Saturday, April 6, 2019

Now I've really done it

(Thursday)
I woke up at 6:30, went to the bathroom and took the first supplement. I went back to bed but could not sleep. My alarm went off at 7:30. It took me a while to get up. I decided to have the day I had planned for yesterday, ie coffee morning, but without the exercises. My back felt like the lower spine was out of alignment. I went for a short walk to relax it, but it just made it worse. I laid on the bed and twisted my knees to the right and left. I did the push/pull thing, but the bones would not snap back into alignment. I sat against a heating pad and read for awhile. Then I tried stretching again. Since it wasn't spasming, I decided to go ahead with the plan, and took a muscle relaxer. but the first time I laid on the floor I had a hard time getting up again. So I laid on the bed to let the muscle relaxer kick in. I suspected my spine was out of alignment so I performed several exercises designed to allow it to snap back in place. instead, the back got irritated and went into spasm and didn't get up again.
That was around 10:30. My phone was in my purse and Chris didn't get off work until 3:30. needless to say, it was a long afternoon. I ate some banana chips and pecans from a bag at the head of the bed. Then I got a capsule each of pain, muscle relaxer and anti-inflammatory – also at the head of the bed. Finally, there was a can of coconut water and a bendy straw. I washed them all down and finished the water. But, though it all kicked in and made me loopy, it was not enough for me to sit up. And that was very frustrating because it was my only backup plan.
Chris came home and brought me my phone and got me situated. He set up the small laptop and brought me my quart of water, sitting it by my left shoulder. He brought me more meds. I wasn't in a great deal of pain, just my back threatened to spasm if I tried to get up.
That changed. I started feeling better and I forgot about the water. I rolled to the right and the quart measuring cup fell over, splashing cool water on my back. I was startled and my back spasmed again and again. I screamed and tried to make it stop. It was horrible. That muscle hung on for all it was worth, damaging itself in the process. Thereafter anything would set it off. If Chris touched me, or if I thought he might, it spasmed and set off another round of screaming. I threatened to ingest the rest of the pain pills and end it. Chris wished me luck because there were only 3 left. He convinced me to take a second round of everything even though it wasn't time yet.
That night he slept on the couch, running in to help me whenever I called. I could not sleep because I had to tense my butt muscles to get relief for my back. If I dozed off, I got quickly reminded. I had to change position every few seconds. Hyped up on meds, it wasn't quite as bad as it sounds. We considered calling an ambulance, but I wasn't dressed, did NOT want to be moved, and it was raining and cold outside. Plus I knew it would take hours for them to give me something for the pain.

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