A Giant Pain in the Neck

So, I haven't been writing as much as I had wanted to over the weekend.  In fact, it's been a struggle to meet my daily word count, and I haven't made any progress at all on my other writing goals.

The reason?  A giant, and literal, pain in the neck.

I suppose, to be fair, I have a pain in my upper back also, and my shoulders.  It all started last Wednesday, when I went to a Personal Training appointment after work, and spent a lot of time working on my back and shoulder muscles in various ways, including the dreaded pull-ups.  I should say that I don't like pull-ups, and I doubt I ever will, but I do appreciate being able to do a few of them, and that I am starting to be able to do more.  In this case, however, I think I strained too hard attempting a new personal best.

That night was fine.  The next day was 4th of July, and I woke up stiff and achey, and it never really went away, though it occasionally got better.  Friday I went to work stiff and sore, though by the time I was there for an hour or so I was basically functional.  That lasted until Friday night, at which point I spent way too long hunched over my laptop.

What followed was excruciating pain, only slightly relieved by a very unpleasant and persistent -- but effective -- massage from my wife.  That got me good enough to fall asleep, but every time I rolled over in my sleep I was jolted awake in pain.  In the morning, it was so bad that I couldn't sit up like normal, because I literally could not stand the pain that came from supporting my head while lifting my body from the bed.  I had to use a hand to hold my head in position while sitting up, which is not the simplest thing to manage; nor, fortunately, have I had much practice at it.

So there I was, Saturday morning, and I couldn't even turn my head side-to-side or lean over more than a couple inches without large warning pains shooting through my neck and back.  Saturday morning, the time I had set aside for making good progress on my writing goals this month.

Instead, I spent an hour, maybe more, stretching and loosening those muscles.  Then I got a massage.  I went on a gentle walk, and then stretched again.  Eventually I could move my head around, though not 100%, and I only needed one painkiller every 4-6 hours, instead of two.

As part of my rehab, I avoided the computer.  I couldn't avoid thinking about my story, and many other things I wanted to use the computer for, but I avoided it as much as I could.  I spent about 20 minutes on it Saturday, writing a blog post so I could get my daily word-count.  I've spent a bit more today -- I'm probably up to 30 minutes working on it (and an additional 45 minutes video chatting with family that I don't count due to standing in a neutral position the whole time).  Doing all of this at a standing desk helped a lot also, though I'm actually about at my limit now, which means I should set this aside and do more stretching.

So, my long-term take-away from this pain?  Keeping my body in shape is important, and part of that is stepping away from the computer for frequent breaks.  That I can try to do both at work and at home.  Another is to use my standing desk more again.  Finally, I need to get in even better shape so I can hit those workouts without the long-term pain, and also bear in mind my limits while doing so such that I don't repeat this incident.  Especially not this week -- I'm already too far behind in my goals as it is.