the baby was coming very soon.  Strange as I am not pregnant, but given the pain, and the closeness to December, I suppose miracles could happen.  Whilst the pain was dreadful, the prospect of getting medical help was worse.  Coming from the land of the NHS - universal healthcare, free at the point of need, I found myself weighing up the pro's and con's of claiming on my private medical insurance or just handing over a bag of Looneys at a walk-in clinic. 

I decided on a walk-in clinic, which is an ironic terms as walking is not wide spread in Canada, folks favoring the car for every excursion.  So I hobbled, in pain, into the clinic to be told that it was $60 cash to see a doctor.  "Do you mean cash cash?" I asked the man, me being used to that term meaning the use of a debit card.  Sadly he replied "yes, cash cash, there is a Bank of Montreal accross the street".  Now "accross the street" is quite a way away in a car led society, and I had no car.  I hobbled there and back, took about half an hour, and the pain was awful. 

As I waited to see the doctor the receptionist declared to another patient that they lived in the same street as me.  Who needs data privacy eh?  I got to see the Dr very fast.  He asked me to bend and touch my toes.  I couldn't, but I assured him that that was normal.  Those toes have been far away from my fingers for years.  Diagnosis - I had experienced a back spasm and the solution was muscle relaxants, anti-inflamitories - and here's the kicker...exercise.  "The worst thing that you can do is sit or lie around".  Seriously?  Hmmmm.

So, one week later, I am feeling a lot better.  Exercise does seem to help and sitting still hinders.  Many conference calls this last week have had me doing yoga whilst participating - another virtue of remote working - no one can see you stretch!  A calm weekend at Blue Mountain (which is actual a hill) saw me hobbling from Starbucks to the "paint your crockery" studio whilst Major and Minor went swimming at the Aquatics Plunge Park.  Of course I was too poorly to go there with them...I was, honest!