Waiting for the pain to stop

I am carving out some time here to write at least a little bit about what’s been going on.

I have the time right now because (1) I’M NOT WORKING TODAY!!  This is a Good Thing.  The (2) reason is also part of why I’m not at work and that’s because I seriously hurt my back somehow and I spent most of the evening yesterday and so far this morning laying on an ice pack and waiting for the pain to go away.

I can’t remember if it was Sunday or Monday morning, but I got up with a bit of an ache in my back.  We went to the chiropractor’s on Tuesday and they adjusted me and worked on that spot and when I went home, it felt improved, but not better.  Wednesday, it got gradually worse, and Thursday it was awful.  I spent a lot of the day trying to find ways to move that didn’t make that spot hurt and then sitting on an ice pack that I borrowed from a coworker.  Unfortunately, I also spent a lot of the day (and most of the previous days this week) running around like a headless chicken in a flock of headless chickens trying to get work done.  We did manage to get the projects complete, but there was shouting and slamming doors and bickering — so much bickering.  And lots of running around.  And there’d be times when I’d be walking and take a turn swiftly and gasp a little because it hurt.  Or I’d stand up from my desk and just that movement would make me gasp from the pain.

So I went back to the chiropractor’s office and told him “The pain! Make it stop!” and he adjusted me again.  And then he had me lie with wedges under my hips keeping me aligned for several minutes with the cold laser on my back and then I got to lie on the traction bed before lying on the biomat for a while, too.  And by the time I left, I was able to move without as much pain, but there is still a lot of pain.  I have an appointment again this afternoon.  But until then, I’m lying on an ice pack and taking Advil and waiting for the pain to stop.

Normally, on my first day off from work, I’d spend most of the morning sleeping.  Especially since I woke up around 2 and didn’t fall back asleep until close to 4 because I was too uncomfortable to fall back asleep.  But the trash men woke me up with their noise and the pain has kept me wide awake since then.  So I’m sitting on a recliner downstairs, surrounded by all 5 of the sofa pillows, ice pack on my low back, blanket over top, typing this to all of you.  I was going to watch TV, but I wanted to write this out before I sunk into that distraction.  Hopefully the TV will help me forget to pay attention to the pain, but it really is a time sucker.

Anyway, that’s the story of my back.  No idea, really, how I hurt it so badly.  It’s like my collarbone.  Still no idea how I managed to hurt that.  My chiropractor keeps saying that these types of injuries are the kind that people get when they’re in car accidents or brawls.  I keep trying to convince him that I’m not getting up in the night and fighting crime in my sleep.  He’s not convinced.