The Nerve

Sometimes it is amazing to me how little attention I pay to my body.  I've had a pain in the back of my knee on and off for a very long time.  It comes and goes.  On our last trip, it came, with a vengeance (from too much sitting).  For a while I kept thinking that it was a pulled muscle, from too much tennis (and just kept playing).  I thought that, and just dismissed it.

 Then, on our trip back home, I started really focusing on the pain and where it was and what kind of situation it was, how it behaves, etc.  It became obvious to me that it does not really behave like a muscle problem;  it does not really behave like a joint problem either.  Ahha!  I recognized what it was, because I have had the problem before.  It is clearly a pinched nerve!

Today I started doing some exercises that I remember from a time some years ago when I had problem with a sciatic nerve and had gone to a physical therapist.  It was then that I discovered the degree of my lower back/spine tightness, inflammation, pain.  It doesn't really have to do with the knee at all.   That is the surprising part.  I need to stretch my back.  And I have been doing that today.  But it has taken me a long time to figure this out.

It is now my hope that by being aware of the actual cause of the problem  {rather than focusing on a completely different location} that I will be able to improve the situation. I learned from reading about pinched nerves that a pinched nerve in the back can present pain all the way down the leg, even to the toes.   

There is one observation I would make about all of this.  I am very much in tune with the way emotions play out in my body and I pay attention.  I am really rather oblivious when it comes to identifying and understanding pain!  How odd!  I wonder why that is?