Use only the flesh...

I think that I have written of this before, but back in the dark ages, when I was a freshman in college, I dropped my grandmother's metal iron on my neck.  Yes, I dropped it on my neck.  Taking it down from a shelf, I lost my grip.

The iron tore the muscles in my neck.
The emergency staff laughed a lot at the hospital.
I still struggle with the injury.

Sometimes, when I turn my head too quickly in the wrong way, I set off a spasm in my neck that runs down the right side of my spine about a third of the way down my back.  Much. Pain.

When I was in Alexandria, a doctor finally taught me how to deal with it:  ice to spot the spasm, heat to help relax against the pain, Percocet (pain medication) and Flexeril (muscle relaxer).  I used to always have bottles of both on hand.  In a way, dealing with the spasm is very much similar to dealing with a migraine. The longer you put it off, the worse it gets.

I turned my head too quickly the wrong way on Saturday, whilst I was cooking for Sandra's birthday meal.  Now, I am most certain that if I had notified Sandra, she would have completely understood about doing a rain check.  But, I, being stubborn and conscious of all the work I had already put into the meal, such as roasting the eggplant on Thursday, was determined to power on through the pain.

I was also already a bit annoyed.

Whilst making the peanut peanut butter cookies that Sandra wanted, I messed up the ingredients three times.  To fix the proportions, I had to go from a single batch, to one and a half, to a double batch.  There are currently two containers of uncooked dough in the freezer, one container of cooked cookies, and one bag of cookies went home with Sandra.  SIGH.

My rememberer is not working well, but I believe that I set the chicken to marinading, then fetched my prescription, then started on the cookies.  But those three things happened before the spasm started.  Michelle brought up the gyro dough from the freezer and made the tzatziki sauce for me, whilst I worked on the baba ganoush.

Oh, my, was my baba ganoush ever so much more tasty the second time round!

When you roast eggplant, there is some liquid inside.  When I made it the first time around, I put the flesh and the liquid in the baba ganoush. I thought it was a tad runny.  Just not the right consistency or taste.  This time, I used only the flesh.  The baba ganoush looked and tasted just as it should.  Truly, tastiness sublime.  Yes, I appeared to have discovered the special super secret to making the perfect baba ganoush!!!

To me, I think that I overcooked the chicken a bit, but the others thought it was fine.  The gyro bread was most tasty. I cooked two extra and cut them into wedges for the labneh and baba ganoush.  I also had store bought pita chips, since I have not yet figured out how to make those.  What I liked the best was that Isaac polished off his lemon chicken gyro with tzatziki and feta post haste.  Warmed the cockles of my heart.  Too, they were warmed when Michelle said the table setting looked pretty.  I am a girly girl at heart.  That or my mother's daughter.  Slug that I am, living in men's hoodies and lounge pants, I do love wearing a flowy skirt and setting a pretty table.

I was able to clean the kitchen once everything was ready and I was waiting on Sandra's arrival to start the gyro bread.  So, afterwards, cleaning up the kitchen meant tossing everything but four dishes in the dishwasher and wiping down a single counter.  Easy peasy.

Then, I laid down in the GREEN chair and gave in to the misery that had been building.  After it got much, much, much worse, I thought of the Toradol I have for my migraines.  But the first dose I took was expired.  So, I was up all night taking ibuprofen and tylenol and trying to ice the spasm.  Some time around dawn, Sunday, I thought to check the bottle and noticed the date.  I pulled another bottle that was refilled much later and took another dose of Toradol ... and more tylenol and ibuprofen.  After finally sleeping a bit, I felt as if the spasm had finally ended, so I switched over to heat and tried to sleep more.  I've been alternating between tylenol and ibuprofen ever since and now have only the lingering soreness and intermittent searing flashes of pain down my spine and across to my right shoulder. The latter is new, but I a mostly very, very, very thankful that I was able to stop the spasm without the medications I used to have, especially the muscle relaxer.

So, today, trying to be careful about my movement, vacuumed all three floors and all five staircases.  Yes, I five is right.  I thought I had better do the attic stairs just in case Becky and her mother do actually get to visit—despite the weather—and want to see my beloved attic.  But ... really ... does my house really need five sets of stairs???

After church, I took a steaming hot shower, fainted, and curled up in the GREEN chair with my puppy dog.  I'm finishing up a new-to-me BBC sic-fi show (sadly just one season was aired) and then I'm off to bed to try and rest more, lay on a heating pad more, and try not to think about my appointment on the morrow.  I do not want to go, but I am fervently hoping the doctor can help figure out why the hormones do not seem to be working anymore.

Already, I am having to choose between innards medication and fainting medication, having chosen the former and accepted the consequences of taking only half doses of the latter.  I am fervently hoping that it is the change in hormones that is the problem, instead of yet another interaction with the innards medication somehow.  It feels as if I get a bit of respite in one area only to face battles on several other fronts.  SIGH.


I am Yours, Lord.  Save me!