And then it STOPPED.
So uh, that neck thing that made my life a living hell all summer? It just stopped. The same thing happened last year- right around spring things got brutal and continued through summer. Neck Pain Crisis 2011 was met with an onslaught of PT, acupuncture, massage, and exercises that I dutifully performed several times daily. It was a big drain of both time and money, but right around September, I had a sense of triumph because I was about 85% pain-free.
Neck Pain Crisis 2012 involved a trip to the worlds priciest chiropractor who produced zero results over a few visits. I threw in the towel and accepted the fact that I was going to be in miserable pain for a while with no forseeable end. The second the weather got kinda fall-ish, suddenly, it stopped. No therapy, no change in lifestyle, no magical supplement. Just no more pain.
On the one hand...
Holy shit, I have so many more hours in the day! I can like, go out and do things without turning into a pain pumpkin at 6:00pm. I can do those things WEARING A BACKPACK (couldn't before), and those things involve talking to people. I can turn my head to see if a car is coming without wincing in agony. And now I feel like I have more money because I'm not pissing away everything I earn on therapy, which I apparently didn't even really need, as this shit just goes away when its not hot.
On the other....
What the fuck kind of pain gets BETTER in cold weather? The answer to all chronic pain is heat. Brutal work out? Go to the sauna. Need to relax? Hot tub. Got a cramp? Heating pad. I make my living off of people's muscles being happier and more flexible in heat. Yet somehow, the second temperatures dipped under 70, I became a new man.
And what does this mean for 2013? Should I like, not make spring/summer plans because I know I'm going to be curled up in agony? Should I just find some means of getting to another hemisphere so I can live in a state of perpetual winter so I can stay mobile and happy?
Its all pretty mysterious. Working theory- I have some structure in my cervical vertebrae that swells in heat, and that swelling puts pressure on a nerve and that nerve makes everything suck. SCIENCE. If someone has anything better, I'm all ears.
Neck Pain Crisis 2012 involved a trip to the worlds priciest chiropractor who produced zero results over a few visits. I threw in the towel and accepted the fact that I was going to be in miserable pain for a while with no forseeable end. The second the weather got kinda fall-ish, suddenly, it stopped. No therapy, no change in lifestyle, no magical supplement. Just no more pain.
On the one hand...
Holy shit, I have so many more hours in the day! I can like, go out and do things without turning into a pain pumpkin at 6:00pm. I can do those things WEARING A BACKPACK (couldn't before), and those things involve talking to people. I can turn my head to see if a car is coming without wincing in agony. And now I feel like I have more money because I'm not pissing away everything I earn on therapy, which I apparently didn't even really need, as this shit just goes away when its not hot.
On the other....
What the fuck kind of pain gets BETTER in cold weather? The answer to all chronic pain is heat. Brutal work out? Go to the sauna. Need to relax? Hot tub. Got a cramp? Heating pad. I make my living off of people's muscles being happier and more flexible in heat. Yet somehow, the second temperatures dipped under 70, I became a new man.
And what does this mean for 2013? Should I like, not make spring/summer plans because I know I'm going to be curled up in agony? Should I just find some means of getting to another hemisphere so I can live in a state of perpetual winter so I can stay mobile and happy?
Its all pretty mysterious. Working theory- I have some structure in my cervical vertebrae that swells in heat, and that swelling puts pressure on a nerve and that nerve makes everything suck. SCIENCE. If someone has anything better, I'm all ears.