My Own Ugly Truth

 

When I could actually climb up onto something.

So, I've been in a lot of pain lately. It started with blowing out my back on the flight between Santiago and Auckland, but I thought I'd healed from that. My back would twinge off and on, but it wasn't anything I couldn't deal with. I like to think I have a pretty high pain tolerance and I've been doing all the "right" things: working on strengthening my core, keeping mobile, setting up the computer at a place where I could stand comfortably. I walked - a lot - to keep myself limber and probably was too stubborn about it. "Come on, Kid, walk it off!"

Then my back started stiffening up and a week later I had pains shooting down my left leg and it was hard to sleep through the night. I could barely turn over. Sciatica. Not pleasant. I went to massage therapy, not those nice calming massages that you get when you're on vacation, but one of those muscle probing, subcutaneous manipulating massages that leave you bruised, but somehow strangely hopeful.

The joys of a functioning body

That was almost three weeks  ago and I'm still suffering. (I'm hoping that it's improving, but if I don't take ibuprofen or other anti-inflammatory, the pull of the nerve hurts. I've gone to another massage appointment, a physio treatment and one with a chiropractor, but here's the truth of it: I probably should have taken care of it when I first realized I couldn't do the things I normally could. (You know: touch my toes, tie my shoes without discomfort.) I just didn't have it in me. I didn't want to "deal" with finding someone, making arrangements (possibly in Spanish) and figuring out the where, how and how much of it. And my hesitancy led to this. And all because it's different here. 

Me, feeling like Humpty Dumpty

There aren't a lot of walk-in clinics, so you have to get to the doctor's office early, make an appointment (if you're lucky enough) and then return later to get checked out. Then, should I need x-rays, I need to go somewhere else and then return to the doctor to be seen again. Then I started wondering what I'd have to do if I needed an MRI or something. My concerns got the better of me. 

I'm glad to say I'm slowly on the mend (fingers crossed), but my laziness and reluctance to shake up my normal existence got the better of me. I'll never take my flexibility for granted again and will work hard at keeping and improving it. The more obstacles we face, the more comfortable we get, but our hesitancy might be our undoing when a new situation pops up. I guess that's something to take into consideration if you're looking at moving abroad. Can you do what it takes to take care of yourself in a time of crisis. Okay...crisis might be an overstatement, but I've never been in so much pain in my life!