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Friday, October 2, 2009

Pain + Pain = More Pain

Yesterday, after suffering through two weeks of constant headaches, I decided to treat myself to a seated massage. I had concluded that the headaches were stemming from a pain in my neck and that a massage was not an extravagance in this case, but a medical necessity.

I was assigned a massage therapist named Steve. He was a big guy with huge hands. I've had many seated massages in my life, but they've mostly been by the same small woman each time so I was kind of looking forward to the change. Little did I know...

The massage started out nice, but quickly became painful as Steve worked out the knots in my shoulders, pressing on each knot with his elbow and leaning on it with all his body weight. The pain increased as he started working on my neck. As his huge hands worked their way around my neck I thought, "so this is what it would feel like to be choked to death."

Eventually the choking part of the massage was over and the massage became slightly less painful. Until the karate chops started. Steve was probably three times as big as me and didn't seem to notice that his karate chops were breaking my spine into tiny little pieces.

The good news today: my headache isn't as bad as it has been. The bad news: it's possible I'm a candidate for a full body cast. Was it worth it?

5 comments:

Sarah said...

I once had a massage VERY similar to what you are describing...it was totally unpleasant, but I had been getting what can almost be described as charley-horses in my neck/shoulder area, so I was willing to try anything. I swear I was bruised for about 8 days afterwards, but deep down the muscles had actually relaxed and all was well! :)

Natalie said...

Man, that sounds terrible. I hope your headache gets better. I think I'd rather be bruised all over than have a bad headache...but to have both, I'm so sorry.

Sara said...

You always make me laugh out loud. Hope your headache goes away anyway.

I've had some headaches this week, and others have told me the same. Maybe it's the shorter days... Who knows!

David and Linda said...

I have some super glue for your spine and plaster of paris for the cast. But my recommendation is a good chiropractor and pain medication. You have my sympathy!!

Katherine said...

I bet a good "hi-ya" from Sandy Cheeks would be just the ticket! Sorry for all of the pain! :( "Get well, get well soon, we want you to get well!"