A Brutal Night

Wow...  it was impossible to get comfortable enough to sleep last night.  My spinal injuries were painfully and debilitatingly inflamed after all of yesterday's yardwork.  I'd say the pain was in the 8-10 range on the 10 point pain scale.  At times, the good times, the pain was only an 8.  Other times, like when I try to move, the pain was pegged at around 10 and would buckle me at the knees.  

Sleeping was difficult, at best.  For a long while, I simply couldn't sleep.  I eventually found a position or two that allowed a few minutes of sleep before I would need to change positions to the other position.  This wasn't until the wee hours of the morning though.  I actually thought about just getting up out of bed around this time.  It was around 5am and, typically, I would have no problem with that.  This time, however, I was thinking that if I'm finding bed extremely painful, then the couch wouldn't be any better.  Actually, sitting on the couch before we went to bed was brutal too.  

Now that I think of it, at 5am, I was contemplating getting up to use the bathroom.  I needed to use the bathroom (the usual over 50 thing but I am now just about 60) but I didn't want to feel the pain that came with making my way to the bathroom.  It was in this next half hour that I kept playing out my options in my head...  get up to use the bathroom then come back to bed...  get up to use the bathroom then move to the couch in the living room...  or just continue to try to sleep as best as I can for another couple of hours.  This time, I opted for just staying put.

I did apply some ice to my spine last night and I think that helped slightly for a short while.  It didn't take long for the inflammation to worsen again...  maybe within minutes or, at most, an hour.  Perhaps I should have applied more ice again.  

Ice...  uggg...  our icemaker ran out of ice yesterday.  It was just Sheila and I using this ice too.  It wasn't like we had the grandkids or any guests here too.  I guess our icemaker can only make enough ice for two people once the temperatures get up into the nineties.  

So, in total, I think I may have gotten about three to four hours of sleep through the night.  Most of that was between 5:30am and almost 8am.  I was up and in the bathroom by 8am.  I had had enough.  

This morning, the plan is to cut Sheila's hair this morning after breakfast.  I should be okay doing that.  I seem to have more problems with sitting than standing...  although...  even with standing, I do need to change positions often and take some breaks.   We'll see how it goes.