It is well known that everyone hurts from time to time. It can be an emotional ache as well as a physical one. The difference is in how we deal with it.
Now, with the obvious differences when it comes to dealing with pain in any sense, we all do one thing that happens to be common.... We talk about it. Well, most of us do. There does come a time when the pain is constant and talking about it to another person becomes more of a deterrent than an attempt to connect with another with that common thread. I guess the best phrase to describe this is if you constantly complain, people will not want to be around you. Kind-of like the little boy who cried wolf one too many times, what you say can lose it's value, impact, or importance.
It is well known that there has been a strong track record of less-than happy and comfortable moments in my life. Between the friction that happens between DH and I as well as issues with my back, teeth, and whatnot... I would appear to be a less than ideal person to be around, but I try to be the opposite. I usually mask the negative with a smile and try to spin what I really feel with some sharply sarcastic view when people choose to speak to me. In fact, I have had a few conversations with people that had them laughing at my expense.
Just yesterday, my best friend had a little time to give me a call to see how I am doing. I understand that she is very busy with her job and the time difference makes it difficult to call as needed, so when she calls (or if I call her), it is a Cliffs Notes version of what we talk about because time is of the essence. While she asked how things are going with me after her brief synopsis of what is going on with her, I gave her the best rendition of a comedy of events that has happened to me. Between the two dentist appointments, the two doctor appointments, the round of antibiotics, the tension that is rolling off DH's and my backs over finances to pay for all this, and the final reprieve for a week... I had her laughing, but she knows it is not exactly all that funny going through it. Of course, at that very moment she called, I was on my way to the chiropractor for yet another annoyance that makes my day a little more difficult, but it was not the usual location in my spine that needed tending to... it was my neck.
With my history of back spasms that I swear can wake me from a dead sleep, I could easily accept this being a part of my life. No matter how often or not that I go to see my chiropractor, I will have these issues. I know that if I lose the needed weight, it will ease up a little, but it will never truly go away forever and that is a part of my life I am beginning to accept. With years under my belt of this problem, I decided to not share with DH my misery. It is really because his response to my mention of the pain and the lack of ability to sleep in our bed for the full night is usually silence or a mention for me to "suck it up and deal with it on my own because he doesn't share every ache and pain to me". Basically, I see this as his frustration rearing its ugly head and really, who wants to be pushed down when they need a lift up? My reluctance to mention to DH that I am in pain is because I really do not want to be talked down to anymore. I have no doubt that there are others that feel the same and remain quiet just because of it in their lives. Some may hide it in overcompensating with the opposite acts of saying that they feel fine and dandy, but in the grand scheme of things... they are keeping the mention of hurting silent.
Well, apparently my back issues pale in comparison to pinching a nerve in my neck because usually one adjustment fixes the problem for a while. I got adjusted to alleviate the pain that travels down my shoulder and gives me a tingling sensation in a few of my fingers and I am still just as sore and tingly today as I was yesterday and the day before. As I laid on that table face down, I got to hear my chiropractor's assessment of my situation. Since I have no clue what I could have done to tweak my neck and shoulders, he mentions the obvious to me and I had to laugh. I most likely managed to injure myself through a combination of things.... sleeping in a twisted fashion, the use of keeping my hands raised to use the computer, the raised hands of being a hairdresser at work, and stress. Really, all it takes to make a misalignment in the spine is something so small and insignificant (like muscle tension) and nerves get pinched and pain reigns.
As the chiropractor tried to loosen the tense muscles in my neck, I had to make a joke about the stress comment. He happens to know, as well as many others that happen to really know me, that stress is what keeps me going. Stress of trying to make ends meet after this triathlon of professionals I had to turn to in slightly over a month and I have one more on the horizon. Yep, the "lady parts" doctor will be getting a call about something that is missing in my monthly routine and will probably result in yet another round of something that a pharmacist will be filling to fix the problem if it does not get here in a couple more weeks. I am just waiting for that one diagnosis to come up and I will no longer have to pay such close attention to it anymore, but apparently, the last round of blood tests said I am not there yet and I will have to deal with these misfired little misfits until it happens. I am apparently not at the right age, but I feel I am physically well beyond it, if you ask me. Oh well, I just have to wait and see if I have to deal with yet another doctor for that. No need to count the chickens before they hatch, so to speak.
So, when it comes to pain - any kind of pain you feel - remember that even if we suffer in silence, we do not suffer alone. I am walking and talking proof of that. I sure hope that everyone feels relief from the pains of life and even the stress that life causes. Time for me to pop a Tylenol and stretch some more. Just sharing my thoughts is making my right shoulder hurt just a little more and I think my thumb on my right hand is getting numb. I have stuff to do and it won't get done if I nurse this annoyance any longer than it needs to be, so have a great day everyone and thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment