Blessed pain relief

All last week, as my Tweeple might have heard, I was in excruciating pain.  Purportedly stress-related, it was agonizing and frustrating that the pain kept coherent thought at bay and kept me at that high level of stress. Almost as upsetting was the foggy realization that I was spending money on things I a) would normally avoid, or b) had to buy for convenience’s sake.  Adding up the numbers is fairly well horrifying. 

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Category A: 

Repeat or unnecessary medications:  My dad offered to make what would have been my third trip out to the hospital to pick up medications. The pharmacy filled one too many and sent him home with Naproxen, the OTC version of which I already had.  

Processed foods: At best I was gumming my meals and even that hurt. I couldn’t take one more day of liquids-only or scrambled eggs so I bought packaged mashed potatoes (just add water!) and Top Ramen.  I could just microwave the one, and overcook the other into mush. [Yeech!] 

Category B: 

Ordered in food: I paid a premium for high-calorie, high-sodium soup because I desperately needed extra calories and my dad can’t handle non-Asian cooking. He means well but he’s only cooks Asian-style and recipes make no sense to them. *sigh*  OTOH, French onion soup.  Oh yes…. 

Category C – luxuries, unbudgeted: 

One of my close friends, a massage therapist, called me on Saturday at noon with instructions to nap, drink plenty of water and drive 50 miles to see her.  She took me to an acquaintance whose background includes physical therapy among other homeopathic disciplines, and we spent an hour and a half working on postural analysis and some exercises.  My good ole narcotic had worn off before we crossed his threshold, and the pain level didn’t spike during our session. For five days, pain has exploded as soon as a med wore off… this was nothing short of breathtaking. 

She bundled me off and gave me a good long massage (she insists it was only an hour, but I suspect she fudged the time a bit.)  I insisted on paying her because her partner is on disability right now and money is tight, but she also insists that the next massage is free.  Who am I to argue?  

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I can think again.

I could drive, I could talk on the phone for short bursts, I can remember things.  (Not everything, but it wasn’t a certified miracle.) Pain management is incredible.  

The eagle-eyed might notice that, above, my dentist, for the pleasure of making me cry when he thwacked my already smarting teeth with his instrument, gave me a 10% discount on the nightguard.  Actually, he noted the discount when he found out that I was paying cash.  But still. They both discounted the total price and didn’t charge to expedite the order.  (I’d told them there was a chance I had to be out of town the following week for an interview.)  Good folks.  

We’re not all the way there yet, but lots of deep breathing and judicious use of the painkillers makes an enormous difference. There really seems to be something to this alignment business.  If I can, I’d like to see him one more time to help winnow the pain down to less than a daily occurrence and work on my own from there.