Going Au Natural

Last week the back pain was still an issue. Was OK during the day, but really flaring up at night. Generic ibuprofen was not cutting it and I was waking up 4-5 times a night. My sleep was being compromised more and more and that is my huge trigger for drinking.

Besides the sleep issue, the reason why this pain is such a concern is that my mom has had chronic back pain her entire life. My sister was just diagnosed with collapsed discs from the middle of her back up to her neck. So when I started to have pain, I was wondering if this was just the beginning of a course that would extend through the rest of my life.

Friday, I started to experience back and shoulder pain. Perhaps because I was hunched over a desk for a few hours. I was so tight and tense, I decided to get a massage, despite our goal to pinch pennies.

I stopped by a Thai Massage place on the way home. I had gotten a few chair massages from them and they were good. I told the women my pain symptoms and she laid me on a padded mat and got to work.

I wondered why they didn't have tables and I soon found out. I was lifting my legs, rotating my hips out, and she was going to town on my left buttock...it was very interactive. Forgive my ignorance, but I thought Thai massage meant that a Thai person did it, not that it was a different style. For the next two nights, no pain. Gone. Zip. Nada.

I drove down to Phoenix with my mom, and a little sciatic came back from being in the car for 5 hours, but nothing like before. I had already scheduled an appointment with an acupuncturist, so I wanted to give it a shot. She worked with me on a sliding scale.

Afterwards, I felt fantastic. Wonderful. It's so hard to describe. What little sciatic pain I had, gone.

To sum it all up, I tapped into some natural resources and found relief. My natural reflex was rush to a chiropractor and if my back stretches didn't work as a last resort - pain meds from my doc. My husband bought me a zero-gravity machine and I'm getting the hang of it. I'm learning that healing- physically, spiritually and emotionally, can happen for me, in places that I least expect it.