Once again, I’m in pain. I would like to go a whole month without some sort of injury because, seriously, this is getting old already.

The last mishap that’s happened to me is a stiff neck. Yesterday morning I woke up with pain in my neck, from sleeping in a funny way. My alarm went off, I opened my eyes and as usual, swung my arm across to pick up the phone from the floor, by my bed. The pain I felt was excruciating.

As it turned out, I had pulled a muscle or something like that during my sleep, and I felt the pain going from somewhere by my shoulder blade, all the way to the base of my head. Not only it hurt, but it also made me slow, showering and getting dressed turned into a challenge. Don’t get me started on riding public transport!

Yesterday, we were doing an event at work to which several clients attended and created teams to then participate in an University Challenge style of contest. We hired a comedian to be the quiz master and had a company providing all the scoring and buzzers. Why am I telling you this?

Well, yesterday I had to take care of a few deliveries (glasses, food and the stage and quiz equipment), running up and down between my desk and the loading bay; move boxes, carry stuff around, in order to get everything ready for 5.30pm. Even hanging posters with Blue Tack became difficult and painful.

During the evening, I was on drinks duty, in charge of serving drinks to clients and the sales team (who, I’m convinced drank more than our clients!), and also taking photos of the event, so more running around. We had to wash glasses during the night, and keep tidying empty bottles and similar. After, it was serving food (luckily I didn’t have to carry any platters myself!). Once the event finished, it was tidying and cleaning again.

While the actual event finished at about 10.30pm (or rather, the last clients left around that time), we had to hang around for the quiz company to take down the stage and rest of equipment, as well as vacuuming and throwing the rubbish. This meant staying until about 12am. Andrea, my colleague in charge of the event, was super helpful all night, and always at hand if I needed anything (thankfully) and by the end of the night, when she saw how tired we were, and how late it was, she decided to book me a cab to go back home (thankfully again!). My cab back home was quite uncomfortable because the driver wasn’t sure of the route at first, and he wasn’t a smooth driver, so every time he braked or started again I felt the jolts on my neck.

Finally I got home, and I went to bed. Again, getting undressed was very difficult and painful. I put some cream on to deal with the pain and tried to sleep, but I guess finding a comfortable and painless posture with a bad neck is more difficult than I had imagined. Luckily, staying late last night meant that I was allowed to work from home today.

Today was a relaxed day at home, working on translating some documents, proof reading and similar jobs. In the afternoon, I had an appointment with the doctor (thankfully, again, as I had booked it last week) and he confirmed it seemed a muscular issue, and prescribed anti-inflammatories, which I haven’t been able to get yet; so that means it’ll be another painful night!

Tomorrow, I’m going to the house all day, from 10am until 10am on Sunday, so I’ll have to force myself to take it easy, because I can’t make it worse (especially since I won’t be able to buy the tablets either!). This is driving me crazy already, and it’s been only two days!

This means I missed my workout today, and I’m probably going to miss the weekend sessions too, which sucks big time, but there isn’t much I can do when even walking to the GP surgery hurts (I guess we use our necks more than we think we do!). I think I’ll use the evening to catch up on my reading, as I’m a bit behind with Sophie’s World and the book club meeting is slowly approaching.

Finally, let me leave you with an unrelated thought…

We don’t realise how fragile we are, and everything around us; how a second can change anything. For this reason, take a moment to appreciate your surroundings and the people in your life. Take a moment to enjoy a smile, a hug, or a kind word. Even more, take a moment to smile, hug, be kind, to the people you love. We all put on our strong mask and brave the world each day, but we don’t realise everyone is fighting their own battle. The person who is supporting you today might need your support tomorrow, so be attentive and available. If we all were kind and patient and tolerant to the people around us, the world would be such a much better place.

“I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.” – Maya Angelou