The joy of a bed

Pain

Got pain take pill. Got pain take nothing for it. Monitor it subside. It is only pain. I had six fillings with no anaesthetic. I recall leaving the dentist afterwards and feeling rather good. No grogginess to put up with for the rest of the day. I was proscribed antibiotics and pain killers when I had a tooth abscess. I elected to take neither. The pain went on for two weeks. It got so bad I nearly keeled over when I stood up too quickly. However, I could feel it getting a tiny bit less dreadful each day. I longed to crunch on some nuts but ate slippery things instead. I vowed that I would never take eating crunchy glee-bombs for granted again. That vow slowly evaporated as we need constant reminders of what can go wrong for that to stick.

Some enjoy pain, particularly that that accompanies childbirth. Why does it have to be something to dread and shy away from in this instance? Feel it. Feel it we won’t as we listen to those that recant horror stories, those that experienced pain that left a long-lasting impression rather than those that managed to embrace the pain. We are all different, we tolerate pain differently. Nevertheless, we are inclined to listen to the wrong people at times. Women reach a certain age when their hormone levels subside. They wake up at obscure times in the night feeling rather hot and sweating profusely. Medicine is proffered, but less talk of handling it medicine-free. Feel it I say. It is an experience that will come and go. Feel the sensations. Have a little read and put your blankets back over yourself when you cool down. Note how over the weeks and months it reaches a peak then subsides. Replace your fear and distress with interest in your body changing. When confronting natural hormonal changes the altercation can be accepted with no medical intervention. Medicine free is usually safer in the short term, medium term and longer term. Attitude makes a world of difference. We must listen to our bodies. In this case, sleep disruption will ensue. Serious sleep disruption. For these few golden years, the body must take priority over work and social interactions. Sleep in, for as long as needed, every day. Rearrange things around what your body is telling you. These are not normal times. Things will return to the old normal, be patient. Explain things to others and seek understanding.

One thing I learned the hard way: not stopping immediately after an injury. Get yourself out of further danger then rest and rest. The pain is a warning. To be heeded. A pain killer denies you a sense. The sense to stop carrying on doing more damage. You have ripped most of the fibres. A few more steps and you will rip them all. Rest after an injury is good, but rest when muscles need strengthening is not good. I have worked through, pushed through discomfort to rebuild, and improve muscle strength. It was not long after that the discomfort dissipated. Some sit and sit and sit and that leads to an early grave. We can use pain for what it is for, to alert us to the problem and work out the best solution.

A pill to alleviate the cause of the pain is distinct from a pill to hide and mask the pain. Pain killers can be addictive. Pain killers come with side effects. Pain killers do not speed up recovery, quite often they will lengthen the recovery. Pain killers can bring about new forms of pain in other areas. Some are born without the ability to feel pain. They break things. Lots of things, lots of bones and tendons. That gives you a clue. The pain killer removes the opportunity to adjust things to lower further damage. Pain can tell you to stop, to slow down, to adjust. Pain killers have a place, perhaps during an operation, but they are best placed out of reach at most other times. Medicine on the other hand can be miraculous.

A capful of apple cider vinegar makes heartburn ten times worse for a few seconds but seems to be a good cure for it. This may only work for me and me alone, but simple remedies are a thorn in the side of those wishing to profit from medicines. They can be embraced without trying to make all expensive treatments redundant. We can look at solutions case by case and utilise the best of both worlds. Having faith that we can manage all illnesses with simple cures and placebos can be damaging. Likewise, it is equally misleading to assert that we can only treat things by spending a fortune. Each case is different.

The body encapsulates the soul, the spirit. It holds all that forms the essence of you. Until it fails, falls apart and functions no more. The body makes you believe you are more than just a body. The body tricks you into thinking such. The body is a nobody that means all to one body, your body. The body can dream. The body can hope. The body can interact with the things in reach. What it can’t do is transcend itself. It is just another body amongst countless others. It could have wings, or gills or eight legs. Each attachment gives it the propensity to explore and feel reward. Bodies have the capacity to delude themselves into believing that they are supreme in the spiritual sense. They prove it by hideous actions on other bodies. By consuming the edible parts. Bodies promote unfairness. Bodies invent morality and tailor it to their advantage. I have shifted my stance as I have aged. I am now a little more inclined to mourn births of human bodies and celebrate their deaths. I once thought that birthing some good bodies could counteract the births of less good ones. However, the greedy, sinister, neglectful, sickening bodies are too numerous, too persistent and too destructive to counter.