Page 94 of The Blame Game

“I’m being fucking grateful.”

“You are not!” Shea protested with a laugh.

“Well, I’m trying.” There was a glimmer of humor in the midst of the grump.

Shea smiled. “That’s something.”

“It just sucks.” Dom let out a heavy sigh.

“It does,” Shea agreed. “Though I might have you beat when it comes to the amount of diagnostic imaging that’s been inflicted on a person.”

“Ugh, probably.”

“Are they giving you any idea of what they think the issue with your back could be?” Shea asked. He had his own theories but none of them were great.

“I mean, no one has come out and said it but I think it’s pretty obvious, no?”

“Herniated disc?” Shea asked.

“Yeah.”

Shea winced.

“Well,” he said. “It could be something else.”

“Like what?”

“Like …” Okay, he was not telling Dom that there were spinal tumors that had similar symptoms. They were exceptionally rare and it was stupid to make him worry for nothing. “Like piriformis syndrome or a pinched nerve caused by a musculoskeletal disorder.”

“And those are treatable?”

Shea smiled. “Not just treatable but usually treatable with methods other than surgery. Look, we don’t know anything now, Dom. And we won’t until you get the results of imaging tests. Don’t go catastrophizing. You’ll stress yourself out.”

“I know. I’m trying not to jump to the worst-case scenario. It’s hard though. I can’t play and literally all I can think about is the fucking pain.”

Shea winced. It did tend to take over a person’s life.

“Okay, you must have hobbies though,” Shea said. “Focus on those.”

“Umm …”

This man. He had no life outside of hockey and his team, did he? “You like golf, right?”

Shea remembered Dom saying something about golfing with Matty, Dustin, and Jordan.

“Yeah.”

“Although that probably doesn’t feel great on your back, does it?”

“No.”

“What else do you enjoy?”

“Card games. But I am not sure taking up online sports gambling is the solution to my boredom.”

Shea laughed. No, that sounded like a one-way ticket to an accidental gambling addiction. “It’s good you realize that,” Shea agreed. “C’mon, what else interests you? There must be something.”

“I do my volunteer work at the children’s hospital and read and listen to podcasts and stuff but there’s only so much of that I can do, you know? My back hurts whether I’m standing, sitting, or lying so I find myself doing all three, roaming around my apartment or staring up at the ceiling and hating my life.”

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