Today is a Tramadol and Metaxalone kind of day. Tramadol is a strong pain medication (synthetic), and Metaxalone is a muscle relaxant. I can take them together, but ugh, the side effects.

Yesterday, Dan and I made beef stew (one of my all time favorite winter dishes). It’s a lot of work, but SOOOO worth it. I was helping Dan, so I was standing for a long time. I was also hunched over for a while while I washed and peeled potatoes and carrots. Apparently, somewhere in there, I messed up my back. Since I’d been standing for a while, I decided to lie down. I went over to the couch and lay down on my left side. Suddenly, my back was hurting, just under my left shoulder blade. As time went on, the pain got worse. Eventually, it got to a point where I was convinced I had managed to dislocate my rib by breathing.

It takes a lot for me to cry, but I was crying alright. Every time I got up I thought I was going to pass out. Sitting to use the restroom was even more excruciating. By bedtime, I was pretty fried. I had on a lidocaine patch and had taken Tramadol. It took five pillows propped around my body to get to sleep, and I needed Tylenol PM to help.

Today, it still hurts. Not too badly. I don’t think I fully dislocated a rib, though, because I was able to do most of the stuff in Pilates class today. I may have slightly displaced a rib, and had a muscular spasm because of it. But I’m still in a ton of pain on both medications. The side effects suck. The side effects are essentially a combination of being very drunk (minus the nausea from it) and running a marathon (dizzy and exhausted with twitchiness). But, I can deal with them so that I can function properly.