2004-07-05 - 1:37 p.m.

If I have to spend one more night tossing and turning, writhing in pain, I swear I'm not gonna make it...

Rewind about a week and half when it started under the right shoulder blade: what I thought was just one of those typical muscle pulls one gets in the night, which usually goes away for me within a day or two. Well, this one has snowballed to the point where I almost drove to th E.R. Friday night/Saturday morning because I couldn't take it anymore. Managed to sleep in fits and made it to the urgent care clinic the next morning, where the Doctress took some x-rays, ruled out pneumonia or anything equally serious, and suggested it might be bursitis ("which often gets worse at night for some reason..." Yeah, lady, no shit...)

Unfortunately, with nothing but ibuprofen and some kind of worthless muscle relaxant to ease my pain, I've been riding the edge of sanity, pacing in the middle of the night "like a caged animal" (as my grandmother would say), and getting by on the short nap moments I can snatch here and there. All holiday weekends should be so uplifting!

Seriously, trying not to be a baby about it (no, really), but this is getting old. Regular doctor says he'll get me a referral to a physical therapy clinic this week. Better be soon or I'll be in that office every day begging for REAL OPIATES.

Can't help wondering if one of "the meds" is to blame, while still trying to view them benificently as "my lifegiving friends."

In the meantime, had to stop into the office for a couple hours today -- despite the holiday -- to eat into some of this #*%*&@@ backlog of work. I need to remind huntington that he should be in NO hurry to get back to the 9-to-5 grind...