I tried to wait it out for the pinched nerve or "crick" in my neck to work itself out and that didn't work. Then I went on to a chiropractor thinking maybe an adjustment would do me some good. It loosened me up for the night, but by the time I get in bed and sleep for a couple hours, I'm back to the agony and can barely get up the next morning... again. Finally, on Saturday morning when I can barely move and am practically in tears because of the pain, Craig urges me to go to Urgent Care. So off we go...
We get there and there's about 2 people waiting... meh, whatever... I had seen worse. Then a few minutes later, this kid walks in with who I guess was his brother and his mom. I swear he was hacking and coughing and clearly out of it as he was just sitting there with his eyes closed. This poor kid clearly has SARS or something like it and all I can think is "I better not catch that crap". I was not in the most sympathetic of moods. Finally his mom came over and put a surgical mask on him to keep him from spreading the plague.
Anyway, I go back and the doctor sees me and determines that it's more than likely a spine issue. He gave me some anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxers (SWEET!) and told me to go to the Carolina Back Institute when I could get an appointment. I was looking forward to the muscle relaxers because I thought it would make me sleepy enough to sleep through the pain because I had NOT been sleeping. Waking up 4 and 5 times a night in absolute pain didn't make for ideal sleeping conditions.
Long story short, the muscle relaxers weren't all that but they did enough to get me by, which was probably the point. I went to the CBI on Monday and they concluded after x-rays that the top of my spine isn't shaped correctly. I don't really have the "S" going on and it causes the muscles in my neck to over work and probably spasm to hold up my head since my spine isn't shaped to do so. They scheduled me for physical therapy and gave me a shot of lidocaine to help with the pain. Might I add that they had to administer this shot by way of my hiney. I had never experienced that before but I figured "hey, no big deal - it's mostly fat"... ummm, wrong. It was surprisingly painful and I honestly don't know how I'll ever get over this stupid fear of needles, because that certainly didn't help.
She stuck me and after about 2 seconds (literally), I said "Oh my gah, are you serious?!?" Her reply "Yeah, it burns" didn't really comfort me, nor did I feel that it was really an accurate depiction. Oh, and THEN after it was all over, she said "You can rub it". Dang straight I can rub it! I thought she hit the bone! Once again (since this is a pattern when I get shots), I had to sit myself down because I was pretty sure I would throw up at any moment. There is just something about knowing that something is being injected into my body that completely nauseates me to the point of throwing up or passing out. Fun times.
So.. that's been the focus of my last 2 weeks. I am hoping to recover and regain my life back as an active 26 year old. This injury definitely didn't stop me from signing up for softball and volleyball for the fall though. I guess I'll never learn.. :)
