My Prescription

10:14 AM 11/23/05
`     Last nite was another one where I retreated to the sofa, and couldn't quite finish some important household projects  .... let alone do anything outside that should have been done with more snow predicted.
     I finished up my food prep/freezing enough to get my kitchen back to normal.  Then, I found out that my freezer section was not working.  Hoping that it was that ice had built up inside ... I did a major defrosting.
     That doesn't sound too physical ... but my back had pain all day.  I was wondering if it was either a cumulative effect of several days of doing a little snow removal each day ... or just the final push the day before yesterday?  OR .... ?
     So, I slept pretty well ... decided to "get up" about five am ... which usually means going to go back to the sofa several times while getting loosened up. 
    The severe pain is gone; mostly I just have severe muscle-type aches & pains in my mid & lower  back. 
    Could my aspirins ... which I used to take to relax ... contribute to a funk/blue/despondent mood sometimes?  Or, is it just that I am so overwhelmed trying to catch up on all my tasks, and then, have to give up until my back says so?

7:07 AM 11/26/05
     Thanksgiving day and the next, I went out of town for a family visit ... which means that mostly I laid around and did NOTHING.  That means that my back is feeling relatively pain-free.  There is some stiffness and minor aches as I get "loosened up" for the day ...      So again, the prescription to alleviate  back pain & agony is just  for me to become a couch potato ... and, improve upon that even further by sipping gin all day to keep my back relaxed ...  MAYBE I COULD LEARN TO LIKE THAT!

5:41 AM 11/27/05
          I had a long, fairly sound sleep ... woke up a few times trying to find a comfortable way to lie in bed.  Now, aside from the usual muscle-type stiff & sore ... I am sitting at the computer, afraid to get up right away.  I got a terrific, painful kink in my left hip & lower back ... made me think for a moment that I might not ever be able to get out of the chair again.  Right now, my back doesn't actually HURT too much ... tho when I move around, there is pain in my lower ribs, and the base of my neck ... and ... my lower back.  These areas can have independent soreness &/or pain.
     I took three aspirins ... certainly wish that I had some gin to relax that back.  I don't know when I'll be able to try to get back to bed!

9:12 AM 11/27/05
     Well, I did sit here at the computer a long time ... the awful cramp & pain went away, and I did start to move around a bit.
     My back is still stiff & sore, but, much better than when I first got up!
     There usually seems to be no direct, immediate cause & effect to either the pain or relief.  I am trying to figure some out.
     Besides my findings that the couch potato/sipping gin system is the only consistantly effective procedure ... another fairly consistant observation is that I have noticed that whatever hurts most often seems to be the ONLY problem at that point in time ... NOT ...  it is only the one more noticeable.  ANOTHER: The pain often "spreads" UP my back ... when my neck hurts ... everything else is also unbearable.  My lower back is just about never "normal".  The worse it feels ... pain begets tension, which begets more pain, which begets even more pain.  This ends up expanding the area of discomfort/pain up,  up, up my back progressively.  However, each of the three or four areas of problems often act independently, also.  I haven't gotten it all figured out yet!

1:38 AM 11/28/05
     After a few hours of sleep, I needed to move around a bit, & take a few aspirins.  I had left a lot of things undone last nite, so, maybe I'll be up early and do them.
     Right now, my lower rib section is the main problem ... it is at the moderate ache level.