This should be a Pulse but I have no pulse. (I'm  probably too impatient to wait to feel one heartbeat to the next in gripping my wrist.) 

I broke my back.  Really.  And ruptured a blood vessel that expanded my waist's girth from 36 to 44 (men's macho inches, please.)  Recently.  Three (break) and then one (rupture) week(s) ago, to be precise.  And the blood surging into my lower spine with the rupture spread invasively throughout my abdomen to five tight fingers' distance from the center symmetry of my groin.  Scream Ouch!

But I had an awesome physical therapy session yesterday.

And, today, given the success of that therapy and a certain degree of mindless self-indulgence, I am pain-free.

But will it persist?  Is this truly a matter of healing or just a vomit of self-surrender to a cowardice embrace to a self-forged amoebic pushy-wushy retreat into a shadow of imagined oblivion?

Only your comments will inform for sure.