Sunday, November 20, 2011

A pain in the neck

How many times have we heard the phrase "a pain in the neck"?  Often it's in reference to someone or something being a pain in our necks.  In my case, today at least, it's a real and genuine pain in my neck!

For the last ten years or so I've dealt with sporadic neck spasms / pain / nerve issues that really and truly knock me out for the count.  The first time it happened I had never been so scared in my life since I didn't know what was happening.  Over the years though I've learned that this happens every six or so months and am therefore not as freaked out when it happens.  That being said, it's very disconcerting to wake up to shooting pain in your neck and to not be able to really move your neck much at all without throbbing pain.

A few times I have landed myself in the urgent care to get it addressed however more often that not, I can address it with pain killers left over from my last visit in to take care of the pain.  Grant it, I have a relatively  high thresh-hold for pain so I do tend to deal with more than I probably should.  I also therefore physically do more than I probably should given what's going on.  I'll take the meds to mask the pain and continue my life as usual when instead I should be laying low and letting my body heal itself.

This pain in the neck should be a wake up call to take care of myself but instead I shrug it off and keep going.  I suppose I'm really being a pain in my own neck both figuratively and literally!

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