After looking back at my weekend in review I find it funny how I never mentioned the bad part. It wasn't quite as rosy as it seemed by my splendid recap. Well, everything happened as lovely as I described, but you see, my God-awful neck, shoulder, and back pain is plaguing me again. I truly thought I was done with this non-sense. I managed to get through the most ridiculously stressful winter without any severe episodes of it. I had some residual stress pains, but nothing as bad as what I'm suffering with now. And then with the start of my new meditation program I really and truly thought I would never have to deal with this in my life again. WRONG!
It started a couple of weeks ago and it's the same story every single time it happens. It starts with neck pain so bad that I could swear my neck broke in my sleep. That goes on for a few days and then it travels down to every muscle surrounding my left shoulder. From there it goes to very specific muscles in my back. And it just gets worse and worse by the day until I just can't sit still. Every possible position is painful and I am so incredibly tempted to reach for the industrial strength prescription pain killers and muscle relaxers leftover from Karlo's back issues. I'm just losing my mind.
And the worst part . . . Karlo and I finally figured out exactly what is causing it. We went on that terrific Father's Day motorcycle ride 3 weeks ago. That was a good 3 hours of riding and the issues started within the following week. Thinking back, every time I ever rode my own bike I complained that the riding position was 'funny' and it gave me strange pains in my back, but I never thought anything of it. Then this weekend a lightbulb went off in my head. I thought about how I ride with my motorcycle helmet visor shield lifted in the up position, which just catches even more wind, giving my head even more resistance. I think my giraffe-length neck is totally working against me here and the combination of my short windshield and my heavy helmet is a recipe for disaster.
So now what? I know know that my motorcycle is the culprit. What do I do? Karlo is looking into higher windshields and I'm shopping for the lightest helmet I can find. This past weekend when we went for that motorcycle ride to Coventry I rode on the back of Karlo's bike, but sadly even that ride made me much worse. In this position I just can't stand any sort of helmet on my head. It totally sucks and I'm terrified to test any new set up, be it a new windshield and/or a new helmet. What if it doesn't work? I'll have to go through another month or more of hellish pain. Ohhhh, I am NOT happy about this. The scariest part of all . . . Karlo wants to teach me some exercises to strengthen my neck . . . the ones that he did wrestling when he was young. Yah, I want no part of that. I'm sure this pain is much less than the pain he will cause when he breaks my neck.
4 comments:
Karlo offering neck exercises does sound a bit scarry but it would be very interesting (to me) to read about especially if it is funny :)
i am patiently waiting to hear about the new project you teased us about a few weeks ago...what do you have going on?
Oh yah, me breaking my neck should be funny. LOL. If I could only describe in words what Karlo proposed I do . . . The wood project is coming along very slowly due to the fact that we have every single night and weekend booked for two straight weeks. Hang in there.
Can you raise your bars to create less of an angle at your neck/shoulder when you ride? You'd be more upright and in the wind, but your neck may be less apt to cramp and cause all of these issues if your giraffe neck didn't have to hold up your helmet at a kinked angle.
Do you have a light helmet, or one of those giant, brick-like helmets will all of the bells and whistles? I have a Nolan that I absolutely love and it's amazingly light (also it protected my head well in my crash last year so I'd say it's a great helmet.) This is the closest one they have to mine now, I have the removable sun visor on it: http://www.nolanhelmets.com/n42encom.htm (and they're ITALIAN!)
I hope you figure something out so you're not so miserable! Good luck.
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