Chronicling the "Ouch"

Which is to say that this is a pain diary. It's true, I'm one of those sad, unpopular individuals who goes about keeping notes on her physical condition, pain-wise. And also the sort who simply uses a thesaurus on one sentence to come up with the next. Moving on.

In January of 2006 I was in a rather large card accident just outside of Leavenworth, Washington. A car in which I rode with a friend and her family was hit by a semi-truck that lost control on some ice. Luckily, we were not hit head on, but by the trailer, which "jack-knifed." The impact was on the front driver's side and, I am happy to tell you, none of us were seriously injured. At some point, I will try to go into the exact details of this day in further detail but, for now, I think you ought to just enjoy the lovely pictures of Leavenworth and know that the medical staff and police officers of that town are quite lovely, both to look at and to speak to, based on my experience.

As I watched the semi-truck's trailer come toward us, which would inevitably hit our car, I flinched. The contraction of the muscles resulted in extreme pain, for which I was given medication and a neck brace. This pain spread throughout my upper back, shoulders, and neck, and, I am sorry to say, seems to be permanent, as it continues to ague me three+ years later.

The point of this journal (blog) is to relate what efforts I am making to go about combating this pain, both physically and psychologically, and to help me become more motivated in chronicling the level of pain and its impact on my emotional state, twice a day. This, my psychologist says, I ought do, but I am a rotten sort of diarist for that sort of thing, as it turns out.

I probably will not put all the details of the twice daily logs on here, but they may be included in addition to other thoughts that I have had regarding the continuance of pain. It is pretty much constant and often terrible.

But this isn't meant to be half so unhappy as it has sounded thus far! I am keeping the address of this blog to myself but if you should happen across it, feel free to question or (kindly) comment. If you happen to be a family member/friend, shoo! I do not write this for sympathy but in hopes of helping myself to vent and in with a slight fantasy of becoming the next Elizabeth Wurtzel. Huzzah!

Pain/Emotion levels: 0= lowest, 10= highest