Saturday, October 03, 2015

0400 And Screaming

     Well, quietly screaming, anyway.  Or not that quietly --  loud enough Tam came to my door asking, in fact.  My phone alarm, for some misbegotten reason, went off at 0400 and when I rolled over and reached for the alarm clock to shut it off (I don't always wake up as the keenest fork in the spoon drawer), then corrected mid-roll to grope for the phone, my right calf knotted up.  Very badly.

     It was at that point that the aformentioned cries of pain occurred, subsiding rapidly to mild swearing interspersed with whimpers and my admission to Tamara, "It's a damn calf cramp.  Ow."

     "You know you can massage those out, right?"

     I tried to sit up to reach my calf.  This set off another, smaller knot. "Maybe not this one."  I scrunched around until I could reach it.  "Aha.  Okay."  I kneaded at the knot.  Tam wandered off, presumably back to Slumberland, and I managed to get the pain down to a dull roar and nodded off for an hour.

     Woke back up hurting a little after five, limped around at morning ablutions, fed the cats and committed a little basic cookery (eggs fried in a hole punched in two slices of rye bread, using Worcestershire sauce butter, plus a little of this and that from the spice cabinet on the eggs -- try it, you might like it), woke up Herself at the appointed hour (she has a Thing to get to, early-early) and here I am, still hurting and limping.  But hey, I am here.

9 comments:

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Could be worse. You could have a seven-pound kitten who randomly launches himself off the quilt rack at the end of the bed and lands on you at odd hours...usually the small hours before BMNT...

Roberta X said...

:)

When I lived in a 400 square foot studio apartment lined with bookshelves, my cat Janie would race around on top of them, eight feet above the floor, then leap don onto the bed right next to my head. Or sometimes onto me.

There was a narrow, frosted window over the tub, pretty high up, which was screened and could be opened. One fine day I was soaking, reading, and had the window open. She decided that windowsill would be a very fine place, made a jump for it from the edge of the tub, slipped, got front feet on the (stone) sill, slipped again, and splashed right into the water. Things got very busy after that, ending up with the cat getting rinsed off and rolled up in a towel to dry. She was quite a cat.

John Peddie (Toronto) said...

If you're on statins (e.g Lipitor), they can cause nasties in your calf muscles. Ask me how I know.

But better than the alternative.

Countglockula said...

Yup, statin drugs and dehydration cause these little nighttime nasties.

My wife calls them 'screamers', based on my normal actions when one of these wakes me from a dead sleep.

I call them @&^$%^(@!@

Raz

Anonymous said...

What a way to start the day.

Not.

Do they still make those shower head wands that convert to a shower massage?

I've got a 30 year old one that's just the ticket when my neck knots up from sleeping at a weird angle...

jdunmyer said...

I'm on statins and get occasional leg cramps. Figured out one thing: they're much more frequent if I'm a bit cold. This makes staying in our RV much more ah, "interesting". Since that discovery, I try to keep the room warmer and/or have enough covers over me.

The cramps can happen in either leg and in the calf or thigh muscle.

Anonymous said...

schwepps Tonic water... i keep a six pack of small Bottles On Hand... The quinine works on those muscle spasms... Tasts Great with ice and Lime... Tangeuray if you want... and as a Former Navy nuke, I appreciate the Bright Blue Glow under a Black Light.

burkdoggy said...

Did you say "A-holes in rye bread"? Laughing pretty hard right now.

Roberta X said...

Gads, what a typo! Fixed, but left it at "a hole" so you can still laugh.