Throwback in time
Days before flying back to Spain, suddenly the old injury that I caught before we moved from Spain, seems to be present again. It's like my body says, you brought it from Spain, now take it back to Spain as well. I'm now a bit anxious about the whole trip and even happier that I decided to make it a slow trip by booking one night in a hotel before departure as well as after arrival. Breaking down the trip in several steps should make it a little less exhausting and with this injury acting up, I'm very glad I did.
What kind of injury?
I fell and injured my back in Spain the year before we moved here and I needed help with many things for quite a long time after the accident. Even taking care of our tiny human who was not even a year old back then was a struggle. At the time, I didn't know yet that the warmer weather during summer was helping to ease the pain a lot and that from that summer forward I'd only deal with discomfort during the winter months. I admit that some periods during winter are worse than others but at least I haven't been in daily pain for a few years now. The diagnosis at the time was secondary osteoarthritis in my lower back. I don't even remember which part exactly as the testing was done years ago and the pain wasn't a daily thing anymore.
I thought I pulled a nerve or something
Or at least I thought I did as I've been working quite long hours mostly sitting at our dinner table chair which is far from comfortable and even has an angle where at some point everyone will feel their upper leg is blocked somewhere. I tried working behind the laptop less and mainly when I could sit in the office, but in reality, it came down to starting my days at that chair and sitting there for way too long some days. I started to feel discomfort from it and at some point spasms appeared which were annoying but still not bad enough for me to take real action. Until a few days ago when I suddenly had extreme pains in my leg and the spasms were getting worse to the point that I screamed from the pain or could not stand on my leg anymore. That's when I started to get worried and decided I wasn't going to sit there anymore.
Moving and resting when my body told me to
I tried walking around constantly, stretching, and not overdoing it with packing and carrying things. Unfortunately, even though I calmed down in my daily tasks and didn't use that chair anymore, the pain became a real problem and I started to get scared even for a day or so, thinking something was really wrong because I also have a numb feeling in my right arm and my right butt part of the day. My boyfriend helped me by massaging it and said this is probably the same issue as I had in Spain when we left. Just my luck didn't have any issues with that during the summer months, and nowadays before I go back, my lower back decides to act up while I don't have time for that stuff! GREAT!
Yesterday it was clear: the pain comes from my back
The days before I could not pinpoint it to my back honestly, it seemed to be coming from my upper leg that was blocked by sitting on that stupid chair, until yesterday the pain was clearly starting in my back as the whole area is swollen and feels stiff. I looked up how these blockages can affect certain parts of your butt/leg/toes and the pain is indeed coming from that part of my body and goes through my leg like a tornado when an episode of pain appears. It seems to flare up with certain movements and get worse with certain movements. I know I need to get physiotherapy asap and will try to get an appointment as soon as we landed in the area we're staying. I don't want to visit a doctor right away as I remember some good exercises that are meant to give some relief for this injury can do wonders so that's my first approach, not seeking pain meds. I remember the Spanish doctors being more than happy to prescribe whatever pain killers desired at the time and I honestly hope to solve it by being more active and getting some good exercise to help the injury get better soon. If in any case, the physiotherapist thinks I need to see a doctor, I will of course do that.
I remember exactly how I felt years ago when I just had the injury
These feelings of pain are suddenly very familiar again, but also feeling exhausted presses on someone's mood and the tears are pinching behind my eyes for at least half of the day simply because I feel a bit helpless now that I really need to get the final stuff done for our move next week. I'm very happy that we got a lot of things done today and that my boyfriend doesn't have to work next week so he helps me sort the last things and I can stop doing whatever I was doing as soon as my body says stop. I know that if I don't listen to it, I will be a trainwreck within a few days and I will need my energy to carry some of the suitcases so there's simply no time to get to that point. I will make sure to call it a day early the next days, get into bed before midnight and not be too hard on myself when I can't get everything done that I wanted.
I truly hope it's not something worse
Because I also know that it's possible something worse is causing these pains, for example, a hernia in that area, instead of my old injury acting up. I do know that I will listen to my body carefully because these painful episodes where the pain flew through my full right side of the body were excruciating and nothing that I recognize. The only thing I need now is that my body will give me some relief and lets us arrive in Spain peacefully without too much discomfort and then I will take the needed action. One thing I know for sure is that I won't visit a doctor here, far too stressful and usually without any desired outcome anyway. I will just have to "sit it out" by moving around more than I did in the past weeks.
Wish me luck :) PS, I also decided not to be too hard on myself and demand to add text dividers and stuff like that, today this is what it is. I hope everyone understands!