Expressing Pain

Tuesday night severe back and neck pain woke me up in the middle of the night. After about an hour of unsuccessfully trying to find a comfortable position lying down, sitting or standing, I decided it was time to see a chiropractor. I have since gone to the chiropractor every day this week. Turns out, my neck is not shaped as it should be and my head is in the wrong position (both correctable problems.)

One of the things the chiropractor does during the adjustments is muscle work. He basically pushes down really hard on my neck with his thumb as I turn my head various ways. It's pretty painful, but it's a good pain because I know how much better I'm going to feel when he's done. (That is a reference to my uncle Jerry and his backrubs.)

So today he had me move a different way as he applied pressure with his thumb. I could tell those muscles were extremely tight. He said if I needed to curse or something because of the pain that it was alright. I told him that I don't really curse, which he found fascinating. (He also found it fascinating that I don't drink coffee and we don't have Dunkin Donuts in South Dakota.) He asked me how I did express myself when in pain - to which I replied - usually nothing.

I don't scream. I don't yell. I don't curse. My dad once took me on the corkscrew roller coaster at Valley Fair just to hear me scream - I didn't make one peep during the whole ride. I was scared - but I didn't scream.

After thinking about it some more this morning I have come to realize that I express any kind of pain with tears. I remember in high school that I was in a play. My character needed to have a bun in her hair and the only girl available to do my hair pulled it so tight that tears welled up in my eyes. I didn't scream or curse - just wiped away the tears before she saw them and went to find some aspirin.

I didn't cry today. I don't consider this pain to be so bad. Maybe it is because I've had tight muscles for so long that when someone works on them I am more focused on the relief than the current pain. Perhaps someone might find an analogy there about Christians facing pain and evil in this world in light of their concrete hope given in Jesus. Perhaps not...