Good Vibrations ... NOT!!

21 Years ago I was a volleyball and basketball playing, motorcycle riding, storm chasing, thrill seeker.  Fast was fun, slow was dumb, and sleep was for the dead.  I vaguely remember what that lifestyle was like.  I do remember the butterflies before each game, assessing the other team and which player I was going to brutalize, the thrill of the wind in my hair and against my face, driving all over hell’s half acre in search of the possible clouds that would drop a twister, and feeling the need, the need for speed.

Those days are gone … long gone.  RSD has seen to that.  My fear of increased pain levels and flares have me sidelined from almost every one of my “old” physical activities.  And the wind sends me running for the heated covers in my hermetically sealed bubble.  I am still recovering from an emotionally stressful week.  I should, by all rights, be back on track with managing my pain, but the Skank has been ruthless here in the Centennial State and this week has all of the earmarks of not getting any better.

I have been trying to think of an accurate way to describe what wind feels like to an RSDer.  I normally akin it to tuning forks and the bells of Notre Dame, but I’m not sure that that accurately details the torture that we endure.  So I’m gonna take a new avenue of description … Take into consideration that I am 5’11” and weigh 126 lbs; tall, thin, no meat, no padding, no insulation …

Imagine a Plasma Globe, you know, those gaseous globes that channel electric current??  Yeah, those!!  My bones are like the glass ball.  Anyway, imagine that along with the current, there is also pressure building inside the globe, pressing out against it’s confines, trying to burst it’s way through the thin membrane of glass (kinda like when you‘re blowing up a balloon).   This is how it feels when the weather changes.  It doesn’t matter if it’s getting cooler or warmer because every degree of change adds more pressure to the inside of the globe.  Now let’s factor in the wind.  If you trace your finger around the outside of the glass, an electric current, lit by neon gas, follows your connection.  Now wrap both hands around the globe and observe how much gas lights up from the electricity.  Imagine the electric vibration that is reverberating throughout the orb as the pressure continues to build.  One 20 mph gust of wind comes along and <SMASH> the globe shatters!!  The electricity starts zapping the muscles, tendons, veins, nerves, skin, everything!!  Some would say, “but at least the pressure is gone, right?” … Wrong!!  Because as soon as the glass breaks, it’s reassembled, but not every crack is sealed.  The pressure begins building again, electric shocks find their way through the cracks, and the next 20+ mph gust decimates the glass all over again.  And then it’s reassembled again.  And then the pressure builds again.   Every reassembly allows for more fractures in the glass which means more electric shocks to hit whatever is in it’s path.  For the last 5 days, the winds have been between 20 and 80 mph.  The local temps are topping out in the mid-60’s and the nightly lows are averaging in the low teens.  You do the math!!  (Notice I have not mentioned how the actual wind feels on my actual skin yet.  Trust me when I say that you Normies can only handle so much eye-popping realization so decorum prohibits me from telling you at this time.)

Usually, after about 12 hours of the wind subsiding, my bones begin to feel whole again.  The thing is, the wind hasn’t stopped for that long yet.  We had a few calm hours yesterday and that helped a bit, but I still feel tasered this morning … and there is more snow and more wind heading our way within the next 12 hours.  <ding ding> Round 4,754 for the month of February, comin right up!!  Has anyone found a cure yet??    

 So it’s time, yet again, to turn my focus towards what I can do now instead of remembering and dwelling on what I can't do anymore.  I’m not entirely sure what that is today, but I have faith that I’ll figure it out.  Lots of slow, careful movements today for this kid.  Finding ways to occupy my brain without rattling my body (not as easy as it sounds).  I also have faith that the wind will take a hiatus at some point and allow me to put all of my pieces back together … probably mid-April-ish … ugh!!  Hang tough everyone!!  Cuz I guaran-damn-tee you that I’m gonna!!!