Mar 03 \”When Times are Difficult, Remind yourself that no Pain Comes to you without a Purpose.\” ~unknown

Early Friday morning my Dad and I were on the road to Mishawaka for more prolotherapy.

Some prolotherapy days I jump out of bed, more than ready for the treatment.

Not this time.

I was exhausted and the thought of being poked and in pain just sucked.  It was one of those days that I woke up, stood up, and would have immediately crawled back into bed if I could have gotten away with it.  I just felt like my tank was empty…my “spoons” definitely needed some major replenishing.

Anyways, I sucked it up because I had no choice.  I put my big girl pants on, armed myself with lots and lots of coffee, and was out the door.

The trip was uneventful.  It was actually some great father-daughter quality time as we chatted about many different things.  We followed the Mishawaka routine that brings me great comfort on prolo days~get gas, get Subway, head to the office, fill out the usual paperwork; rate my pain, map out my pain on the pictures of the body, and jot down any new updates Dr. Cantieri needs to know.

One of those updates included, “My hip is really flared up.  Can we try to figure out why?”

For a while I have had this ongoing struggle with my left hip.  When I do too much it flares.  It is a super deep kind of pain…a different kind of pain, that seems to stump most doctors since it also affects my stomach.  I have been working on figuring it out for some time.  So when Dr. Cantieri came back to get me, we started the appointment by tackling my hip problem.  After a lot of evaluating it became clear that the pain was coming from more than my hip.  It was originating in my pelvis and going up into my abdominals.  As he poked and prodded the pelvis area, and as I jumped off the table in pain, it hit me.  I said to Dr. C, “I’m gonna have to have injections down THERE, aren’t I?” (As I am thinking to myself, “Out of all your underwear, you chose to wear THOSE today, Katie?!”)

Anyways, Dr. Cantieri nodded sympathetically, so I asked as politely as I could if we could just get it done as quickly as possible.  In the meantime, I yelled back to my Dad to just keep his nose in his newspaper.  He agreed that was best.  After the 10-15 injections into THAT area, I was done and it was on to my hip, mid-back, upper back, and neck.  Those injections went as usual.  The best, most encouraging part of the treatment was that I needed less shots in my neck than I have ever needed before. Awesome.

After all was said and done, Dr. Cantieri was the one who took the usual prolo pictures for me.  He was only able to take a couple since he had other patients waiting. I always find it funny that my “tough-guy, police officer Dad”, can’t watch, let alone take the pictures.  Dr. Cantieri always whispers to me, “It’s because you are still his baby…”

After an hour and half of shots, it was time to get dressed, schedule my next appointment, pay, take the usual Tylenol, and slowly crawl into the backseat of the car for the ride home.  Sidenote: If only you could have seen my walk to the car.  While it was not comical at the time, I keep bursting out laughing every time I think about it.  My Dad definitely found it amusing.

And the purpose of this pain?  To keep my body “glued” together using a natural treatment method.  To avoid surgery.  To be able to function.

I believe that’s purpose enough.