Mike pulled something in his neck/shoulder area this past week and after a day of watching him experience the pain associated with it and urging him to do something to help alleviate the pain (to no avail), I put my foot down.  Not on his neck and shoulder area…I didn’t do one of those walking on his back things that those skilled in such things do.  I don’t want to be the reason he has to go to the chiropractor with a story that starts off with, “Well you see, my girlfriend was walking on my back…”.  No thanks. 

I put my proverbial foot down and told him he needed to either use some product or take some medication to address the problem.  I can live without the macho, “I can work through it…” crap – especially when the subject in question isn’t working through it.   Oh yes, it is probably abundantly clear at this point that my nurturing nursing skills are fairly non-existent.  Subjecting oneself to unnecessary pain does not make sense to my logical brain (and I am not talking the kind of pain in – no pain, no gain – I am talking about being injured pain).

So after a day of moans and “ouchs” when he turned his head, I went to my medicine cabinet and collected everything that I believed could possibly be of utility in putting the pain to bed (and allowing me to go to bed without a whole night of unproductive moaning – and yes, I am going to leave it at that). 😉

I found in my healthcare stash a ThermaCare heat patch that I received as a sample once upon a time that looked like it was the best option.  The only problem was that it was labeled as being for menstrual cramp relief.  I read the back of the package and it didn’t say anywhere that it couldn’t be used on the neck/shoulder area so I offered it up to Mike as the best option.  He balked…something about the linkage to menstrual cramps…he just wasn’t buying it.  But the patch – which had sort of a moth shape (I imagine to provide heat to the ovaries) – looked like it was the perfect fix for the situation; and truth be told, there was no way I was going to accept no for an answer and then have to live with the results: a moody man in pain all night (ah, the irony of it all).  The menstrual cramp heat patch claimed it would provide eight hours of relief; and by that time quite frankly, I was beginning to be more concerned with my relief than his.

It took some convincing, but eventually the patch was in place and allowed both me and Mike a good night’s sleep without pain or moaning.  And the lesson learned from this little experience ladies and gentlemen is: If the patch fits, wear it. 😉

Day eight hundred and thirty-nine of the new forty – obla di obla da

Ms. C