I know I haven’t updated in nearly a week

Last week my back started tightening up really bad. As near as I can describe it: imagine a piece of paper laid out flat. That’s how your back is supposed to be. Then take the piece of paper and turn up the edges so the paper’s in a U-shape. That’s how my back was — the muscles are all scrunched together, particularly on my right shoulder blade. This has happened before, though not since last year when I had physical therapy for it, and it’s always caused by stress. Certainly I’ve got enough of it right now: it’s June, I’m not getting on with Michael’s parents, and my family is facing a serious crisis which I can’t talk about in public.

Anyway, I did the usual things I do when this happens: I tried the exercises I’d been taught when I had physical therapy last year, I took Aspirin, Aleve and Tylenol, I had Michael give me massages, I applied lidocaine 5% ointment on the sore place, I sprayed BioFreeze on it, I took several long hot showers, etc. Nothing worked and the pain got worse and worse and began to spread up to my neck and down to my lower back. I couldn’t sleep, which just made my muscles tighten up more, until the other evening, I was trying to watch the Ink Master marathon with Michael and enjoy myself but it was difficult to keep from crying out.

Long story short, the other day I spent half the night in ER (enduring several screaming bratty children in the waiting room whom I wanted to strangle). The doctor who saw me said my back was in really bad shape. He gave me some Vicodin and a shot of Tramadol. That took care of the pain quite nicely but not the underlying problem: I still could not raise my arm above my shoulder. The next morning I called my family doctor’s office and explained the situation and asked for more Tramadol. They said they’d have to see me. I went in and they gave me Tramadol, Zanaflex and Valium.

My back is feeling much better now and the muscles are starting to loosen up but when I am not asleep I am completely stoned and barely able to move, and when I am not completely stoned I find it impossible to type normally. You would not believe how many typos I’ve made just writing today’s blog entries — thank goodness for spell check. I dare not update today or it’ll turn out a mess. I am sorry I missed updating my MP of the week on Tuesday, for the second time in a row. Sigh.

With any luck my back will get over itself in another day or two and I won’t have to take the medicine anymore. I know a bunch of people have been found, including some missing for decades, and there’s been a lot of MP news that I’ve posted on the Facebook page.

Flashback Friday: Ilonka Cann

This week’s Flashback Friday case is Ilonka Cann, missing from Huntington Mills, Pennsylvania since May 26, 1970. She was 22 years old, married with a baby son. Her Charley Project file doesn’t have much on her but I did find this Official Cold Case Investigations thread which has a little more information, and Pennsylvania Missing Persons appears to have updated her case since I last checked.

Anyway, the story is that her husband left in the morning and when he came back in the afternoon, Ilonka was gone and the baby was in the house alone.

Offhand I would say she’s of Hungarian descent or possibly Slavic — Ilonka is a Hungarian name, a nickname for Ilona. Ilona is used in several Slavic nations; it’s a form of the name Helen. I wonder if she was born here or was an immigrant to this country.

I don’t have enough information to theorize what happened to her. It’s possible that she left on her own. She would be in her sixties now. It’s possible she was harmed, and if that’s the case it’s possible that whoever did it is now deceased. We may never know what happened to this young woman on that spring day 45 years ago.

Gay people

Here’s a question for you all: if I know that an MP is gay or lesbian, but as far as I can tell it had nothing to do with their disappearance, should I mention it anyway?

I did a search on Charley for MPs where I mention that they’re gay. Most of the time it has a direct relation to their disappearance. Four men, for example, who are believed to be the victims of a serial killer who targeted good-looking young men he met in gay clubs. If a person is quite active in the local gay community I say that, the same way I would say if they quite active in social causes or their local knitting circle or something.

But suppose it’s a man or woman that lives alone, doesn’t date anyone, has an ordinary job in an office, gardens in their spare time, and so on, and happens to be gay? Should I mention that fact?

Recent news has brought this issue to the forefront, after all.

I have thought of making a Make-a-List Monday of LGBT missing persons but am afraid it would cause offense.