Actually, the deep muscle pain started late the day before yesterday, or on day three. My neck, shoulders, and upper back ached badly. My neck was so sore that I couldn't turn my head to check my blindspot in the car. The deep pain was especially bad when I was lying in bed. If I tried to lie on my back, the pressure of lying back against the pillows hurt terribly. After that, the deep aching in my neck and shoulders built as everything settled into place. So I tried lying on my side instead and, again, my neck and shoulders and back ached so badly that I had to take a pain pill to get to sleep. Taking instant release pain pills happens very rarely at home. I usually only really need them if I'm away from home and don't have access to my ice packs and bed. That evening, however, I knew the pain was too intense to have a shot at sleeping.
Back to Part IV, day four. The pain was no longer isolated to those bizarre patches of invisible bruises all over my body; it had begun to affect the deep muscles of my neck, shoulder, and back. The tenderness all over did begin to improve and gave me back a few routine functions. For example, as of yesterday, I could fold my arms and let them touch and rest against my body. I could also tie the string on my pajama bottoms without much pain. And, finally, although still sore, my breasts and upper chest were no longer the source of some of the worst of the pain. It seemed as though that invisible bruising had begun to heal. I was still struggling with that deep muscle pain which was still making it very hard to rest comfortably. And, unfortunately, resting was just about the only thing I was doing yesterday.
By 9am this morning, I had spent about 18 of the previous 20 hours sleeping. Yesterday I went to take a nap around 2pm or so and did not wake up until 8:45pm! When I got up, amazed at the marathon nap I had just emerged from, I had dinner and caught up with my mom for a little while. Then I treated the evening like every other one as of late but starting to get ready for bed in the 9 o'clock hour. I took some pills then a few more later on according to my pill schedule and got ready for bed, again, I suppose. I figured that after such a long nap that I wouldn't be able to get to sleep until very late. That was not the case. I was asleep by about 10pm and did not wake up until 9am this morning. It was splendid. I would always rather sleep through pain or whatever other misery has come my way than be awake and medicated for it.
That example of my marathon nap followed by a marathon night's sleep illustrates my week rather well. I really have been so extremely exhausted that when I'm not in bed actually sleeping, I am in bed resting with my eyes closed. With the exception of going out to see a movie on Sunday, day one of this crazy pain, I have not left the house all week. Well, that's not exactly true, I did go to an appointment on Tuesday but came right home and napped afterwards. I have been in bed all day, everyday too exhausted to do anything, including shower. I've also been very scared of showering because the thought of water falling on my skin makes me cringe right now. Since things are beginning to improve, I believe showering will be fine now. But, I really have been home and in bed for most of the last four days with exhaustion as severe as the pain. It makes sense to me that the two are related and a part of the Herx reaction that seems to be on its way out. It also makes sense, however, that such intense, ongoing pain would eventually wear me out. As far as I can tell, it's a combination of the two.
Whatever it is, it seems to be getting better, finally.
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