Driving Through The Pain Barrier

I have to report a potential emergency today. I had to stop all my Passover preparations to take Grumpy to the chiropractor. He's had a pain in his leg all weekend and was not happy. The mere fact that he allowed me to drive shows the pain he was in. The fact that he even said he was comfortable in the car seat shows how delirious he was. He'd seen the doctor on Saturday, but this time she suggested he needed more help. A pain specialist. I went pale. This was terrible news. As designated driver I would have to take him to see someone else! I only went to see her because her office is in Naperville. Anyone who knows me knows I won't drive out of the city. "That's terrible," I said to the receptionist. "Wh...wh..where is his office?" "Don't worry, I think he'll live," she replied, mistaking my selfishness as caring. "He has one in Naperville and one in Romeoville," she said. "We'll get him the first available appointment." I had no idea where Romeoville was. Somewhere near Joliet, I guessed. (Think about it Shakespeare fans). Where ever it was, we wouldn't be in Naperville any more. "The first? Oh no, I think we should wait for Naperville," I blabbered. "Don't want to hurt him any more than we need to." My luck the pain specialist could see him in an hour in Romeoville. We got in the car and I cautiously typed the location into my GPS, taking car to avoid freeways, tollways, speed limits higher than 25 miles an hour, crosswalks and traffic lights. Strangely enough it still told me the journey would only take 20 minutes. Turns out I only had to drive five minutes on an unknown route. Of course by then Grumpy was back to reminding me about the speed limit and which side of the road to drive on. The good news was that he now has some drugs to take. If they don't work they'll try a nasty epidural injection with a light sedative. Personally I don't mind that at all. The procedure will be carried out less than a mile of our house.