I have to say it’s really good to be back at work.

Would I prefer to be a rich millionaire and spend my days on a luxury yacht?

Perhaps, but I’ve always enjoyed what I do.

However, back in May following the Little Kanawha Conference track and field championships at St. Marys I ended up running into an issue after waking up on Mother’s Day.

I didn’t know this at the time, but I always just assumed when one was in pain, serious or not, crying or shedding some tears was normal and something that just happened.

My freshman year at Wirt County during baseball practice coach Mike Calebaugh was trying to teach us young pups to stay in the box when seeing a curveball.

Ducking and getting out of the way wasn’t an option.

Well, as fate would have it coach Calebaugh fired a curveball in and as I waited for it to come across the plate and try to make contact, it never broke.

By the time I realized what was going on it was too late.

My index finger on my left hand, which I used to write with, took the brunt of the breaking ball that this time didn’t break and broke it.

Knock on wood, but that’s the only broken bone I’ve had.

Now, back to waking up on Mother’s Day.

I knew something was wrong from the onset, but I tried to home remedy things having no clue how serious the situation would end up being.

I also didn’t realize until that time how it was possible to be in so much pain that one couldn’t cry.

As it eventually turned out, I had a bulging disc at the L3-L4 and ended up having a three-hour emergency laminectomy eight days after the LKC meet over at Marietta Memorial.

Suffice it to say the entire ordeal was quite the surreal experience, but I have to give some major kudos to my surgeon “HK” as well as his team, and Williamstown Yellowjacket play-by-play voice “Doc Hall” after he told me “Jay, you gotta go to the ER.”

I’ve got more than one friend who has had multiple back surgeries, but until it’s you lying there waiting in the preop with the question of being “OK” again entirely up in the air, it’s hard to relate to exactly what others have gone through.

Although I’m still in physical therapy, I’ve managed to survive my first cross country meet, the half marathon and my first soccer match.

We’ll see how the first football game goes when Eastern invades Wirt County on Friday.

Speaking of the Tigers, the third annual Wirt County Sports Hall of Fame was recently finalized.

During the Tigers’ home game next Friday versus Magnolia at Wilson-Eismon Field the orange and black will honor Pat Fulmer as a contributor while Gary Watson, Matt Ashley, Arlan Moore, Shawn Richards and Brian Ferguson also will be enshrined.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com