A Backsaver ...

I've spent the last ten days working on a story, which I'm probably a little more than halfway done with. I've been working on it a lot. I'm talking 25,000+ words in ten days. This also means I've been sitting -- a lot. I'm prone to having problems with my back and all this writing is really messing with it. I've been trying to move from place to place, so I'm not sitting too long. I've also been exercising everyday and trying to eat healthier. But even so, 25,000+ words involves a lot of sitting.

I get tell-tale signs when these spasms are about to hit. Not only do I feel the spasms in my back, but it runs all the way through my chest, causing pain and making me nauseous. As soon as I get that chest pain and nausea, I know the spasms are coming and there's no stopping them. I've been to the ER in the middle of the night because of this. Now I keep meds on hand to help me deal with it. I have to take a combo of three different things, just to relax the muscles, keep me from throwing up, and letting me sleep. And almost always, these spasms hit me in the middle of the night. Not today ...

I woke up at 6am with the symptoms. I was bummed because Rick is off work on Mondays and we planned on either kayaking or going to up Glacier, or both. I didn't want to take all my meds at 6am and be a zombie all day. I don't think I could handle it. So, I took some Excedin Back & Body and put my massager pad on my bed. Rick bought this thing for me recently. It's kind of rough and actually bruised my back at first, so now I use it with a blanket over it to lessen the impact. After about an hour, I noticed the spasms letting up. I'm still leaning on it, but it's helping! I can't tell you how happy I am because when these spasms hit, they're bad -- really, really bad. So, here I sit on my little torture pad, which seems to be doing its job. Maybe we can get up to the park after all.