Injured

Last week, during pilates, something went popcrunch. Not all that unusual, but usually it's in a joint, not at / near the juncture of my neck and shoulder. I ignored it, as it didn't particularly hurt, and went on with my life. The next day it felt vaguely as though something were hot and swollen under the skin but not particularly painful or noticeable to my touch, but ... there.

By this past Tuesday I was officially in pain, so I went to the clinic we have at work. The PA checked my range of motion and attempted to recreate the pain by external pressure, commenting one of my muscles on my shoulder was a giant knot. 

I'm tentatively diagnosed with a herniated disc in my neck, and was given a course of steroids and muscle relaxants to take. That was working for the first day or so, not so much today. Over the past few days as the muscle unknotted, other joints I hadn't even noticed getting stiff have been popping and relaxing. Super nice. Today, however, I think it feels like my neck needs to pop, so I keep stretching it without thinking ... which keeps aggravating the nerve / disc and causing the muscle in my shoulder to knot.

On the other hand ... I feel like it's enough better to be basically in the same state my shoulders sometimes get when I've been exercising regularly and then stop. Like it just needs to be stretched out and worked. I'm giving it another day off, but I'm back to the gym tomorrow. I can't take it anymore!

I think also, however, that if I wake up again in the night with my shoulder & my calf trying to do charley horses, like happened last night, I'm going to go ahead and take the pill and just deal with the upset tummy and headache.