I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who have been posting to me...feels so good to know you all are there.

Someone said something about trying to live as best I can....well, I wanted to share that I went to Hot Springs last week. Was so concerned about the drive and the pain, how it would effect the people I was going with, etc., that I almost backed out. But I didn't! Made the 6 hour drive down with relatively little pain (had blankie, special foot pillow, etc). Got checked in, had a great day...then had an excruciatingly painful evening...OMG
Everyone handled it very well (friend, her daughter and my daughter-in-law).

Next on agenda was a large museum. Went along with the understanding that I would probably sit while they walked...but saw these motorized wheelchairs and threw my embarrassment to the side (at their encouragement) and enjoyed the entire museum by their sides and had a great time and pain free evening.

Third day, eating breakfast, kids say they REALLY want to rent a boat and go tubing. Now, I've never driven a boat but love them, so again, we can do this on our own...and we rent a HUGE boat and the "tube" to pull the girls on...hopefully without anyone getting hurt. Not only do we manage this, but somewhere along the way my friend says...are you gonna tube (always been a daredevil but am now "too disabled to do anything")......I said YES I AM, changed into a suit right there on the boat...and with the help of the girls got on that thing and rode really fast behind the boat. Flipped off twice and managed to get back on and do it some more.
BAD PAIN NIGHT.....but oh so worth it for those few hours of some of the best fun i've had in ages!

Made me realize that sometimes I CAN move past the pain, if only for a few hours!

I believe that when all of the people who have PN, for whatever reason that they have PN, well, when they can do something that gives them so much pleasure, so much fun, etc. well, what happens when we get pleasure, our endorphins kick in. These endorphins over-ride any other sensations that we have, and we have a very well received brain moment. And that's why we have those pain free moments. Now if we could bottle these endorphin producing stuff (and not just with pain meds), but if we could find a way to release the tension filled stuff that is filling our brains with stress, and we could channel all this into endorphin producing stuff,

well, somebody could make a million dollars!!!!

I know that I do not like to sit in a massage chair and have the rollers go up and down my spine. I have scoliosis. So I DO NOT SIT IN MASSAGE CHAIRS.

Now Alan, on the other hand, he can sit in a massage chair, and if it's one of those $7000 chairs like the ones that they sell at Brookstone, well, he could sit in that thing 24 hours a day and it's like he's in the Arabian Nights. Happy as a clam. He has No pain, anywhere in his body.

They sell one of these chairs right around the corner from my house. We had never been in there, so I took Alan and she graciously let Alan use it for 10 minutes. Let me tell you, if I won the Lottery tomorrow, this chair would be in my house tomorrow night.

The whole chair has some pillow like stuff going on. It envelops you. You put your feet in the lower part and the rollers go up and down your calves, and the pillow like stuff entraps your legs (I hate this), he goes nuts in happy land over this.

He laid back in the chair and all of a sudden, the sides of the chair start to swell, and knead his shoulders, his neck, his back, (as the rollers are going up and down his spine). You would have thought Alan just won the World Series, the look on his face was priceless.

And when the two pillow like contraptions blew up and almost swallowed his face, well, you should have seen my face. It was like something out of Star Trek. This chair looked like it swallowed Alan. He could have stayed swallowed all day long.

I don't know who invented this massage chair but they must have made millions from the rich people who can afford these things. And you can program the thumping action up your back, up your legs vibrates also, if that's your thing. (believe me, it's not my thing).

He said it almost equaled Dr. Theirl's G5 machine. And that is some comparison.

Now they also sell things for your lower legs. I stopped by one day and said to myself. "lets see what happens". She put my lower legs in his contraption, the sides started to squeeze my feet, I yelled "get me out of here". and I ran out. I do not like to be squeezed. Alan, on the other hand, (and I have no idea why), he loves this stuff, but it has to be a really really hard leg squeeze. Not so much the feet but he likes the leg squeezing part of it. And I can't stand any rollers up and down my spine. When I get a pedicure, I have to tell them "do not turn on the vibrating chair and the massage rollers" They look at me like I have lost my mind.

Oh, and I have mentioned this before, I sampled something that I loved while I was in Kings Plaza Mall one day.

It's some kind of water pressure system, that you lay down and put your face down and you are in some kind of tunnel (with your face out of it). and they put headphones on you and all of a sudden, someone presses a switch and this waterfall of water starts beating down on you and goes up and down your legs and your back, up and down. And you can stop it and let it concentrate on one part of your body. It was the most amazing 7 minutes of my life. You can pay for 10 minutes, 20, whatever you wish. But the massage benefit is amazing. It's like taking a xanax, only you didn't take a pill. You just let the water massage you and your whole body relaxes.

You would think this guy has customers all day long but nooooooo. People are afraid to lie down in this contraption. I have heard them say. "I'll get wet". I even told one person "the water doesn't touch you, you are covered by a pad, you are inside this device, the water is not on you, it just beats down on you". They didn't believe me.

They have no idea what they are missing.

I bet you that Donald Trump has one of these machines in his house, along with one of those massage chairs and a personal masseuse. He never has to have stress. He has MONEY!!! lol

Belinda,
This is the way that most of us live our lives. You just keep on keeping on. Pain can be forgotten to a certain extent when you are doing something you are enjoying. True the nights are a real trial. I've gotten to the point with all of the physical therapy and pain from it, that I'm only sleeping about 3 hours a night. But I'm game for anything I can manage during the days. My husband and I actually went out as a couple for the first time in years on Saturday. We met a couple we knew at the local ice cream parlor. Someone to talk to besides doctors and dogs.

Just keep on enjoying your life to the very best extent that you can. I'm glad you had such a good time.

Billye

Good for you, Belinda! I'm proud of you! When we travel with friends, I go along with everyone until about 4 or 5:00, then go back to the hotel rooom. My husband goes out to dinner with them and brings me back dinner. I don't mind. At least this way I get to go places.

Belinda:

I'm jealous. You actually got to go tubing. Have never done that. Haven't been in a boat since my father had one 40 years or so ago. I used to take it out on the lake and jump in the water.

But now, well, I wouldn't put a bathing suit on if anyone gave me a million dollars. As a matter of fact, I never did wear one. I always wore shorts and a top.

Oh, but I do remember the water, and throwing a big round black tube or tire thing and I would jump in the water and sit in the tube.

I must have been 10. That's 50 years ago.
jeez. 50 years ago.

I'm getting old. lol

Melody

I've done the tube 'floating' on lazy rivers, and that was exciting, about my speed for relaxation- especially when you get the extra tube to tote the 'liquid refreshments' in for the day [AHH the old days]

Speed tubing tho I probably would chicken out on, as I swim like a rock! I DID decline a free offer to bungee jump off a hot air balloon tho...does that count? The watching others do so, I mean. YOU are one brave person in my book!!!!!!!!!!!!

Forgetting, having fun with friends and family is SUPER SPECIAL...even with the paybacks. Better to have a 'pay-back' from fun than a day getting lost for tests in a hospital any old day.

Smile at the laughter you had and go do something to ease that extra pain. - j

BELINDA - I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!! And it sounds like it was so much fun. As one who grew up in the Land of 10,000 Lakes (MN), I miss boating a LOT! As a friend of mine would say, "Ya done good, girl!"

Nancy

It WAS so much fun...never thought I would have the opportunity or the nerve. My boss, however, wanted to know if I was drunk!
Speaking of bathing suit...mine is black and has one of those henrietta hippo skirts.....promised my boss i would send him pictures (which he kept trying to forcefully decline). When I told him all the pictures had accidentally been erased from the digital cam...including the one of my in my bathing suit being pulled behind the boat....his response "that's God trying to tell you something"!! So I just informed him I would try to recreate the moment and get a picture for him anyway. I am quite sure he will avoid any emails with pibure attachments from me from this point forward!!