Muscle Strain: Redux

A week ago I survived the local tornado warnings . Even with what felt like a pulled glute muscle, I crouched down under a table in the basement as the worst of the storm passed overhead. And the tight glute seemed well enough afterward. Right afterward, anyway.

With the storm behind me and that hint of relief I  granted myself license to do what I had not done for a day or two: bend  to pick up the trail of this and that left throughout the house when bending was not an option, drive from here to there, weed the front flower garden, then the side yard veggies. I was catching up and, at the same time, getting ready for my brand new grandson - almost four weeks old -- who would be making his first visit to Grammy's house in a few of days.



The insult of an inflamed nerve added to my injury of glute

But an overzealous catch-up routine can get the catcher-upper caught –if you know what I mean. Still popping max doses of acetaminophen (I can't take ibuprophen) I found myself hamstrung, glute-strung, well, just about everything-strung. once again . The insult of an inflamed nerve added to my injury of glute. I had most likely developed sciatica (a painful disorder that now extended down the leg) according to my son-in-law, a PA. He said stick with the pain-killer.

Through this two-week-plus ordeal, the doctor I most trusted was away on vacation. The day he returned --which was about two days into the redux of the pain -  I dialed his number over and over, but the connection was always bizz-EE, bizz-EE, bizz-EE. Next day too. Finally got through to the office yesterday. The doctor will  see me tomorrow afternoon. Until then, the nurse said, stick with warm compresses and the pain killer.

In the meantime a friend told me - try Epsom Salt.

Epsom Salts? I thought.  Wasn't that for old people?  My grandparents used Epson . . . 

Wait a minute. I am a grandmother!

I dragged my aching rear to the CVS at the end of the street. Bought an inexpensive pouch of the salts. Sprinkled. Soaked.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. The powers of absorbed magnesium. I haven't had to pop a pill since.