I'm getting better but lying out flat in my bed for sleep brings pain to my left thigh. Playing ball or some rugged Marine Corps service or maybe getting knocked down some stairs in my youth fractured one of my spinal vertebrae and now at 71 a nerve in my spine is pissed off and sending "pain messages" to my left leg. The VA Hospital has done X-rays and an MRI for me to chart a course of treatment but my gal pal GP Dr. Shirley T. at the VA clinic in East Meadow has told me that at my age time will alleviate my pain and she's been right. But I still catch an ache in my left thigh lying down for sleep.

I am pain-free sitting. I am pain-free rolling around ShopRite with my forearms on the shopping cart handle hunched over. I've been sleeping OK in my recliner for about five weeks now with a lap blanket over me but what bunky?

The tom Trouble has always trotted around the house in the middle of the night now and again. Lately he's been concerned in not finding me in my bed. Very concerned. He's been jumping into the recliner and flopping on the lap blanket over me between my legs. He goes to sleep. I wake up early to find him asleep with his head on my thigh or parked on my groin.

I have some love for that cat.

On Friday night I got some sleep in my bed, flat out with no pain for the first time in many weeks. And just like old times, in the dark I caught a rump slam into my left hip while a creature flopped next to me. It was the momcat Mister Mittens and with no pain I was a very happy man to be back in bed with a great girl.

Just a small victory with a nasty health issue called sciatica.