Pain in the Neck

Last Friday, I slept wrong and woke up with a horrible pain in my right upper arm. I expected (hoped?) it would go away with a good night's sleep on Saturday. Unfortunately, I couldn't get comfortable enough to have a good night's sleep. Sunday and Monday night were more of the same. Well, not the same because it was worse. Last night, I almost cried as I tried to work my way through muscle spasms down my neck, across my shoulder, through my elbow, and straight down my back.

Today I stayed home from work because I was unable to move anything on the right side of my body. I took Robbie to daycare for Justin, who was also under the weather. But I had to have Justin put the baby in the car because I couldn't lift him up to put him in there. Luckily, he could climb down from his car seat and walk into Zhining's house.

Afterwards, I went to have the right side of my body "fixed". It was one of the most painful experiences of my life. I nearly leapt off the table about three times. It turns out I had pinched something under my shoulder blade. It caused pain to shoot down my arm. Then, after three days of compensating for the pain, my entire right side cramped up. Now, even though I can move, I'm still sore.

Zhining, ever concerned when something is wrong in our family, gave me something to help with that... It's a Chinese ointment (liniment?) that she swears will make me feel better by tomorrow. Of course, since the instructions are written in Chinese characters, Zhining reminded me not to let Robbie play with it and not to ingest it. And, even better, she promised to bring me my own bottle when she goes to China next summer.

I suppose it's time to take off the Icy Hot (err... Walgreens Cold and Heat) patch, wrap my arm and shoulder in a hot towel for ten minutes, and rub the Chinese miracle on my shoulder and arm. Oh, and cross my fingers that it all works!