Friday, May 28, 2010

A world of pain

The last couple of weeks I've found my back giving me quite a bit of trouble. I had been at the point where I was only going to the chiro every two months for maintenance adjustments but two weeks ago, almost a month short of my next scheduled visit, I was in enough pain to justify an early appointment.
After the appointment my back was still a little niggly but I assumed it would settle down and I would make it through the seven weeks until my final appointment before flying overseas. I would end up being very wrong with that assumption...

This week, as I mentioned in my last post has been very quiet on the gardening front and I only worked the one day, a six hour job at a complex we do in swanky Claremont. This job is done on a weekly basis and every week is much the same - we put down the wheelie bins and then clean them when they're emptied, we sweep both driveways and carports and then depending on how much time we have and what needs doing we rake the lawns, sweep all the footpaths, deadhead roses, clear garden beds and do any trimming that needs to be done. Lately I've been waging a war on several deciduous trees that have gotten the urge to shed their leaves and show the world just what their undergarments are made of. That means that this week I had a lot of sweeping and raking to do and anyone who has ever spent several hours at these kind of tasks know that it's not as easy as it sounds. It's actually rather hard work, you work up a nasty sweat and you also spend the majority of the time twisting to one side.

It was this twisting I think that lead to my current problems. Yesterday I was sitting in bed reading, moved to get more comfy and felt the air rush from my lungs as a sharp pain ripped through the middle of my back. Those of you poor sods who have back problems will be familiar with that nasty feeling of a pinched nerve and I apologise for the wince that I know crossed your faces as you remembered your own pain. As soon as I could hobble to the phone I made an appointment for today and then spent the rest of the night in that agonizing state of immobility - your muscles ache from tensing them as you try to avoid making any sudden movements that will lead to that excruciating moment when you realise that lifting your arm just so causes all the pain centres in your brain to turn on the red flashing lights and sirens.

My chiro appointment today went well, or so my chiro and I believed. It was painful in it's own way but he was confident that he had ironed out most of the wrinkles and that he wouldn't need to see me until my original next appointment. I was feeling rather spritely as I left and headed round to the house of one of my best friends whom I was spending the day with. Unfortunately one of the first things he did was give me one of those rib cracking hugs that I generally adore. Today it just made me shriek, followed by several whimpers that a milk deprived pup would be proud of.

And so I rang my chiro back and made an appointment for tomorrow morning. I'm just hoping that the inflammation has gone down enough for another adjustment :(
My friend was kind enough to call my night fill job and inform them I wouldn't be in tonight which I was a little worried about. Being part time means I have very little sick pay and with it being so quiet at my other job I really didn't want to have to have a day off but I wouldn't have been any use anyway. Night fill is such a physical job and I can't see me dragging around heavy pallets of drinks with a pinched nerve, especially since tonight I was vomiting from the pain.

Finger's crossed and if anyone runs across a spare back on the black market, let me know!

4 comments:

oppiejoe said...

I too suffer from chronic back pain (yes, I winced - it's o.k. *smootch*) I sit here with a dull ache as I type.

Anyhow... I hope you are able to find some relief from your chiro visits Nettie.

*gentle hugs*

Smerk said...

You have my sympathies. And at least you do the right thing and bring your appointment with the chiro forward. I always tough it out the full eight weeks (which I really shouldn't have done last time).

DavePrime said...

I'm So sorry you are hurting, Luv. Nothing in the world hurts quite like back pain. (I won't list the little 'refinements' it causes here, you already know most of them firsthand, I'm sure.)

May you have the time and energy for LOTS of long, HOT showers and baths! (And hopefully some time to rest your back and let it heal...)

I'll be thinking of you this week. :)

Mouse said...

Maybe you should find some sort of back supporting cushion for the plane trip.