Pain

In church today someone gave a great talk about the atonement of Christ and how he took upon him all of our pains, sicknesses, shortcomings, sins, etc we experience. As a metaphor the guy kept using this story of how he had this terrible back pain and how it was healed via a steroid shot in his back (which was also scary and painful, but not as painful or long-term as the back pain).

The last couple weeks I have finally started to feel truly pregnant (obvious bump, baby moving enough to sometimes be seen from the outside, and various aches and pains). This last week in particular, back pain has become my new constant companion. Today is definitely the worst back pain I have ever experienced. Standing up? Yowza. Turning? Ouch. Picking up the toddler and putting her back down? Help me, dear Lord. I tried heat and exercises and I still feel like crap. So there I was, sitting in church, really getting in touch with my back pain and its purpose as the speaker talked about some really smart guy that said something like all pain is purposeful or beautiful or whatever.

And the pain I have, sucky though it is, is nothing like the pain others I have known are going through or have gone through. Truth be told, it's not nearly as bad as the pain of a fourth degree tear I myself have experienced, though it's similar in its persistence. But, while I'm cursing this guy in my mind for choosing such a perfect metaphor, I'm wondering if there is something to that whole getting through pain by experiencing the heck out of it thing. Just examining it, following its pathway through the body, describing it to yourself--making it realer than real so you can then let go of it. Maybe this is a question for Nurse Dave. In the meantime, I am off to google some more remedies.