Day 2 sleeping with the sausage pillow
Thursday is the day that I always think I'll get caught up on any of the work that I'm behind in getting done. It never seems to work out that way. Although I've been starting to feel a little bit more energetic the past few days, I still ended up sleeping all afternoon. *sigh* At least I feel rested.
One of the things that came of my appointment with the nerve specialist last week seems to be helping me sleep better. Pretty much, get rid of all the pillows I've been trying to use so my head/neck doesn't hurt when I'm lying down, take a towel, roll it up, put it in a cut the leg off a pair of pantyhose, stick the towel in like a sausage and put it around my neck as support. It's made a difference. I'm not getting the pain in my neck and head that I often have when sleeping AND I'm waking up feeling more rested! It's a small change at this point but a good one.
I've also booked an appointment to see a physiotherapist. Found a place near work that has a person who does both physio and acupuncture so I booked with them. They offer a variety of other complementary/alternative health services. They even have hypnotherapy! Don't know why but I'm crazy intrigued by hypnotherapy. Not convinced that it works but very intrigued by the concept... In any case, I'm really hopeful about the physio and possibly acupuncture from the same person. Anything to manage this pain is good!
One of the things that came of my appointment with the nerve specialist last week seems to be helping me sleep better. Pretty much, get rid of all the pillows I've been trying to use so my head/neck doesn't hurt when I'm lying down, take a towel, roll it up, put it in a cut the leg off a pair of pantyhose, stick the towel in like a sausage and put it around my neck as support. It's made a difference. I'm not getting the pain in my neck and head that I often have when sleeping AND I'm waking up feeling more rested! It's a small change at this point but a good one.
I've also booked an appointment to see a physiotherapist. Found a place near work that has a person who does both physio and acupuncture so I booked with them. They offer a variety of other complementary/alternative health services. They even have hypnotherapy! Don't know why but I'm crazy intrigued by hypnotherapy. Not convinced that it works but very intrigued by the concept... In any case, I'm really hopeful about the physio and possibly acupuncture from the same person. Anything to manage this pain is good!
A guy I know does hypnotherapy, he was my son's first sensei, actually. What the principles are, or the ones he works by (sports related injuries) is that the body eventually, if it fails at healing an injury, just incorporates the pain into "normal" and stops attempting to fix it. What Bob does is hypnotizes you back to the point where you hurt it, which theoretically convinces the body that it's a new injury and needs attention. My current sensei who deals with him is also convinced things like acupuncture and massage work the same way - by irritating the site of the injury - giving it a "new" injury in the same place, then your body once again sends an army of anti-bodies to fix it.
I tried hypno once to quit smoking, it was very relaxing and I quite enjoyed my cigarette afterwards. Though, I know others are very easily hypnotized and open to suggestions, I'm not one of them. The principles do make sense to me though, so who knows?
I hope you have better luck than I did. My chiro helped the most, but both my shoulder and my neck still cause me regular pain. Physio I found didn't do much at all, acupuncture made me feel worse (lying in the same uncomfortable position for a long time) so I never went back. Anyhow, I really do hope it works and keep me filled in on what you're doing, as what you do might help me too.
What you described about the mind making the pain seem "normal" makes a lot of sense to me. I'm pretty sure that's the case here actually.