My first night on my new mattress I didn’t sleep well. I know it will take some getting use to after sleeping on a waterbed for many years. When I went to my mom’s in August, I had a hard time sleeping on an extra firm mattress on her bed. Anyway, I rolled back and forth all night long and awoke to severe pain in my lower back and joints. I had to take a strong painkiller. Throughout the day, I had to take more of the painkillers to keep the pain tolerable. I have a very high pain tolerance but these pains were a doozy. The painkillers made me dizzy and sleepy all day.

The second night was a lot better on the new mattress as my back was getting use to it plus the pain medication. I felt like doing some household chores today with the help of my aunt. I needed someone to help me lift some boxes from my closet and move them in the spare room. I need to go through them and clean out unwanted stuff in them another day since after moving the boxes my back started to hurt bad again. Having back pain is no fun. I have Lumbar Spinal Stenosis (LSS) which affects as many as 400,000 Americans. I have been trying to avoid surgery. My surgeon 3 years ago told me to be extra careful with my lower back because when I do have to have surgery, the recovery time is about a year. I do not look forward to having that surgery eventually. In the meantime, I try to be careful and use painkillers only when the pain is intolerable. It is nice to be pain free when the medication does take affect. I do not want to get addicted to the medication.