It's 2am thursday March 26th and I wake up to this horrible pain in my neck. It's stiff and sore and it's hard to turn my head. I eventually fall back asleep but when I wake up to get up, it's really sore. Ok, first thing, no training today; guess I need to take a day off. It's actually been a few weeks as I was enjoying getting back into training after taking 2 months off.
Friday, my neck pain is even worse; an extremely painful sternocleidomastoid muscle had seized on me. The muscle was so tight that even a light touch to the area elicited pain. By 7:20pm, mom and dad called to check in on me and when they found out how much pain I was in, they suggested I head up to the ER. After looking in their medical books and looking up my symptoms, torticollis (stiff neck) seemed to be correct, but the possibility of meningitis (Inflammation of the meninges of the brain and the spinal cord, most often caused by a bacterial or viral infection and characterized by fever, vomiting, intense headache, and stiff neck).
I had vomited a few times, couldn't eat but really didn't have a headache (thank goodness) and wasn't sure about a fever. Best bet to be safe was to have the ER doctor check for sure.
I signed in at 7:50pm friday night and after the triage nurse took my information, the waiting game began. I was finally admitted into a bed and Dr. Harris checked me out...torticollis, for sure. Whewww, didn't want to be diagnosed with meningitis! Dr. Harris was just going to give me a script for some valium & percocet and recommended that I take 600mg of Advil!!! I don't think I've taken 600mg of Advil in an entire year let alone a few times per day AND with the other meds! OMG!! But, at that point I didn't care, I was in so much pain and if it was going to reduce it, I'd take it. After a few minutes though, Dr. Harris returned and asked if I'd like an IV of the above mentioned medications to knock me out..."YES" I said. So, out he goes and a few minutes later a nurse comes in and sticks a needle in me and before I know it I'm O.U.T.!!! Jay tells me later that I was out for about an hour or so and every so often the doctor would come in to check on me and he and Jay and my folks would ask me questions and I'd respond or I'd just correct them if they had the facts wrong...wish I had that on video!! Apparently, even when I'm knocked out I like to correct people! Eventually, in my groggy state they wheel-chair me out to the car and off I go...it's now midnight!!
Thank goodness dad's a Chiropractor, but when my neck is so stiff, the adjustment (at the moment) hurt. But a few hours later the overall pain in my neck had decreased...thanks dad! I have always wanted to try accupuncture and it turns out this was an opportune time. Jay reminded me that my aunt's friend is an accupuncturist and so I called Aunt Denise and right away Bob at Happy Toro Clinic was able to see me Monday at 8pm.
It was a cool experience and I have the pictures to prove the needles as well as the cupping (Cupping is another type of treatment. This is a method of stimulating acupuncture points by applying suction through a metal, wood or glass jar, in which a partial vacuum has been created. This technique produces blood congestion at the site, and therefore stimulates it. Cupping is used for low backache, sprains, soft tissue injuries). I was at the Happy Toro Clinic for 2 hours that night and Bob said if I wasn't so tired (meds) that he'd work on my for another hour!! I went back a few days later for another treatment that seemed to help again.
Between the meds, the Chiropractor and the Accupuncture, my neck is healing. It was locked for over a week, so it might take just as long to unlock it, but it's getting better thanks to everyone, including my husband Jay who has lost just about as much of sleep as I have over this past week and a half!
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