Ah! My Aching Back!

So my back has been killing me for about three weeks at least. At first I was blaming it on PMS. Then on M. But those are both over for a couple of days. I have nothing to blame it on now. Except for maybe, crappy genetics.

Several years back I royally put my back out. I was getting on my bike and as I was putting my leg over, something slipped. I had to phone a friend to pick me up. I could barely walk. I was flat out on my back for a week. My physiotherapist at the time told me my pelvis was out of alignment. Whatever. It hurt.

This is not nearly as bad as that. But it's giving me glimpses of that past experience, how very bad it was and how very incapable of looking after myself I was. I stayed with my mother during that week and she looked after me as if I was a baby. The problem is, now I have a baby of my own. I don't have time to have a sore back. I worry about being able to pick her up, put her in her bed. Looking after her requires me to not have a sore back.

As it is, I can barely bend over. I have to brace myself. While I was working on Saturday I was putting foils into my clients hair. Mid foil I sneezed and nearly did a face plant into my foil. My knees just totally gave out on me. That is the sort of thing that scares me to death. I imagine myself laying on the floor, unable to move, in horrible pain. Especially if it ever happened at home. I'm contemplating getting one of those buttons you where around your neck that notify the hospital that “I've fallen and I can't get up.”

On Monday I went to a friend who knows about injuries. He said my back was very tight. That it likely tightened up to protect my spine. He tried to loosen it up. Getting it worked on felt good and it also felt bad. You see I have a very high pain tolerance. I've known this for some time but then it is reaffirmed for me. Like on Monday when my friend used something like this



to work on my back. It helps him drill into the muscle and loosen it up. He told me there is only one other person that he has ever worked on as hard. I am so proud. Proud of the amount of abuse I can endure. I just kept telling myself that it was for the greater good. It would loosen my back up. It would make me feel better. I did feel better, for a while. I was sore in a new way. In a way that felt more like I'd been kicked in the @ss a few times by a horse.

So I am feeling a bit better. I think I may have to go see my 'friend' again. Since my tushie already looks like this...



(Didn't you all want to see my bum? Admit it.)
...it will be interesting to see how much bigger the bruises can get. I really don't care. I just want to feel normal again. Or at least, for my back to feel normal anyway.