In Pain... (pretty unbearable pain too)

Note: I was only able to finish writing this after the pain was gone. Similar to the eye problem.

I thought I dealt well with pain... after all, I had two completely unmedicated births and I didn't even take the Motrin that the nurses brought for me after the boys were born.

yeah... ibuprofen, who knew I'd be so thankful for it today, 9 and 7 years later.

I've always been pretty "brave" regarding minor aches and pains (although I have taken acetaminophen for headaches in the past), but I had never experienced the kind of pain I experienced this week -- lower back pain.

I blame it all on carrying the laptop in addition to my heavy bookbag on Tuesday to the university. Then, sitting for two hours in a conference room in which the chairs were too high for me to reach the floor and type of the computer at the same time.

On Wednesday I felt back pain all day long (bad enough that breathing , but didn't take anything). Then, that evening I decided to do the stretches that I do when I have (mild) lower back pain before going to bed and that was a really bad idea! I woke up feeling really bad pain at 5:49 am on Thursday morning. I took children's ibuprofen, the only kind I had. It helped a lot, and I was able to go back to sleep for a little big more. The day wasn't that bad, especially because standing up and sitting felt way better than laying down.

On Thursday evening I was feeling a lot of pain again, so I took a long hot shower and the kids' ibuprofen (three pills, 300 mg -- more than the dose of the regular adult kind, which is weird, since it's the dosage for kids 11-14 years old or something).

Well... that didn't help much because at 1 am I woke up feeling horrible, unbearable pain. I could hardly bear to get out of bad and it was so scary! Mostly because K was gone to a conference and I was home alone with the boys. Thankfully, K was online and I chatted with him on skype and got the idea of using the heating pad (humid heat with water on that little sponge that can be inserted under the cover). Well... the heat helped immediately and I waited until 2 am (5 hours since my taking my last ibuprofen) to take more medication -- four 100mg kids' tablets. Sleeping on the office chair wasn't helping, so I went to bad, with the heating pad still attached to my back and in the high heat. The pad didn't leave my back for nearly 24h (with breaks to get the kids ready for school and taking them, and picking them up and, obviously! going to the store to buy "real" Advil) and that helped!

Thankfully I was feeling better in the evening and K came back. I used the hot pad (and took ibuprofen) last night and I still felt some pain on my hip. Today I decided not to take any medication and then we went for a hike in the afternoon. I was extra careful walking down to the waterfall and back, and really afraid that my back would get worse, but it actually feels OK and I will try to go to bed without taking Advil and without the heat pad. Wish me luck!

Now I totally understand why people with chronic pain or with acute pains and aches really really need to take pain medication! Being in pain is just horrible and feels inhumane. Really, we cannot feel normal and do normal activities while in pain. People who do so are heroes, in my mind at least (and I know there are millions of people who do).

I know my pain was NOTHING compared to what other people feel. I hope this experience can help me be more compassionate towards others in pain. And from now on I'll be EXTRA careful with my posture.