Pain free - the way I want to be

A little over a month and a half ago, I wrote about some back pain that I was having and how, at the time, I believed that it was due to my glutes being muscular (aka Buns of Steel!).

Unfortunately, the back pain has persevered, despite my stretching and regular sports massages. At first, I believed that it was due to some feelings of depression or loss from my dog dying.

But the last few weeks it has gotten so bad that I've resorted to taking half of a muscle relaxer a few times a week just to get SOME sleep in. My doctor said that these wouldn't be habit forming, but I just don't want to be on pain meds...so I've resisted as much as possible.

On Friday and Saturday night, my back pain was so bad, that I'd wake up at 4 AM and sit on the couch a) just to get in a different position and b) hope that Joe could get some much needed sleep.

It's been tough.

And because I've had such horrible back pain while sleeping, I haven't exactly been wanting to spend any time in the bed ifyouknowwhatimean. So things in our household have been not so very much fun. They haven't been un-fun per se...they just haven't been fun (wink wink, nudge nudge) for awhile.

Sunday morning, I left the bed after getting just an hour or two of sleep - I didn't know what else to do. Joe came to find me on the couch with a heating pad on my back and a pitiful expression on my face.

And he said words that I have been resisting for quite some time. "That's it. Today we're getting your bed."

My bed is a Sleep Number bed. One that I bought at the Comfort Select store where the salesperson thought that perhaps I was gay.

The same one that didn't exactly make my back issues go away right away.

My bed has been used for about a year and a half, prior to moving in with Joe. Joe's mattress is about 9 years old.

In my weakened state, I agreed. We would get my bed out.

But the bed is in my storage unit. And when Joe and I moved almost all of my stuff into said unit a few months ago, we did so just trying to fit everything in it as efficiently as possible. Is here where I say that the mattress and Sleep Number's version of the box spring was at the VERY back of the storage unit? Okay then.

So I wasn't exactly thrilled about getting it out of the unit.

But I knew I couldn't take many more nights with this kind of pain.

11 hours later, we finally were able to lay down on my old bed.

The mini move involved us renting a truck at Lowe's, moving boxes around in the storage unit (so that when it comes time for me to get my sweaters and sweatshirts out of storage, I can do so easily) and the getting the new mattress/support system upstairs and the old mattress/box spring downstairs.

Oh, I'm sorry...I forgot one teenieweenie thing.

We live downtown. On the third floor. Of a secured building. Which means that if the loading zones are taken (and they were), we have to park in a nearby (being two blocks away) pay-per-park lot. Which means that each trip with the mattress, box spring, or support system was us going in/out of two doors (one of which requires a secure code), then up to an elevator (where we put in another secure code), walk down a hallway to get to another secured code door, and then eventually down to our doorway (which, of course, is locked).

So unloading the new set and loading up the old set took an hour and a half alone.

And then we had the fun task of returning the truck.

We had pizza and beer last night for dinner and I'm not ashamed to say I ate almost half of that medium veggie-filled pizza. I was so hungry!

I was worried when I laid down to sleep last night, sans muscle relaxer. But I slept beautifully, fitfully, and deeply...and...

WITHOUT PAIN!

There were times when I needed to turn in the night and was aware that I was bracing myself for the pain that has followed...but then I would be delighted that there was no pain.

I know I probably don't have my sleep number dialed in exactly right, but I'm hopeful that this, along with the stretches, exercises, and regular sports massages will help me to have nights where I'm pain free more often.

But just in case, keep your fingers crossed will you?