Painful Reminders

Ouch. That's really the best way to describe this week. Mr. T. began the week unable to sleep thanks to nagging pain in his hip. I began the week wanting to do nothing but sleep thanks to the bug the little blessings are passing around the house.

We each treated our maladies accordingly. After realizing I was no longer nursing or carrying a baby, I indulged in the treat of over the counter cold medicine for the first time in six years. Words cannot describe the relief that this little white pill brought. Oh how I've missed you, OTC cold meds.

Mr. T.'s remedy didn't come quite as painlessly. I'm pretty sure he'd welcome relief in the form of a white pill. Instead, he nearly shed a few tears and stifled curse words as he lay on the simple but effective foam roller. For those who've never used the device before, just do this: dust off your rolling pin, put it on the ground, and then sit on it with the meatiest part of your butt. Roll your rear over it, repeatedly. You might just cry too.

Seeing Jason's red grimacing face reminded me so much of where we've come from. Jason didn't start running until about three years ago. In fact, he would say that his biggest activities consisted of toting a gun around in search of some kind of game to shoot. And that only lasted for a few afternoons a year. Then we had the second little blessing, took some family pictures, looked at ourselves in the family pictures, and he remembered that he didn't like what he saw. So he did something about it. He started walking. Then he ran in between his walks. Then he stopped drinking Mountain Dew. He had me plate his food so he wouldn't over eat. His pants got looser. His belts needed extra holes. And he dropped fifty pounds. It was so cool to watch until he sustained an injury. Several sessions of physical therapy along with the same red, grimacing face led to relief and more knowledge about how to treat piriformis syndrome, otherwise known as a sore butt.

Incidentally, I saw Jason's physical therapist at the kids' swimming lesson this week. When I asked her about home remedies for the same problem, she basically told me she thought Mr. T. just wanted me to give him a good rear rub. I'm no sadist, so I'll just leave the PT up to Jason and the foam roller.