Kind of like love...

not being in pain can be an extremely wonderful thing.

Yesterday I woke up after some bizarre dreams at 3 a.m-ish. There was a horribly intense band of pain around my lower back/abdomen. If someone had conked me over the head with a frying pan to make me lose conciousness, that would have been nice. As it was, no one did that. But at least there was somebody to go to the kitchen to fetch a piece of bread (so I could put something in my stomach before taking ibuprofen, although it was tough to chew/swallow one bite), and also, to drag over certain items which would have been within easy reach in a normally functioning state.

As I shivered (though it was not cold) and found myself babbling about angels and heaven, I wondered if two wimpy little Advil really stand up to this pain monster. Maybe I would need to call an ambulance to administer morphine. Do they even do that? And how expensive would that be? But the angels were kind. A few minutes after I applied what is known as a "castor oil" pack (actually, I just poured a bunch of castor oil on myself and then covered up with bits of cut up flannel cloths and a heating pad on the highest setting...how wonderfully old-wives-tales remedyish it all seems...) the pain started to decrease. Hallelujah! It became more manageable. Eventually, it even went away.

"How long was that...like 5 minutes?" (It felt like it had gone on for about 1/2 hour, but I was trying to underestimate.)
"Longer than that."
"Ten?"
"Maybe about 15 minutes."

Extremely grateful to be feeling somewhat normal again, I ate the rest of the piece of bread, which I had clenched and mashed up into a round ball of dough. Is there magic with castor oil? I wondered, thinking that I will have to slather myself with it regularly from now on...I had visions of saving the world with castor oil packs...For some reason I thought about the character of a sick woman who took morphine in To Kill A Mockingbird....Also, when I googled "yoga retreats for nuns," this is what came up.