Please pass the vicodin

I've come to have a whole new appreciation for my elbows. It's amazing what you can't do without their use: wash your hair, put in contacts, put on chapstick, brush hair out of your mouth ... eat.

This newfound esteem for this particular body part came after I inured my elbows and triceps and have been unable to bend my arms for the past two days. Last Friday night, I decided to try a new weight routine that a friend showed me. Apparently it was a little too much for my wimpy arms. I was fine all day Saturday, but I woke up that night in pain, and it has gotten progressively worse ever since.

Believe me, the humor of this is not lost on me. I have, more than once, been attempting some common, every day task only to catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, my arms half bent, trying in vein to reach my face, which is still about a foot away.

That's in between tears of pain, which I've been trying to minimize, since blowing my nose is out of the question. Apparently I must have strained or caused little tears in my ligaments and muscles. Though small, they are surprisingly painful.

A shot my doctor gave me yesterday, an over the counter medicine, ice, heat and a supplement he recommended made no difference. Finally today, he prescribed me a mild narcotic.

Today was my second day I was unable to go to work. I'm managing to type this only by having my laptop pushed far away from my body, and with lots of breaks.

Jenn S. came over to help me today. She cleaned my kitchen, helped me take pills, made me lunch and, I'm not joking, fed me. This experience has definitely brought our friendship to a whole new level.

My favorite moment was while we were on the way to the pharmacy to pick up my medicine. At a stoplight, I asked her to brush away my bangs from my face, which were stuck under my sunglasses. She complied, and as she was doing it, a girl walked around the truck parked beside us. "You're so beautiful," Jenn said with feigned adoration, tucking my hair behind my ears.

Lesson learned: Maybe I should leave intensive weight training to the body builders.