The weekend pain report

It was a mixed bag this weekend.

Friday night we had dinner with friends and I was feeling great. No pain, I don't think, or if there was pain it wasn't so bad that I was aware of it. (That sounds crazy, right? But, honestly, sometimes I'll think I'm pain free and then I think about it for a second and realize that I am, in fact, in pain but it's low grade so I'm able to just ignore it because it's become the norm.)

But then most of the weekend I battled some kind of pain in my back and sacrum. The two main problems seemed to be my sciatic nerve on my right side, which makes it difficult to put foot to the floor, and just a general, underlying burning, tingling and soreness that radiated from my tailbone all the way down the backs of my thighs and to my feet. The best way I can explain it is that it's almost as if I sunburned the back of my legs and butt really bad. You know that feeling of general soreness and constant burning? That's what it feels like. Sometimes I can ignore it pretty good and power through, and sometimes it just gets too much. Like yesterday, when I ended up sitting most of the morning on my zero-gravity lounger in the back yard, with an ice-pack on my back. Eventually I gave in and took two mega pain-pills/NSAIDs, which killed the pain dead, because I'm just not the kind of girl who can sit around all day. (Plus, my daughter is not the kind of girl who wants to let me!) The success of the NSAIDS tells me the problem is nerve inflammation still. Boo, hiss.

Then there was my psoas playing up again, making it difficult to walk sometimes. When it pinches on my right side, putting my foot in front of me and bearing weight makes it feel like someone strummed the muscle like a guitar string.

As for what I did to deserve this... who knows? I haven't done a lick of housework and have been very careful not to overdo it in the walking, standing, or sitting department. I'm doing my utmost best to bend down exactly as I have been taught (as in never bend down - squat or lunge).

Yesterday I skipped my PT exercises, just to give myself a rest because the pain was gone and I had no intention of flaring it back up again. This morning I feel pretty good. No sciatic pain, a little burning in my sacrum, psoas so far quiet. Maybe I just needed a rest? Who knows? Either way, we power on through another week because there is no other option.

This weekend Hubby and I spent some time alone in the yard while Daisy napped and he decided to do some digging. We're slowly but surely getting some stuff done in our huge yard; it's full of potential but it's owners lack the time or money to devote to a full-on re-landscaping. Anyway, I was watching Hubby do his thing and remembered a time not so long ago when I would have been standing right next to him with a shovel in hand, holding my own. I used to be so fit and strong and had so much energy! I really hope I can get back to that person but I still don't have complete confidence it will ever happen. I remain hopeful but with a twinge of doubt.