February 25
- Time to work on creative endeavors
- The sun at higher altitude
- Lying on my stomach
After the cracked ribs, there were two things that bothered me. First, I couldn’t cough or sneeze without intense pain. Second, I couldn’t sleep on my stomach or my left side.
I am one of those people who sleeps in a routine way. Here’s my pattern: start off on right side, roll to stomach, end up on left side. One way I had a hard time sleeping? On my back. So now I’m down to 1 of my three preferred positions AND I have to resort to the one that keeps me awake when I try it (on the back).
You don’t have to tell me these are first world problems; I know. In fact, a group of us were having this discussion about 13 or 14 years ago. The majority of people at the table were desk workers (myself included) and one gentleman was in the process of building a barn on a large farm property.
This gentleman, of similar age to our own, listened politely for several minutes and then finally interceded. “Listen, when I get home, I open the door, make sure there is nothing sharp on the floor in front of me, fall down, and promptly pass out until it is time to wake up.” His point being, maybe we weren’t spending enough energy during the day and needed to be a bit more active.
So, yes, let’s say that is still an issue. Nonetheless, I was down two of my favorite sleep positions. And these were the two that rounded out the pattern; the routine.
To my delight, I am able to sleep on my stomach again. I don’t want to attempt the left side because I still feel pain when I do that? And I have this idea in my head that there may still be a slightly cracked rib and by sleeping on that side I’m opening it up further and it will puncture my lung in the middle of the night and I’ll die gasping for air because that’s my preferred sleeping side.
So, I don’t do that. 🙂