Improvements…?

Got to see the chiropractor this morning, possibly before she technically was open, but someone was there before me and another couple after me, so, perhaps, I was just her second appointment of the they already day. And perhaps we all had been squeezed in. Nonetheless, I got to see her. I had tears streaming down my face by the time I got up to her office, so I wasn’t feeling so hot.

However, she helped sort out the super intensity of the pain. Yes, it is the sciatic nerve, she said, and was also an unhappy disc. She caused pain in other spots that, as usual, somehow relieved pain in the spots that were hurting so terribly. It helped. She said it should continue to improve over the next few days. But she made it clear that this is a definite possibility with pregnancy and is not out of the bounds of the expected. The ligaments are softening at this point, starting the process of fully rotating the hips outward, preparing for giving birth. (It finally makes sense to me how a baby fits! It doesn’t fit, truly. The hips actually rotate outward and downward during pregnancy, creating a much larger opening than in normal life. That‘s how the baby fits through there. Without all that shifting, it wouldn’t fit.) In their softening, they are no longer protecting as they once were, and the sciatic nerve is one that can be, essentially, crushed by all the moving parts. So, my absurdly intense shooting pain is not all in my head, and no, I can’t just power through it. It is real and it is intense pain.

She said, “It hurts like a mother-f*****,” and she meant it. She clearly felt bad for me and is doing what she can to help me through it all. She had me get a belt for the lower back and told me I could wear it in conjunction with a pregnancy belly band to help relieve pressure and strain on my lower back. She also gave me a cane to use. And she recommended these arnica oral supplements. (I had only ever heard of arnica gel.)

Of course, all of these proved helpful. No, the pain isn’t gone, but it has lessened immensely. Except for when I had a sudden sneeze while standing, and everything kind of went to sh**, nearly paralyzing me with pain, and requiring my mom to help me, while I also used the cane, just to fall into a rolling chair. I had to sit in that chair for the next hour or two. But I had just started taking the arnica things, and they finally started helping enough that I was able to get up and sit on the sofa instead. That all sucked big time. But the pills helped immensely in the end. I was able to walk to the bathroom and back with almost no cane help after a couple more hours. Getting ready for bed just now still sucked, but was nothing at all like the last two nights.

Anyway, I am hoping to sleep well tonight and to be functional at an even higher level tomorrow. There is still much to be done before the shower in two weeks, let alone before the baby comes out of me. I finally have had energy, and this nerve stuff pops up. Is God truly asking me to chill out with tidying and organizing our house? Because it certainly seems that way, forcing me to be on the couch for the majority of each day…

God, guide me clearly and gently, please. Free me of this pain. Make me and the baby and my husband well, please, and keep us three safe. Help us to sleep well and together each night. Thank you for this gift. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024