Weekend fun!

On Thursday night I went to work out at the gym... I did about 2 weight exercises and my neck and head started to really hurt... my head started to throb and got really hot and I felt like I was going to pass out. Now, I had felt much less but somewhat similar pain before when working out but it was a lot less and after a minute or two of sitting it didn't really hurt anymore and I could move on. Only one time did it hurt long term but that was only for a few hours and then the pain went away. So, I tried to do another exercise but the pain was too much so I decided to leave... but before I left I stopped to my trainer and told him the pain I had been feeling... he wanted me to come in the next day and see the chiropractor but I had to work all day and I was going to North Carolina the next day to see some of the mountains and to do some gemstone mining (something I hadn’t done before). So the trainer stated he would talk with the chiropractor and he just wanted me to call in to see what he said.

I drove home and on the way my head started hurting so bad that tears just started flowing, I started to feel dizzy, and as the night went on the pain got much worse. I couldn’t find a comfortable position to lie down, I was taking medication, and I was just in pain. I was lucky because one of my roommates went out and got me some stronger medication and a heating pad for my neck. The combo made it so I could at least sleep part of the night.

The next morning the alarm went off and I opened my eyes and thought… hmm… it doesn’t hurt so bad… and then I sat up. All the pain came rushing back!! So, I took a shower and then tried to get ready for work but the pain was just too much. I called my trainer back and surprisingly he answered the phone (it was about 6:00am) and said that the chiropractor wasn’t scheduled to be in until 9:00 but he was going to find out if he could come in earlier. I then called my manager and let him know that at best I was going to be to work late… when my trainer got back to me he stated that he couldn’t get a hold of the chiropractor but he would be in at 9am… I stated that I would be too.

I was there at 9am and started talking to them, and then chiropractor did some testing and cracking and stated that I had pulled most of the muscles in the back of my neck. He stated that I should ice it (20 minutes on, 20 minutes off), take medication if necessary and he gave me a few stretches to do daily. My head was still in so much pain that I decided that I would just take the rest of the day off sick and ice my neck like crazy… the last thing I wanted to do with my headache was deal with crabby people!!

For the next few hours I slept (since I really didn’t sleep well then night before) and iced my neck. By 3:00pm I decided that I still wanted to go up to N. Carolina (I asked the doctor and he said it would be fine to go) so I got my stuff together and met one of my roommates at their work and we drove up… we met their parents up there and found a hotel room and I continued to ice the whole weekend but on Saturday morning my neck finally started feeling better (but I continued to take Tylenol because my head was still sore).

Saturday we went gemstone mining… it was definitely a different experience (probably similar to panning for gold. We had planned on going to one mine (Sheffield – I think was the name of the place) but after going to the town’s information center and talking to the guy behind the counter we decided to go to Rose Creek (I think that was the name… again… I am so terrible at remembering names). It was closer but we missed the road to the place so we ended up going a ways out of our way… it wasn’t a big deal though because we were in the foothills of the mountains and the leaves on the trees were turning color so it was actually quite pretty.

When we got there we learned how to “mine” for our gemstones. They had a shed that they had brought a mix of dirt, clay and mud to, we filled our buckets full of dirt and then sat down by some water with a sifter and sifted the mix thru the water and there would be some gemstones still in the sifter. It was kinda cool to see all the dirt and then to remove it and see some very pretty stones… some were large, most were small but all were a lot of fun to see come out of the dirt!! We were there for a few hours but after a while it gets tough on your back and hands (some of the clay and mud was hard to sift out).

There was also a Pumpkin Festival going on so we decided to check that out… it ended up being a few booths of arts and crafts, 1 folk style band and a few food booths… we got there about 4:30 and it ended at 5:00… but by that time we were all pretty hungry so we found a restaurant, and then went back to the hotel room. There was a swimming pool in the hotel so we all went down there.

In all it was a very fun weekend… and seeing all the color was so beautiful… so much so that we are hoping to go hiking in the Georgia Mountains this weekend… hopefully the weather will cooperate!! It has been pretty nice down here weather wise though!!

I did take a few pictures over the weekend... once I figure out how to get them off the camera I will add them to my link!