Holiday ode to ibuprofen, as well as to joy
[NOTE: That post on Cronkite, Part II, is coming, coming, coming–but due to holiday doings, I’m on a slightly delayed schedule. The post will appear here later today. Meanwhile…]
Last night, some combination of keyboarding, exhaustion, coughing from the lingering cold I still am fighting, and who knows what else conspired to give me some sort of weird muscle pain in my upper back. It was just one tiny little point–but what a point it was! A knifelike stab whenever I moved, and especially when coughing.
I went to bed with it and woke up with it, unchanged. Hmmm. I started to envision the holidays with this thing, and decided: time for ibuprofen, the over the counter painkiller with the best muscle relaxant properties.
And about a half hour later, to my surprise, joy, and wonderment–the pain is all gone. Normalcy. Sometimes medications do exactly what they say they will.
Aspirin’s good, too, if you tolerate it.
Last time I had a, (double), back spasm I tried the full strength Ibuprofen gel.
I would get out of bed walking like an old man, (well I am an old man, but I don’t usually walk like one), rub the gell into my lower back and an hour later I would be playing golf.
The gel really works for me, but sadly not for my swing.
I do the back bridge for back pain. Looks like a reverse push up. You face up with your arms over your shoulders. It really stretches out the back muscles and the spine. Couldn’t even get near full extension first time I tried, it was so hard. But after a few reps, it got real easy.
By the by, ibuprofen reminds me of Ghost by John Ringo ; ) People who have read that book know what I’m talking about.
Drugs are good, if you body doesn’t have natural endorphine pain killers out the wazoo. No side effects with endorphine.