Moving Along

This past Sunday I had a member of our church mention to me how much pain I seemed to be in and then ask me to go and take a pain pill between the morning services. I told her that I didn’t have any pain medication, so she told me that I should be certain to take something when I got home later that afternoon. I then clarified that I didn’t have any prescription pain pills at home either. She was a bit shocked by my response. The thing is that I don’t take drugs for pain, not even over-the-counter meds. I just endure until it’s gone because the more severe pain always goes away. I wake up to some degree of pain every day, but I really hate placing more chemicals into my body. I prefer to simply endure the nonsense until my body’s pain receptacles empty out a bit. It’s a daily issue, but most days are fairly mellow.

I get a sympathetic look from others from time to time, but they don’t understand that the pain really isn’t that big of a deal. I fight against the pain in my body daily, and it eventually loses. My arm is one example. Several months ago I started to experience a new pain in the arm that was injured in the motorcycle accident. My wrist and hand hurt all of time to some extent, but this particular pain was very sharp and went from my wrist to the side of my forearm, across the inside of my elbow, and up the center of my bicep. Ouch. I had a difficult time just carrying my Bible into church for the services. I still don’t know what caused it, except to say that it is obviously related to all of the damage done to my arm through a compound fracture near the wrist. It has lasted for months and has hindered me from functioning normally to some extent every day. I had planned to visit a general physician locally that I know has dealt with sports related injuries in his practice (I used him as a primary care physician about twenty years ago). I really don’t like going to doctors, but I thought that perhaps he would be able to diagnose the cause of the pain and do something that would help it to go away. Then a few days ago the pain began to diminish on its own after so many months, and it has gotten a little better each day since. I’m starting to use the arm more freely again and I hope to begin exercising it soon enough when the pain goes away completely.

Its all just a part of what has happened to my body as a result of the motorcycle accident, but I continue to believe that every day provides an opportunity to gain a victory within this war against the injuries caused by the accident. Old things persist, and new things arise, but I know that life is for living and that I cannot allow the simplicity of pain to hinder my ability to see each day as a gift of grace. Pain pills? Maybe I’ll get a really bad headache one day.