I have been dealing with back pain for about 20 years now.....it started when I slipped and fell against the bathtub, injuring my tailbone in the process. Through the years as it's worsened with lifting and moving things, I've taken it upon myself to become my own doctor...to get rid of the pain. So I started out increasing the Ibuprophen I was taking...and the pain would go away, for a time.

But then it would return...and I would gradually increase the dose. Sure enough....the pain would go away.....and sure enough it would return. I increased the frequency of taking so many pills, because I thought that I couldn't take anymore at one time...so I just wait some time and take some more. I even switched to Excedrin. I wanted the pain to be gone...and I wanted a simple, easy solution.

This carried on just until here recently.....because the "warning signs" of headaches/migraines, chest pains, stomache upset (most of the time) among so many other things...they were beginning to scare me. I didn't want to live like this anymore.

There had to be a better solution to pain management than what I was doing. There was. I just had to listen, trust and follow the rules. I needed to let the doctors know when I was in pain....I needed to do the stretches to work through the pain...no matter how tedious and boring I felt it was.

I am now seeing the doctor and haven't been taking any Ibuprophen or Excedrin since the end of January. Yes, I do have back pain....the stretches that I was shown help so much. And I don't feel like I'm in a fog....I am actually LIVING life for once.

I share this story because I know there are so many people out there with pain....greater than mine...or not. You want it to go away.

This back pain of mine will always be here to some degree because of an accident I couldn't control. Yet, I am thankful for it because it has put me in a place to trust someone other than myself....to trust the One Who created me....Who knows me far better than I know myself...and for that I would never trade this pain as long as it keeps me close to Christ...