Day Three

I woke up two days ago with a neck cramp, and I thought nothing of it. I just couldn't comfortably turn my head one direction. I decided that I'd offer up any pain I had for the souls of my grandparents. But as the day went on, it became worse and worse. I took some aspirin and went to bed. Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke up with excruciating pain and slept the rest of the night in the recliner, which lessened it just a tad.

Yesterday, I woke up with a very bad neck cramp and could not turn my head at all. By the end of the day, I'd ingested as many Ibuprofin as the label allows, used a heating pad, switched to ice after reading on WebMD that I should have done that in the first place, and found that, by the time I stood crying in the hallway because the girls hadn't put their pajamas on yet, I could ALSO not tilt my head back. I had a talk with God about not realizing that I was supposed to suffer with this neck pain the entire time they are in Purgatory! I also asked Saint Therese, Saint Claire of Asissi, and Saint Bernadette to help me to bear it well. (I did bear it pretty well until the bedtime incident, though my thinking was kind of cloudy at times. Funny how when you can't move well nothing seems to work well in your body.) I slept in the recliner again last night and continued to put an ice pack on for 20 minutes per hour.

This morning, it felt a little bit better, but I know that it will most likely get worse throughout the day. I'm trying to hurry the girls through breakfast so I can go to urgent care at my doctor's office. We're bringing coloring, reading, etc. I am not making coffee because I can't tilt my head back enough to drink it. I'm still trying to offer this up, but I'd really like a little relief. Our big BBQ will have to be cancelled if I wake up like this tomorrow, though I'll still have Big Girl's belated birthday party. But right now, I'm praying that the doctor can come up with some wicked good painkillers that will get me through this pain. I've never had a neck pain that is this bad or lasts this long. Even swallowing hurts the muscles down the sides of my neck. Yesterday, there were times when opening my mouth to eat was painful.

So...if you could, please send prayers up for me. God's will, always, but I'd really love it if His will includes me not wanting to cry all day because I can't move.