Member-only story
Living with Pain —
I really have no answers.
If I sleep soundly, only getting up for bathroom breaks (old lady on a diuretic), I’m stiff and sore in the morning. Just like this morning.
We had thought about going to Morgan’s favorite spot — a local flea market — but he decided against it because of my pain. I did take Tylenol X but it’s not working. I don’t want to take the Tramadol and drive. So we’re stuck.
The pain comes from the mess my lower back is in and fibromyalgia which makes my upper back, shoulders and arms ache.
The lower back mess is from years of moving patients around — in the hospital, in home care, and in a nursing home/ It comes from hearing way too often, “Mitzi’s a big girl, she can handle that patient.” And I would, to my detriment. It came from years of being charge nurse, med nurse and nurse aide — all on one shift — and then walking six blocks home at midnight in all weather.
So the Pain can be directly traced back to a profession I didn’t want — lovely.
And it came from Mitzi’s law of getting “my” work done, very similar to nursing practice — whatever it was even housework — before doing what I wanted to do.
So I guess you can say, I ruined my back myself — by trying to be something I never was — a slim girl who could do anything. Now I’m paying for it.
