A pain in the neck

I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but I work several jobs, the first of course being my graduate studies (so they're called). In addition, I still work for the company I've worked for since I was fifteen, teaching lifeguarding, doing lifeguarding, etc. And I coach swimming.

A few days ago, Scribbles asked me to go to a meet session to warm up his kids, at 6:30 in the morning. Yeah, I didn't know there was one of those either. But I haven't really worked many meets this year and I needed the money so I said sure no problem. I showed up, the kids warmed up (they were actually last warmups, so we could have slept in, but it was no big deal) and when Scribbles showed up I left. I felt so good! The sun was out and shining, it was a nice day, I could get stuff done, I was awake.

So obviously I went back home and slept another four hours. It was pretty wierd -- I kept waking up when I heard my roommates moving around the house, or people outside, and then I'd go right back to sleep. And I kept having this dizzy sensation just before I'd drop off to sleep. At the time I thought I was just tired.

In retrospect, it was probably the fact that an awkward body position was cutting off the blood supply to my brain. I woke up with a pulled muscle. And I wasn't even doing anything productive, like laying laminate flooring.

Now, this has happened before, though this time isn't nearly as bad. In fact, in June I did the very same thing and slept in a wierd position, and woke up with the most horrible pain I've ever felt. From sleeping. I spent most of the day curled up in the fetal position, wrapped in a blanket because it hurt so much I was sick. I couldn't even play with Meaty. And I have a pretty ok pain tolerance. When the end of the day rolled around, the Teach took one look at me and said: "You're still in pain? Clearly you need to drink."

So Scribbles came and picked us up, and we went out and got blasted, which actually worked. It was the only reason I made it to sleep. It was a lot of fun though, especially when I got to that point where my brain was telling me things hurt, but I wasn't really feeling it.

I finally went to the doctor when, two days into working, I couldn't sit straight in a chair, which led to one of those priceless conversations I can only have at a clinic in the city, where the doctor made the diagnosis and I asked for drugs. Ironically by the time I got the Super-motrin the pain was better.

Hopefully the ice I've got on my back will be sufficient this go-round.