Pain Summary:
Lower back: 3

My pains have been very minimal this past weekend.  I only feel back pain when I bend over to pick something up. Other than that, it is not very noticeable.

I have had stomach cramps and diarrhea all weekend though. I don’t know if it is a symptom of TMS/AOS or a side effect of my pills (which is the most common side effect I get, or if it is just a temporary bug. My feeling is that it is a combination of all three. It’s probably a bug, made worse by my pills, and its all sufficient to take the place of any pain I’m feeling. It has been pretty bad this weekend. 

It started on the train ride home on Friday. I bloated up pretty bad. I thin I was on the toilet about 6 times on Saturday and it continued on Sunday. This morning I weighed 229.8, which is the first time I have weighed less than 230 in a long time. I guess that is the upshot, but it’s most likely water weight.

I’m still stressed out about money. I was able to talk to Rachel about it Friday night as we had a nice 4 hour date. But I don’t think it really hit her until Sunday morning when I said we need to pay tithing but we don’t have enough money in our checking account. She said, “I’m done spending money… for now.” 

So I think now is a good time to work out a plan and get on the same page. 

I really wanted to spend Saturday morning getting taxes done. I slept in until about 9:00 am though. Then as I went into the office I figured I would switch out the electrical outlets before I got all my computer stuff plugged in. Then I ended up spending the morning doing outlets in the office, hanging up all my bats & generally just putting things back together.

By 4:00 it still wasn’t done and Rachel had a night out with friends. I was too tired to work on it anymore so I just started some movies and watched a couple of movies with the kids. Rachel got home around 10 and I think she was frustrated that I didn’t do anything else after she left but she didn’t say anything about it – until the next morning.

I went home teaching yesterday. I home teach the Barney family. They are my only assigned family at the moment. Sister Barney has had two back surgeries because she is in constant pain. I gave her one of Dr. Sarno’s books – “Healing Back Pain”. It is the shortest on the topic and in my opinion not quite as good as The Mindbody Prescription. I had already loaned out my copy of that to someone in the ward though.

I really take every opportunity I can to tell people about Dr. Sarno and now even Dr. Brady and how it helped me overcome carpal tunnel pain, and I’m sure I will also one day say that it cured my back pain. I think this journaling is helpful. It was especially helpful as a talking point on my date with Rachel on Friday. It was helpful to see that I relate money problems to my parents divorce and it left a lasting scar on me. Rachel also said that money was the biggest cause of her parents fighting.

We also talked about her working with her mom and sister. I asked if there was parts she still enjoyed about that job. She said “not anymore.” I encouraged her to talk to them and give them a month notice to find a replacement. I don’t know if she will. We both know she is very frustrated with the situation she is in. She is working 40 – 60 hours per week since Auguest and hasn’t brought home a paycheck. What’s worse is we have about $800 we’ve spent on the business. At least now she has a company card to put expenses on. But she felt like she needed to contribute something as part owner.

We went to see Admission Friday night. It was a comedy and it was fun for a few laughs there was one line in the show that really stuck. There was a scene where the main character was totally depressed. Someone asked for advice. He usual advice was “Be yourself.” She gave the same advice this time but added. “Be yourself… because that’s who you’re stuck with.”. Rachel leaned over and said, “That is how I feel right now.” She was dead serious but I couldn’t help but laugh. She wasn’t saying it to be funny be she laughed about it too and I think it was good for her.