Well That Was Fast!

Overnight Tropical Depression Five-E became a named storm & was identified as Tropical Storm Dora in the 3 am MDT advisory bulletin this morning when maximum sustained winds were at 40 mph. At that time Dora was moving west northwest at about 16 mph & expected to become a hurricane in the latter half of the week.

 

In the 9 am MDT advisory, maximum sustained winds had increased to about 60 mph, so still just a tropical storm. It was still expected to become a hurricane in the latter part of the week. At the 3 pm MDT advisory maximum wind speeds had increased to 65 mph & Dora was now expected to reach hurricane speeds on Thursday. But about 6 hours later, the 5 pm HST advisory indicated that the storm had intensified so much it is now Hurricane Dora! The 4th hurricane of the season now has maximum sustained winds of 75 mph & is traveling westerly at about 16 mph. Hurricane force winds (74 mph or higher) extend about 10 miles from the center with tropical storm force winds (39 mph or higher) extending about 45 miles from the center. Forecasters say Dora could become a major hurricane tomorrow, which would mean maximum sustained winds of at least 110 mph. Fortunately, current forecasts show Hurricane Dora passing well south of Hawaiʻi Island.

Oh, by the way, did I mention that before hurricane season started forecasters said this is an El Niño year so there would be more storms than usual? Looks like they are correct!

I was awakened at around 3:35 this morning by a very sharp pain in my back around near where the lumbar spine & sacrum join; kinda where I herniated a disc about 20+ years ago. If I stayed still, it would lessen; but any movement would give me sharp localized pain. I lay in bed for a while, hoping the pain would subside on its own. The weather was a bit wet so I would not be going outdoors early anyway.

One hour 12 minutes after sunrise.

I was mainly awake until about 6 am when I slowly made my way to the cabinet where I keep the Salonpas & applied 2 patches to the painful area. In fact, I was moving so slowly my walking app did not register my motion since it uses acceleration to figure out when you are walking! It said I only took 6 steps to go to the bathroom, then the kitchen to let Mo'o out; it's at least 40 steps. I had let Mo'o out when the rain slowed down by opening the door & letting her go on her own instead of walking outside with her like I usually do. She was kinda confused by it all.

After applying the Salonpas I lay down in bed & waited for relief to come; I was unable to sit up without pain. By about 10 am it was apparent the Salonpas was not able to overcome the pain. I texted Trudy & asked her to call me when she was done with work. She texted about 30 minutes later, then picked me up & took me to the emergency room at Kohala Hospital which is about 2 miles away. Fortunately it was not a busy day; there was only 1 other person being treated.

One of 4 emergency beds in our little rural hospital.

After examining me & talking with me, Dr. Woo diagnosed me with "back pain with left-sided sciatica", & gave me 600 mg of ibuprofen. He also gave me a prescription for diclofenac & hydrocodone for use later in the evening if the pain was still present. Trudy & I stopped at Kamehameha Pharmacy on the way home, but it was a couple minutes before they closed up for their lunch hour; they asked me to call back in an hour or so. When I did, they asked a few questions and told me it would be ready in about an hour to pick up. It was about 4:30 by the time we got back home & my back was starting to feel better; I had not taken any thing else so it was the high dose of ibuprofen that was helping! I decided to hold off on the stronger meds to see if I could do without them over night.

I had to eat these before I took the ibuprofen.

Note: This post was done a couple days later when I was able to sit in a chair without pain in order to write this. Fortunately I was able to get the pain under control without the other medications prescribed, but I now have them available if I should have more problems.