Acknowledging aging with focus on pain management and prevention

There is talk that my continuous on and off again immobility in my neck and shoulder area could be due some sort of degenerative disc condition.

That’s what my partner says. He thinks I should get an X-ray to make sure. Find out one way or the other, get a diagnosis, and some sort of prevention details or treatment. Because frankly, this condition has been affecting my mobility every few months, and it’s getting quite tiresome.

So I guess I’ll go see my doctor and ask for some imaging.

Last January I was in so much pain, I couldn’t move my right arm. I had to drive a kid home from somewhere, in the van no less which requires a little muscle power to turn the wheel, so that was not fun. I almost asked my kid sitting next to me to help me turn it, it was so excruciating.

That was a pinched nerve in my neck and it took several months to treat with physio therapy, and some focused strength and resistance exercises.

My arm feels fine now, and as long as I’m mindful of posture (on the couch with phone in hand, for example), I have managed to stay pain free in that area.

Until this past weekend.

Over 🇨🇦 Thanksgiving, I was incapacitated in a different way: my head, not my arm, was locked up. I couldn’t look up, or left. At all.

Turning my head to the right was uncomfortable but not painful, but my psychological reaction was to not move my head at all which probably tensed me up even more.

Sleeping was excruciating…there was only one position that was somewhat manageable, but you try to sleep in one position for seven, eight hours without moving and tell me how comfortable that is.

It wasn’t. And to make matters worse, I had to get up several times throughout the night.

Sometimes I hate being female.

Ask me how I managed to cook an entire Thanksgiving meal on Sunday…well I did mostly because looking down was not painful. 🙄

I did do some pre-cooking, and my parents brought stuff, and my amazing family cleaned up after the meal so all in all the gobble gobble was fine. 🦃

I ended up spending most of yesterday morning (prior to cooking) as well as half the night (after eating and guests have left) making compressions with castor oil, and alternating heat with cold. This is supposed to flush out the inflammation. Plus I took the maximum allowable amount of ibuprofen.

Sometimes pain medication is a wonderful thing… 🙂

Then, I distracted myself by watching the season premiere of The Walking Dead. 🙃💟 #twd

Today, I managed to wake up slightly less stiff.

But going forward, I can’t have this situation continue to disrupt my life. I need my mobility, I got kids to schlep to the rink. I don’t want to be dependent on anyone, and I really do prefer to be pain free.

So, I will go see my doctor, and go to another massage, continue with chiropractic and physio, and diligently do my exercises.

Getting older blows.