Out of the pain cave

It's been a tough couple weeks. I really don't know what began the story, but a while ago my left shoulder started hurting, and after a while it hurt enough that deep breathing was painful. Then it sort of got better, then abruptly worse after I slept on it wrong. Either that or I was kidnapped and tortured by aliens during the night.

Then the pain migrated down my back. It got to the point that rolling over in bed was an exercise in pain management. One night I went downstairs to sleep on my yoga mat so the quiet shrieks wouldn't wake up Linda.

At some point along the way I started taking Robaxisal, which is an act of desperation. That got the shoulder relaxed, a bit, to the point I could mostly breath again. My back was so tight last week the Chiro /ART guy couldn't hardly make anything move, and was afraid to try harder. I told my massage therapist that she had to go easy on me, or I'd cry. At one point, just touching the muscles in my back was painful.

Between the drugs, gentle massage, two chiro/art sessions, careful and gentle stretching, I'm finally back to where lying down and rolling over in bed isn't painful. One could touch my back and not have me whimper. I'm still awfully tight and creaky, but at least I can (mostly) breath now.

It's such a nice day out that it would be a shame not to at least attempt to run. The rest of the week is supposed to be nice but you never know. This could be the last day of summer. You never know when the snow is going to fly again.

I carefully stretched 15 minutes, then started running very easy. I could feel how tight I was in the hips and low back. It made running feel very stiff and awkward. I only ran 30 minutes nice and easy. That was enough to start getting my legs tired, and while I wasn't gasping, I was having to work to breathe. It was like my lungs were really high in my chest and I couldn't get enough air. Still, my heart rate was about where I expected it to be, so I did two gentle surges. I wouldn't call them strides, just putting a bit more effort into running a bit faster for a short space. Walked another 10 minutes to cool down.

It was nice to be out and running, even if it was slow and stiff. Next time will be better.