Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Thank Goodness for My Knees

Between the migraines and the plantar fasciitis, I literally have pain from head to foot. Throw in all of the other chronic conditions that I live with, and the pain is nearly body-wide. It's not fun, but it's life, and I've pretty much learned to live with it.

But some days are worse than others, as anyone with chronic pain knows. And the past few days have been pretty rough. We had a storm blow through on Monday, and it hit me pretty hard with some major pain issues. (That's another thing that you have to get used to when you have chronic pain. Any time the weather changes, you have to be prepared to feel it. Usually for several days.)

Seeing that I was having a hard time moving around much, my daughter decided that I needed a checkup. So she pulled out her doctor kit, set up her "office," and called me in for an exam. It was a pretty thorough one, too. She listened to my heart ("I can hear it!") looked at my eyes and ears ("Everything looks good!") and took my temperature. (I got a smiley face, so it must have been good.) Then she started her questions.

"Does your head hurt?" ...Yep.
"Do your shoulders hurt?" ...Yep.
"Does your back hurt?" ...Yep.
"Do your knees hurt?" ...No!

And that was my WOO-HOO moment for the day. There was something on my body that didn't hurt. It may sound silly, but that gave me somewhere new to put my focus, and it actually helped. When the pain in another body part caught my attention, I just consciously shifted the focus back to my knees, and smiled about how much they didn't hurt. And that got me through the rest of the day.

I know I've said it before - it's the little things in life that you treasure. Because sometimes those little things end up making a big difference.

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