Adventures in Agony

(This post is basically just a tale of woe and adventures in random, sudden and intense pain. It's too long. Feel free to come back tomorrow for an outfit post.)

Wednesday AM I got up and noticed my pillows were all askew. I had had a rough night. Our neighborhood dogs have choir practice all night most nights and sometimes it keeps me awake most of the night. Tuesday night had been one of those nights, so I had tossed and turned and blah blah blah...I noticed I had a bit of a crick in my neck. Nothing new. I got up and got dressed. I couldn't really turn to look over my left shoulder to check my hair, but whatever. No big deal. I drove to work. I couldn’t check my blind spot. A bit worrisome but I got there OK.

I worked until about 10:30 and then took a call. Something about the way I moved or held the phone triggered something and I could no longer really move my neck at all. I couldn’t look at the computer. I tried laying down on the floor to relax but ended up yelping in pain like a wounded dog and then had a really hard time getting back up. It felt like a really severe charlie horse in my neck every time I moved. Eventually I called my Dr (in tears) and asked if they could see me and they said yes. I had a co-worker (God bless her soul) drive me. Every stop, every start, every pothole was absolute agony. I wasn't sure I could make it.I did and my co-worker parked in the handicap space and I slowly made my way in, the car ride had made it much worse, or so I thought. I think now it would have gotten worse either way. It was sort of a slow creep into the peak of it. By the time we got there even speaking was painful. At the Dr I saw a P.A. and she asked what was wrong. I explained what was going on and she said that my options were an injection or pills. I wanted the injection. She brought pills. I don’t remember the chain of events that lead to that. The pain came and went in waves, but no matter what I had to remain totally still. Each tiny movement brought on a spasm.

I was at the Dr for 4 hours total. I spent that time in an uncomfortable hardback chair with no support, trying to be perfectly still. In that time the option for an injection to help the pain never came to fruition. The P.A. had chosen (I have NO IDEA WHY) to give me some Celebrex, which for one reason or another, meant I could not have the injection. The Celebrex did nothing for me. My husband came, and my co-worker left. I had to pee, and the P.A. insisted I do a pregnancy test when I did. It took 5 minutes for me to get to the bathroom 10 feet away. Each step brought blinding pain. We had to cut off my tights. After I “passed” the pregnancy test, they gave me a script for muscle relaxers and sent me on my way. I crept slowly to the car. Nathan brought me home and got me settled on the couch. In order to get me out of my dress (a very cute maxi dress, my ONLY maxi dress, I wanted to get in on the winterized maxi dress trend started by Kyla. I did not get pictures before the pain started and well...) Nathan had to cut me out. It hurt too much to take it off any other way. I spent the rest of the day sitting (I couldn’t get into a laying down position) on the couch. I refused to drink much because getting up to go to the bathroom hurt too much. I was able to take my first muscle relaxer at around 6:30 last night (I wasn’t allowed to take it before then because of the Celebrex?) I went to sleep around 9. I was exhausted from holding my body still. I had to sleep sitting up on the couch.

This AM when I woke up I felt better. I made it all the way to the bathroom without stopping to catch my breath from the pain. I fed myself. I raised a soda bottle to my mouth and drank from it. These were all HUGE improvements from yesterday. My progress has continued through the day and now I can move my legs and arms freely without much pain and I am able to walk without any extra pain. My body is sore all over from having to move in weird ways yesterday to try and stabilize my neck. But I feel much, much better.

And then I found five dollars.*

*Not really. That’s just a little something my friends taught me to say when you realize your story went on for way to long and was probably pretty boring.