It wasn't free!

So my daughter is shopping in Walmart one day. Browsing around in the vitamins, she is approached by a tall thin man. She looks up into the face of this young man, who is clean shaven and dressed in a suit.

"Would you like up to ten free dinners? All you have to do, is listen to me talk for about 15 minutes."

Now the bells should have been going off in her head, but she is related to me, so I will forgive her.

"What?" She is the brightest of my bunch.

"You can bring your whole family and have dinner at (I will not mention the name of the restaurant). You do have kids? They can eat free."

Now daughter is really interested. She can feed all four of her kids and her stepson for free! So of course she says "Sure." She takes her ticket and he moves on.

So she calls me. "Hubby doesn't want to go with me tonight for a free dinner. You want to go?"

I told you, we are related! "Where we going?"

So she tells me her little story and I respond with what she wants to hear. I didn't really want to go listen to this guy but I like mexican food and IT IS free!

We get there and this place is small. Bells should have been going off, but now I'm curious instead of wary. We go in and they ask if we are here for the lecture. Oh Boy! So they escort us back to the little room in the back with about ten tables in there. At least we weren't alone, half the tables were already full. We had only three of the boys with us. The two girls were home and one was sleeping. She has a bad habit of taking a nap at 5 in the evening.

We take the big table in the back and this tiny lady comes around with a sheet of paper to be filled out. They want to know how much you hurt. Well, hello! I spent twenty five years working in a hospital. I hurt all over! lol! You try lifting 300 lb people up on an x-ray table!

I finish my little questionaire before daughter and look across the table to see what she has checked off. She hurts more than me and she is considerably younger. I laugh.

Thin man walks in and starts hustling around. Talks to tiny lady and starts setting up his chalk board and plugs in his light to show x-rays on. I am beginning to get the picture now.

The room magically fills up with lots more families and he decides to talk. I instantly can not stand him. He talks to us like we are all fifth graders and incredibly stupid.

" Hi, I am Dr. Baylard and I am here to talk to you about your health. Have any of you been in an accident or had a fall? Does your back hurt anywhere? Raise your hand?"

We all raised our hands. We raised them a lot during his little speech. He asked a lot of questions and we answered with our little hands. He even took my grandson and showed my daughter how to check for scoliosis. Of course, he was a little off. But so is the rest of my family! lol! Then he moved on to show us what a normal x-ray of the lower spine looked like. Then he showed one with scoliosis. It was more hand raising time and dumb looks.

Then tiny lady collected all of our papers and gave them to him. He started with me in the corner. I am sure he loved the fact that my left leg is shorter than the right.

"Were you ever in an accident?"

"When I was a kid." I wanted to tell him the time I got hit by a car. But I really wanted to get rid of him. I wasn't about to tell him about the motorcycle accident when I was sixteen and how I bounced across the road on my butt and didn't even tear my pants.

"How did you hurt your back?"

"Lifting people for twenty five years. Pushing wheelchairs and stretchers." I don't like to give too much away.

"Do you think you should have to live with this pain?"

Now I am looking at him like he is crazier than me. What does he want from me? I know my back is screwed up and will stay that way. "I have narrowing of the spine between L-4 L-5 and L-5 S-1 and it isn't going to change."

"But do you think you have to live with that pain?"

"I've lived with it for years and I don't pay much attention to it unless I can't move."

"Would you like to live without it?"

I'd like him to go away now because he is really irritating. But he is one of these guys that will sit there in your face until you give him the answers he wants.

I sigh. Okay, I'm stuck here. But I will have to tell you more later as I have to go take a shower and go to the chiropractors this morning. See ya later!