I’ve been on the path of recovery for a couple of weeks now, with the back getting steadily better. Day before yesterday, I was pretty much at 100% and very happy about it.
Yesterday, I woke up with a crick in the neck. Incredibly annoying, and a bit of a set back, but not a horrible deal. I relaxed most of the day, and went in to coach at the dojo. I decided to train when only a few people showed up and just take it easy. We worked very slowly and it was actually kind of nice.
I then went out with Bryan to Caseys and we hung out for a little while. My neck and shoulders were getting progressively tighter and more hurty. I came home pretty early, and ended up crashing out at around 1 am. After about 5 hours of intermittent sleep, I had to get up because the pain was getting bad enough that I couldn’t find a comfortable position.
When I got up, I literally couldn’t find any position that didn’t hurt. And it was starting to hurt pretty bad. So I was starting to think maybe I had a seriously pinched nerve, and it was time to see someone about it. Of course, being the 4th of July, my Doctor’s office was closed. So I called around to some urgent care places, all of which were either closed due to the holiday, or regularly don’t open until 1:30 in the afternoon (how is that urgent?).
So, I went to the hospital. Yep. It was that bad. I was really unhappy. So, knowing this wasn’t an emergency, I brought a couple of books and headed down to the hospital down the street.
Apparently, 6:30 am on the 4th of July is the best possible time to go to the hospital. They took me right in, and I saw a doctor within 5 minutes. Turns out my blood pressure was way up, which isn’t too surprising since I was also clenching my jaw and making fists from the suckage.
Turns out that the Doc thinks the nerve isn’t a big deal. Instead, my right Trapezius muscle has gone apeshit and is clenching up eight ways to sunday. He said this is fairly common when you’re going through recovery of this kind. You’ll feel great, all better, and then wham, muscles freak out. He said to expect 4-6 weeks for things to fully recover and gave me a scrip for painkillers and muscle relaxants.
So now I have one painkiller and one muscle relaxant in me, and I feel almost human. I’m going to try and get some more sleep here in a bit.
I love getting old.