Crooked

This past week has been a complete waste of my life. This is my last week in Seattle and I've spent it lying in bed like a reject. It all started last Monday when my neck started hurting (more than the usual amount). I thought it was just going to be one of those days where you have a kink in your neck and it gets better in a day or two. FALSE. It kept hurting and hurting and not getting better all week. I couldn't gather the energy to do much of anything--didn't swim, didn't start packing. Finally on Sunday I sucked it up and paid to get a massage. Ninety minutes later I was looking into the face of a masseuse who was telling me that I needed to go to a chiropractor. What? A Chiropractor? Surely she must be joking, chiropractors are only for people that have broken necks and stuff.

As I left the massage clinic I started getting my usual nasty menstrual cramps as well as a migraine. What the heck? So the next day, Monday, I made an appointment at Magnolia Chiropractic to see Dr. Penner. I told him I was super nervous that he was going to snap my neck and paralyze me. He promised he would definitely not let that happen. He took some x-rays of my neck for free (which was awesome) and then adjusted my neck, shoulders, and low back. The range of motion in my neck immediately improved and my pain decreased by about 50%. He told me to come back on Thursday (today) for another adjustment and to go over my x-rays. As I walked out of his office I said to Ricky "I feel like I might be coming down with something, my throat hurts." Sure enough, a couple of hours later I was down and out with a horrible nasty cold. On Tuesday I took three separate naps and only got out of bed to pee. I missed the trip to the Seattle Art Museum that Ricky had promised me. I didn't pack anything at all until yesterday and even then only packed the books.

This morning my cold moved into the gross coughing phase. My throat kills, my left eye is weepy and goopy, and both of my ears ache. I went to see Dr. Pener again anyways for my follow-up appointment. I wasn't nervous this time, so I guess that was an improvement. He did another adjustment and then had me come look at the x-rays. So, not only does my cervical spine lean to the right, the C-shape curve that a normal cervical spine should have is completely backwards on me. Not good. No wonder I complain about my neck hurting all of the time. Anyways, chiropractors are going to have to be a significant part of my life now if I don't want my spine to start deteriorating prematurely. This sucks.

Who will come and pack my life into boxes?