Agony

Well, we had an interesting day.

I woke at 5 am to whimpering. Thinking something was wrong with Son I jumped out of bed.

Turns out it was Husband, and he was in our bathroom about to run a bath. He had what he thought was a pulled muscle in his upper back/shoulder/neck, and was in an incredible amount of pain. He was moaning and cursing and breathing hard. I’d never seen him like that before.

So he soaked in the warm tub for awhile, and Son woke up shortly thereafter. I kept him away from Husband but could still hear him upstairs moaning. I kept asking if he wanted to go to a doctor or the hospital and he refused. I called his sister who happened to have some muscle relaxers, and she dropped them off on her way to work.

An hour later he couldn’t take it anymore. At this point we figured it was a pinched nerve because there was no relief, no matter how he positioned his body. I was going to take him to the hospital, but he asked me to call a family friend who is a chiropractor instead.

I’m skeptical of chiropractic care. Most of the chiropractors I’ve met have seemed more like used car salesmen than doctors. I’m not saying they don’t help anyone, but they’ve surely never helped me. I went several times to this same man after I threw out my back, and I tried him again when I was pregnant and Son was camped out on my sciatic nerve. It was of no help to me at all. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

Still, Husband swears by chiropractic, so of course we go.

After one of the most disturbing car rides of my life (lots of moaning and even some tears, along with his observation that I’d never be able to handle the kind of pain he was dealing with (never mind the 8 hours of hard labor, six without an epidural, thankyouverymuch )), said friend saw Husband a half hour later. “Doc” pushed and prodded and massaged and electrically stimulated for about 45 minutes and Husband walked out of there a new man. Doc says he had two ribs that were out of place. I say he has a pinched nerve. But whatever, he feels better. $120 of not-covered-by-insurance fees later.

And thank goodness. I hated to see him in so much pain. It was really awful. Husband is a power-through-the-pain guy, and to see him in agony and not be able to help was no fun at all.

He slept most of the afternoon, and it started to bother him a bit around 4 pm. Long story short we were back at Doc’s office at 9:45pm, a sleeping Son in his PJs in the car with us. Doc offering to meet us so late was a godsend, even though he was a little surly. Now he’s telling us he doesn’t know if he can do much more, that the spot is really angry and needs to settle down. And he’s also asking for cash, as he doesn’t want to pay the credit card fees. Okay, fine. But it would have been better if you told me that before we left the house, as we have about $20 on us. I offered to write a check and mail it the next day, but the family friend opted to pay the credit card fees on the $60 of not-covered-by-insurance fees instead of letting me mail him a check. Whatever.

Sigh.

As I’m writing this Son is back sleeping in his bed, Husband is flat on his back in ours. I’m trying to get the image of my husband in agony out of my head. I want him to heal quickly.

Because he’s definitely getting poked in the eye for telling the woman who bore his child that she couldn’t handle pain.

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