While pain/injury can involve costly doctor visits and exams, it can also just make you hunker down and not spend much.s
It begins…
Monday I woke up without having had enough sleep but otherwise feeling okay. Then at 11:30 a.m. I went to get up out of my chair and yelped.
Now, sometimes my lower back gets a little achy (usually if I sleep on my side without a pillow between my knees) and/or stiff, limiting mobility some. But this was a completely different beast.
I could barely get out of the recliner. Later when I tried to sit down and work again, it felt like there was a weight on my shoulders compressing my lower vertebrae and there were tiny but noticeable intermittent pulses of pain just from sitting.
That’s never happened before.
Worse than I can remember
The pain didn’t even go away when I lay down. And there was no way to get up from bed without pain bad enough that I would whimper — yes, actual whimpering occurred — twice: once as I got into a sitting position, once as I gingerly stood up.
At one point, when standing up, I unthinkingly straightened all the way; I then overcorrected by bending forward — so quickly that I had to stick my arm out to avoid faceplanting into the bed. Ugh.
At one point, the mailman left a package out front — on the ground — and I wasn’t sure who it was for. So I grabbed my camera, took a pic of the top and zoomed until to verify it wasn’t for me (phew!) and texted my guest house tenant that there was a box for her and I couldn’t pick it up myself.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Accepting the situation
The pain was sharp and consistent enough that I did some Internet research to see whether it matched herniated disc (no) or perhaps bulging disc (maybe). But for the latter, the treatment was the same: rest, ice/heat, ibuprofen and time. So I tried to make peace with the fact that I probably wasn’t going anywhere for at least three days.
I was low on some food, so I finally had an excuse to use the Instacart coupon I had ($20 off $50+). I got that a couple of hours later, stiffly put it away — everything refrigerated went on the top shelf — and made a dinner of some nice, easy-to-prepare cheese and crackers, plus consoling junk food of course. I watched TV and indulged in plenty of self-pity. It was quite a night.
I don’t have a heating pad, since I can normally just use a rice sock. Mom left one the last time she was here that’s long and not as round as my usual ones, which was good because it meant I didn’t have to arch my back. But since it did require multiple trips to the microwave as the rice would cool down, I decided to tell my friend in the morning that, yes, I would gladly accept her offer to drop off her heating pad.
Quasi-improvement
Tuesday, the pain was a little better, so I tried the recliner again. That was a very bad idea. I swear I didn’t move at all except to type, but my back muscles tweaked badly twice in about 20 minutes.
So I moved to the bed, lying down and perching my laptop desk (a cushion with a hard top) to where I could see and type without having to sit up. In the early evening, my friend dropped off a heating pad for me, so I used that. And otherwise did nothing much other than watch TV and continue to feel sorry for myself.
Wednesday my back was nearly back to normal — so almost definitely not a bulging disc, since as best I can tell, those take far longer to heal — but I worked from bed again so as to not stress it out. And I kept heat on it. Once again, after work, I spent the evening lying in bed watching TV and having some retreating-but-still-there self-pity.
Thursday my back felt normal again, but I still worked from bed and used the heating pad just to be safe.
The moral of the story
So groceries and accompanying delivery fee/tip aside, it turns out being barely mobile is a great way to avoid spending money.
So yeah, frugal tip from me to you:
Injure yourself — but not a doctor-worthy injury, like that time that, sigh, Tim quasi-jumped down from the roof — and then pass the time working or watching TV. You won’t spend on anything other than grocery delivery. Even food delivery is questionable, since it requires getting up to get the door and a trip to the kitchen to dispose of the containers/refrigerate leftovers. Easier to just get some good food in a larger grocery delivery at the start of the debacle and eat that.
Some important tips
You’ll want to be careful how you spend your time while prone on the bed. You have to be so busy with work, TV and general self-pity (and maybe a creative project*) that you don’t think to browse online and end up with endless Amazon deliveries. (If nothing else, you won’t want to pick them up.)
Also, this is a far better idea if you don’t live alone. Or if you have a significant other who can come over and take care of you.
For the record, on Tuesday Aaron did offer to come massage my back. But it was already tender to the touch from my working on it. So I thanked him but declined.
*I opened a Zazzle store and spent much of Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday creating some customized products with snarky sayings. I doubt I’ll make any appreciable amount from my efforts, but it’s fun and I have a lot of spare time so… Why not? I’m still ironing out a technical issue, but once I fix that and do a few more items, I’ll post about the store, give the link and show some products. I’m sure I’ll do a giveaway at some point soon too.
All in all
So on Monday I spent just under $40 for groceries, fee and tip. Then I didn’t spend anything again until Thursday — when my back was better and I finally remembered I wanted to order another friend a Valentine’s Day gift.
Coincidence? I think not!
And this incident will likely save me money in the future. Because clearly I need to start working out and stop eating takeout and junk food — neither of which is cheap — to get in better shape, which will make my back stronger. The bigger belly and any slouching I may unconsciously do to avoid feeling the bigger belly isn’t good for my lower back.
So my eating-out and junk food spending should go down. My whining about working out will go up significantly, but at least that’s free.
Anyone else find interesting ways to injure themselves lately?
I’ve done something to my right arm where it hurts to lift it straight out to the side up near the top of the arm. I’m giving it time since the pain isn’t having a substantial impact on my day to day activity. In October I broke my ankle bringing in the trash and ended up with a pulmonary embolism. I DO NOT recommend that route. It’s been expensive and stressful.
Yes, a pulmonary embolism sounds expensive (and terrifying)! Do you do a lot of typing at your job or otherwise keep your arms down a lot? If so and the arm issue doesn’t ease soon… My mom had similar issues and was diagnosed with the colloquial term frozen shoulder. If I recall, basically it’s just the result of not fully rotating and otherwise doing a full range of motion. Good news: it’s treatable at home. Bad news: it requires you to do exercises to reassert range of motion that will of course not be pleasant. Anyway, this is a shot in the dark, but might be something to look into if the pain doesn’t go away and there was no obvious reason for the injury.
Ooh, thanks for the idea. I’m an accountant so I feel like I live on my computer. If it doesn’t ease up I’ll send my doc a message :). I’ll be glad when it feels safe enough for massage again.
I miss my massages so very, very much!
Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Back pain means that NOTHING ELSE IN YOUR ENTIRE LIFE can be really worth a damn.
Glad you’re feeling a little better.
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Yes, heating pad, ibuprofen, Netflix and junk food are the secret to mending quickly.
Do you use like icy/hot or tiger balm or any other kinds of balms in this situation? Seems like a must even if it doesn’t rid the pain but something to take the edge off other than the ibuprofen? OUCH
My masseuse gave me muscle rub a while back that’s akin to those. And yeah, it did seem to help.
I’m so sorry about that injury, friend. That sounds very rough and I’m glad you’re feeling back to normal now. 🙂
I’ve had a microwavable heating pad in the cart for a long time and I think it’s time to purchase.
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Yes, moving around without pain is awfully nice. 5/5 would recommend. And yeah I may use my CVS CarePass to partially pay for a heating pad this month. We shall see.
I’m glad that you started to feel better. Back pain is so common these days I fear that one day I will get it. I rarely stretch my back when I know for a fact that I should. The downside of feeling you are invincible, ha.
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Yeah, my back has never been great. It’s been better since I taught myself to sleep more on my back and to use a pillow with my knees if I need to be on my side. But I think most people do end up with some degree of backpain. But let’s hope you stay invincible a while longer.
Instacart.. the blessing of all sick single people. I got sick a few weeks back. *(nothing major but not leaving the house)First twinge of sickness… fired up that savior of an app. Glad you are better… Recommend some BioFreeze.. (expensive awesomeness) but as a someone with chronic pain that also had a messed up back… Its amazing.
I’ve heard of it. I will definitely look into it, thaks!
I’m really glad you’re feeling better, Abby. I’ve never had much back pain (knock on wood), these days it’s feet/hands that give me the most trouble. Yes, get back to working out on a regular basis, just don’t over do, okay?
Oh it’ll be nearly impossible to overdo it when I am getting started. I did what should’ve been a low-level workout two weeks ago and my calves were sore for three days afterward — to the point that I couldn’t work out. And I used the foam roller the second day. Eesh. But yes, I’m going to start slowly and build back up. I just need to have a little more verve to get into the exercise.
Ditto Biofreeze if you know someone who can get it for you, an old friend was a massage therapist and had long ago offered to get it for me at cost but I don’t know how much that would have saved.
But let’s work on getting our backs in shape together, shall we? My lower back wants to just die and that’s got to be very much due to the floppy belly thing I have going on now postpartum. Where oh where did my stomach muscles go? I’m working on stretching at least a little every day to start, and leaving the house for a walk more than once a week. Starting with some supremely low bars here.
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Hey, better to reach a low bar and feel accomplished than to whiff on a slightly higher one and feel failure. You’re smart — I should probably do some stretching first thing in the morning like my mom does. Even just doing it in bed. That should help my back because if nothing else, I have some of the world’s tightest hamstrings.