I pinched a nerve in my neck and strained a muscle in my back while on a cruise with my family in December. At the time, I thought I’d just slept wrong, so I pasted a smile on my face and faked like I wasn’t dying inside during the last four days. This was our first family vacation ever and, oh, how I wanted everything to be just right. My 16 year-old had a good time but didn’t care for the whole being surrounded by water thing. Now my husband and my 13 year-old–they were living their best lives. The cruise was originally scheduled for summer 2020 and ended up getting canceled because…COVID and then cancer. Mr. Nikki and I had kept it as a surprise for two whole years, then another two for the rescheduled cruise that sailed on 12/26. We wrapped boarding passes and luggage tags for the kiddos to open on Christmas and talk about score. Those kids were so excited. One ran out of the house to shriek at our neighbors how we were going away on a cruise the next day. Or, as I heard it in my mind, “Someone please come burgle us because we’ll be gone for a week!”
After four years of keeping this secret, I can’t believe I was close to blurting it out in the last few weeks before the big reveal. I had all the gear, all the gadgets, everything we’d need to have a kick-ass holiday trip, complete with blowout New Year’s celebration.
So close. And yet so far….
I woke up in agony and figured it was just a crick in my neck. No big deal, right? Except I couldn’t sleep at all. Pain meds didn’t touch it. And let me tell you, there is no salty like the salty you get when you’re surrounded by snoring family members at 3 a.m. After two days of misery, I went to the ship’s medical center, where my exam room connected to the freakin’ morgue! I’m one of those patients who’s interested in everything, wants to know how stuff works, etc. You know, the PITA patient who is always making the doctor run behind in their appointments because they have just one more question. So, the big ole sign that read “MORTUARY” had me gasping and thinking of all kinds of terrible disaster-at-sea scenarios. None of the meds they gave me could take the edge off the pain, even whatever the hell it was they jabbed in my ass. There was a whole lot of gritting my teeth and enduring to get through those last few days.
I’ve been in physical therapy since the first week of January and, fortunately, the pain has improved and I’m able to get some decent sleep now. Still having the shooting nerve pain down into my fingertips, though. The orthopedist thinks it might be a herniated disc and ordered imaging and put me on short-term steroids and a very effective muscle relaxer that finally allowed me to rest. Somehow, I got mixed up and arrived at my MRI appointment yesterday an hour early. One whole hour. I was so pissed at myself. But I flipped it around, threw on a podcast and went for a long walk. The weather was a very un-February-like 60+ degrees. I see the doc for a follow-up on 3/10 and we can figure out next steps, which could include injections and surgery. Not looking forward to either of those.
Being in severe pain and unable to sleep is a bad combo for me. Let’s hope this radiculopathy and I can come to a peaceful resolution.
What would you do with a found hour?