By I’ve had chronic pain for years (bad knee, bad lower back, carpal tunnel and other hand/arm issues, etc) and some of them are even nerve pain related. For two weeks now I’ve been dealing with a pinched nerve in my neck.
If you have never endured this kind of pain, count yourself lucky. I’ve always had a high tolerance for pain. That’s what happens when you live with chronic pain. This pain though? Holy wow, Batman.
Because of where the pinched nerve is, it effects my entire right arm. I have pain in my shoulder, my elbow and now my entire upper arm. It shoots up my neck and down into my back. My entire thumb has gone numb, even worse than it was before my carpal tunnel surgery 20ish years ago, and other parts of my hand sporadically get numb and tingly too.
I find myself holding my head at an odd angle to minimize the strain and pain.
It’s at its worst during the night and first thing in the morning. I haven’t been sleeping well due to pain, and in the mornings it takes me several hours to get past the screaming pain in order for the arm/hand to be functional.
As you can imagine, for a writer this feels catastrophic. Add to that my other hobbies, which include photography, knitting and crochet and I’m left sitting like a lump on the couch staring blankly at the television. Not having the use of your dominant hand is…difficult.
I see my orthopedic doctor in a few days. I’ve been signed off of work for the next few weeks. In the meantime, I need to adjust to this new idea of what normal is. Once again I get to reset my estimation of pain, and figure out what is doable, and what really isn’t (for example, I learned that sweeping is a big don’t, but vacuuming isn’t bad).
Fortunately, In Gathering Shade has been turned in to the publisher and Where Shadows Fall is about half way finished, so I’m not on deadline for anything other than yarn projects for Christmas.
I’ll try to keep up with Character Introductions and such, and soon there should be release date news. Until then, I’m over here getting by with my new normal.
Natalie J Case 
I know about pain. We were rear ending in 1991 and my neck and spine are ruined, as are my TMJs. After years of doctors and physical therapies, i finally turned to chiropractic. Even then I had to find the right modality. I finally found one after moving to Honolulu and sadly cannot see him anymore since I’ve moved again. He is a cervical chiropractor treating only with the neck/cervical (does NOT crank your bones!) and a treatment called Networking. Won’t go into those here but you might check them out. The premise is that when the neck is connected to the skull properly – that is, not jarred or worn crooked – then the rest of the spine knows its correct position and assumes it. These treatments worked for me. Finally, I had no lumbar pain, no stiff neck and pain, no TMJ problems, and it even took away my wrist pain for being on the computer so much. Now, I really need to find a similar chiropractor here in Scottsdale who uses the same treatments.
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