A Little Productivity on a Down Day
Unfortunately, the consequences of the work I accomplished on our wildflower gardens and landscaping over the weekend has caught up with me.
Saturday was a productive few hours for some much needed yardwork. I felt pretty good on Sunday... only relatively minor spinal pain... but, apparently, the inflammation in my spine was slowly building over the course of a few days because by Monday I could hardly walk and the pain was stingingly brutal.
I spent Monday and Tuesday doing whatever I could to alleviate the pain and inflammation. This mean occasional stretching but mostly staying off my feet. It meant extra anti-inflammatory medications. It meant extra water intake. It meant occasional icing of my spine... and I truly hate using ice at this point!
After almost two decades of struggling with spinal injuries, there are some things which really get to me and ice is one of them. It just bothers me to even think about applying ice to my spine. That being said, when the pain gets to the 8-10 range on the 10 point pain scale, I'll do almost anything to alleviate the inflammation.
I do not do any narcotics though... none... zip... zero... nada. No painkillers. I fight my ongoing spinal injuries with daily physical therapy and non-narcotic pain management techniques. I have to say that the past few days have been absolutely brutal... pain so persistent and so intense that it was nauseating.
When the pain reaches these levels, you can't sit... you can't lie down... you can't stand... you can't sleep... you can't concentrate on anything... comfort is a foreign word... you can't do anything but try to get to the next moment.
This morning, I awoke to pain in the 8-9 range... awoke, yeah, right... I tossed and turned most of the night because of the pain. I knew that I could knock that back down to the 5-6 range with my usual techniques and, for the most part, it worked... thankfully.
Around lunchtime, some packages arrived with some computer parts... The walk to the door to greet our postal carrier was only moderately painful so I decided to attempt to accomplish some computer upgrades.
First, I upgraded my power supply. My original power supply had been whistling on and off... quite loudly at times (usually when Sheila was trying to sleep)... and it sounded horrendous whenever I shutdown. The other night, the whistling again reminded me that I need to fix this before it is too late.
I ordered a new, more powerful power supply and it arrived today. Swapping out the old power supply was pretty easy and something I should have done a very long time ago. The computer sounds a whole lot more 'normal' now!
I also ordered a new graphics processor mostly for video work. My desktop computer only has integrated graphics which is pretty useless when it comes to anything other than silly games. I don't play games but I do use my desktop computer for a lot of artistic projects including art which requires accurate rendering. A good graphics processor is built for this type of stuff. In particular, I wanted to improve my video editing capabilities.
I ordered a Quadro graphics processor which is geared toward video editing and I have to say it was a piece of cake to install. So far, I am happy with it. I wish I had the money for a faster computer and a higher end graphics processor but that isn't an option.
The main thing is, even throughout significant spinal pain, I managed to accomplish something today. A sense of accomplishment and feeling productive is just as important as combating the chronic illness itself... perhaps it is even more important.
Although I was in significant pain, it was a good day!
Saturday was a productive few hours for some much needed yardwork. I felt pretty good on Sunday... only relatively minor spinal pain... but, apparently, the inflammation in my spine was slowly building over the course of a few days because by Monday I could hardly walk and the pain was stingingly brutal.
I spent Monday and Tuesday doing whatever I could to alleviate the pain and inflammation. This mean occasional stretching but mostly staying off my feet. It meant extra anti-inflammatory medications. It meant extra water intake. It meant occasional icing of my spine... and I truly hate using ice at this point!
After almost two decades of struggling with spinal injuries, there are some things which really get to me and ice is one of them. It just bothers me to even think about applying ice to my spine. That being said, when the pain gets to the 8-10 range on the 10 point pain scale, I'll do almost anything to alleviate the inflammation.
I do not do any narcotics though... none... zip... zero... nada. No painkillers. I fight my ongoing spinal injuries with daily physical therapy and non-narcotic pain management techniques. I have to say that the past few days have been absolutely brutal... pain so persistent and so intense that it was nauseating.
When the pain reaches these levels, you can't sit... you can't lie down... you can't stand... you can't sleep... you can't concentrate on anything... comfort is a foreign word... you can't do anything but try to get to the next moment.
This morning, I awoke to pain in the 8-9 range... awoke, yeah, right... I tossed and turned most of the night because of the pain. I knew that I could knock that back down to the 5-6 range with my usual techniques and, for the most part, it worked... thankfully.
Around lunchtime, some packages arrived with some computer parts... The walk to the door to greet our postal carrier was only moderately painful so I decided to attempt to accomplish some computer upgrades.
 |
| A Quadro graphics processor and a new power supply. |
I ordered a new, more powerful power supply and it arrived today. Swapping out the old power supply was pretty easy and something I should have done a very long time ago. The computer sounds a whole lot more 'normal' now!
I also ordered a new graphics processor mostly for video work. My desktop computer only has integrated graphics which is pretty useless when it comes to anything other than silly games. I don't play games but I do use my desktop computer for a lot of artistic projects including art which requires accurate rendering. A good graphics processor is built for this type of stuff. In particular, I wanted to improve my video editing capabilities.
I ordered a Quadro graphics processor which is geared toward video editing and I have to say it was a piece of cake to install. So far, I am happy with it. I wish I had the money for a faster computer and a higher end graphics processor but that isn't an option.
The main thing is, even throughout significant spinal pain, I managed to accomplish something today. A sense of accomplishment and feeling productive is just as important as combating the chronic illness itself... perhaps it is even more important.
Although I was in significant pain, it was a good day!
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