What no one told you about the dangers of house cleaning

A few days ago my daughter offered to change the sheets on my bed.  I had just brought up a clean set before I went on a trip, just in case the little one had an accident while I was away.  He didn’t but she offered to change them anyway.  I should have let her.

Earlier this week, I was changing the sheets.  We have a platform bed and a monstrous pillow top mattress that is very heavy.  I was lifting the mattress to get the fitted sheet underneath and twisted funny and the rest is history.  It didn’t start hurting immediately; rather it progressed throughout the day.  By night, I could hardly walk and the next day walking took an act of God.  I am not the “go to the doctor” type but the pain I was in could only be equivalated as labor pain.  Not only did my back hurt but the pain went to my hips, groin, thighs, and knees.  According to the doctor, I had nerve damage. 

I took Home Economics in junior high school and they never said anything about hurting yourself doing household chores.  My doctor said he sees this kind of thing all the time; no one does serious damage in a more respectable way. 

Of course, now I get to spend most of my time sitting around on the couch.  I have a million things that I would rather be doing.  The secret is that none of those things are things that I would be doing IF I were not grounded to the couch.  I need to clean the windows and paint my window trim and sills, the ceiling needs to be painted, I have plants that need to be planted, the carpet needs to be shampooed, I need to organize the basement, I have paperwork to file there is laundry that needs to be done, shopping I should do, and for some reason I REALLY want to run.  When I am not forced to sit on the couch and relax I wish I could JUST sit on the couch and relax.  It is funny how that works.

I have also been forced to allow and expect others to do for me what I cannot do.  My sister was here for the first couple days of this and was great with helping clean up and take care of the kid.  I now have to depend on my daughter to wait on me and do the things that need to be done.  The problem with that is when and if I ask for something to be done; I want it done…NOW.  I can wait a moment of two but after that I just get angry and end up doing it myself.  This is why I struggle so much with allowing others to help me and one of my major flaws.  I try not to get disappointed and angry but it is just easier to do things myself that way I can only be upset with myself.