Pain in the neck

I’m not sure what I did, but something got pinched in my neck. It had been achy for several days this past week, but I took an antihistamine the other night to stop my nose from running (weather conditions were ‘widespread dust’ and my sinuses were not amused), and I must have fallen asleep, hard, in an awkward position, and then not moved all night. When I woke up, the motions of ‘left’ and ‘right’ had been removed from my list of physical capabilities. I spent yesterday accomplishing very little, interspersed with long periods of lying flat on my back when I could no longer bear the painful weight of my own skull. It was the kind of pain that traveled… it radiated from the lower part of the back of my neck, gradually tightening all muscles it encountered, down my back, my arms, my head, etc. The only place on my upper body not experiencing sharp pain, was my left arm – that appendage experimented with tingling numbness. I assume that means whatever was pinched, was on that side.

I wandered (limped) over to the nearby pharmacy to get some monster-sized Motrin – having to turn my whole body to look both ways when crossing the street – but neither the walk, the stretching I attempted, nor the medicine, had had much effect by yesterday afternoon. When the kids got home from school, all I could do was aim them at homework and go lay back down. They’re such good kids. The helped themselves to their after-school snacks, did most of their homework, then came to ‘fix’ me.

Honor wanted me to lay on the floor so she could walk on me. I refused – afraid that if I got down there, I’d be there the rest of the night. Instead, I lay on my bed, where my junior chiropractors pounded on me, massaged me, walked on my back with bony kid knees, lotioned my skin (back, arms, hands, feet). Brian even rubbed my feet and clipped my toenails. Honor massaged my hands and gave me a bit of make-up… because when you look pretty, you feel pretty, right? Both rubbed my head and brushed my hair. Eventually Honor went and got her doctor kit, including white coat, and started to treat me. I believe that my blood pressure hit the million mark, and I got about 500 different injections (including a ‘needle’ full of cold water that was very surprising.) After about 20-30 minutes of repair work, I had to struggle up to go out and clean the kitchen for dinner, and while I might have bruising in various places now, I could MOVE again! Not well, and it still hurt, but left and right were once again within my reach.

I even felt good enough to sit at the table and help finish homework. Honor had reading to do and chose to read “When the Root Children Wake Up”  a lovely story about the turning of the seasons, and also had a page to do in math. She had to illustrate how she found her answer in math – and I wasn’t sure how to ‘draw’ 72 + 4 = 76” for a 1st grader(!) so I taught her the basics of column addition and she had a blast with that. Brian had Arabic homework and had to come up with five words for the 20 or so letters they’ve studied in class. Luckily I’ve unpacked some dictionaries!

Anyway, I took motrin again last night, slept very hard (once I found a comfortable way to lay – not easy) and woke up sore, but with the dagger of pain removed from between the vertebrae of my neck. I’m back to achy – worse than how it started, but not that sharp pain. It’s such a relief! I managed to sleep on my hand wrong last night, probably twisted it the wrong way in order to keep my head propped up just so, and now that hurts, but I don’t care… my neck is much improved! I’m on the motrin again today, but am hoping that whatever was pinched, is now un-pinched (I think it is) … all thanks to Drs. Brian and Honor, who made me pay for services rendered with hugs and kisses.