Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Even the blue chair couldn't help

It was another tough night sleeping. The pain in my upper back didn't relent despite the ibuprofen and Tylenol swapping on and off. My father mentioned on Sunday and again yesterday that heat works for him as opposed to ice. For me, ice has always been the pain reliever of choice after my normal types of injuries (and they've been many). But after repeated mentions by my dad, LL saying ice is best only during the first 24-36 hours after injury and my desire to try anything that even MIGHT work, I got a heating pad out that my folks had gotten me for Christmas.

It's a cool little pad that's filled with beans or something and you microwave it for 90 seconds and it retains the heat very well. You can even wet down the exterior prior to microwaving and get sort of a damp heat. On top of all of that, it smells like apple sauce!! Awesome. Plus it did offer some relief.

Unfortunately, I could only sleep until about 3, which was about 4 hours of sleep and about when my medicine was wearing off. Since I couldn't fall back asleep and didn't want to disturb LL anymore, I headed to the basement and the blue lazy boy. This chair is what I slept in for a few weeks during my shoulder surgery and it's very comfortable. Unfortunately, it wasn't working for me last night so I headed over to the sofa and slept on my right side. Surprisingly, I got another four hours of sleep.

However, when I woke up and tried to move, the pain was pretty unbearable once again. We're talking about a 9 on a 10 point scale. It was pretty awful. Down the chute when another round of pills and on went the apple sauce wrap. Later on in the morning....or maybe in the afternoon, I actually started to feel some relief. The pain has come down to a 6 now on the pain scale. Hopefully the treatments will continue to have a positive effect. Tomorrow afternoon is my doctor's appointment, so hopefully I'll get a good diagnosis and appropriate treatment.

2 comments:

terri said...

That sounds like some pretty severe pain... not your typical minor injury. You might try alternating heat and cold. That's supposed to be helpful. Glad to hear your seeing the doctor. At the very least you can rule out anything truly serious. Hope you're feeling better soon.

el supremo de nm said...

I don't know if you remember but Wife had severe back issues in January. We tried ice to begin with but when we went to the doctor, he said that most of the time if it is muscular back spasms, once the first 24 hours is over, heat is the answer because you need to get the muscles to relax. That plus lots of anti-inflammatory and muscle relaxants.