Ha ha.
You may laugh. Go ahead, get it out of your system. It is a bit comical, in retrospect.
Yesterday was Labor Day, and I decided to spend the day getting caught up on a lot of things. I have a little routine that works exceedingly well when I have a variety of things to get done, and it works like this: I identify all the readings that currently need to be done for school. I set my microwave timer for 30 minutes, and I get to work reading. As I'm reading, if things come to mind that need to get done, I write them down on a little post-it note that I keep next to my books. After 30 minutes go by, I reset my timer for 15 minutes and go to work on my post-it note to-do list. (It's kind of funny, after only 3o minutes I don't quite feel ready for a break... but I think I have learned that it's best to take a break before you really need it anyway.) Anyway, the item from my to-do list I most often find myself doing is laundry. It works out really well, because a typical load takes 45 minutes or less to wash and then to dry, so I get a lot done.
Fast forward to the story. I'm down in the basement, on my 15 minute break, and I'm transferring wet clothes from the washer up into the dryer (our W/D is a stackable unit). After separating the wet clothes which don't go into the dryer from the ones that do, I bend down to get another bunch of wet clothes, and suddenly I feel my back ...shift. I can't really explain it. You know how when you crack a knuckle, you feel the joint kind of shift in position? Only in that case, it doesn't hurt. I was in pain instantly. I tried to straighten up and that hurt, too. I forced myself to stand up straight, knowing that I was going to have to get myself up the 12 or so stairs to our kitchen door. I took baby steps to the bottom of the staircase and went up one stair at a time. Once in the kitchen, I figured I had muscled through about all that I could. I called for Josh and tried to explain how I could stand in front of him looking pain-free but couldn't lean forward in the slightest. Ugh! The only thing worse than the pain was not knowing how to fix it, or when it would go away.
We learned from Josh's aunt that I had probably overextended my back, and that although I didn't identify the pain as muscular, it was likely that the muscles surrounding my messed up joint had tightened up and that until I could get them to relax I was going to be in pain. I began my regimen of ibuprofen and heat packs, and started to consider how this was going to change the week. I have already missed a day of clinical and a shift at work... we'll just see how far this takes me. :(
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