WHEN PAIN IS GOOD

Two or three weeks ago I overdid the walking exercise and stressed a muscle in the arch of my left foot. For ten whole days I walked around limping and I felt thoroughly sorry for myself!! At day eight I went to the sick bay and the nurse suggested that I bandage it, but all that got me were more sympathetic smiles and head shaking from everyone I passed – the foot got no better!! Two days later my friend decided to take matters (i.e. the foot) into her own hands and gave me a hard massage; I left her house jumping!! I remember walking aimlessly around campus, running unnecessary errands just to test the foot out, and trying not to let doubt into my heart; scarcely could I believe that I could walk without pain - I mean I had limped around for ten whole days and five minutes of massage had put me right as rain. I had heard of people to whom miracles happened – they regained their sight or threw away the crutches, only to be hit by severe doubt and be back with their infirmities in no time… So after that time I really struggled to keep my belief up… The point is life felt so much better – it was like I had gotten a new lease on life..

It’s like earlier today: I had really, really bad cramps from my period starting, and as I lay there on my bed groaning and rushing back and from the bathroom to throw up, I felt as miserable as anything... This pain always reminds me of the pain of child birth, and makes me wonder how much pain women in labour must feel seeing as some of them scream out loud and even jump up and run around the ward like crazy people (not to mention where they find the energy).

This thought occurred to me again recently when I had to have my hair dreaded. I had had it in braids for almost four months and the extensions being quite heavy had been kept up a constant pressure on my scalp as they hang down under their weight. The day I undid the braids, I decided to go straight to the salon and dread the hair. GOOD GOD!!! What a nightmare that was!!!! First of all my hair was a tangled wrangled mangled bush – what can I say?? The hair dresser drowned it in detangler and conditioner and all manner of lotions to help detangle it, but to no avail – he had to comb through the hair inch by inch, and I felt as though my scalp was going to peel right off!! At one point I asked him to hand over the comb so I could do it myself but wah!! Nothing doing.. We were at this for two whole hours and I sat through it with feet, teeth, shoulders, elbows my WHOLE body clenched, until I thought I was going to faint with the pain!!

Finally we got through the detangling and then came the dreading: he started off massaging wax into the wet hair (even that was painful!) and then starting in the back took a small portion of the hair, pulled through it with a fine comb, then set the comb back at the base of the hair and pulled through the portion again while twisting the comb until he’d twisted the to the full length of the hair; at this point he portioned off another small amount of hair and made another dreadlock, and so on. This process also took some time, but as he got to the middle of the head, the wax that he had spread all over the hair had now hardened so it was getting more and more difficult to pull through the hair to twist it. Every now and then though, he sprayed my hair with water, and then continued. Now about two thirds of the way to the front of my head is a very sensitive area – I think it became that way because of a fall I had on the ice when I went ice skating once – when he came to that region, tears just begun rolling down my face – it was soooo painful!! I kept surreptitiously wiping away the tears but man – that is when I begun to really wonder if I would ever bear the pain of childbirth!! Anyway, in time of course he finally twisted the last one, and I could go home at last!! My friend – if I tell you how I felt!!! I walked out of the building – I had to use the back entrance because it way past closing time – I passed some shady guys playing a dice game of some sort, walked through the dirty smelly back street, stepping over flowing sewage and passing more shady (incidentally dreadlocked) street boys, briefly felt afraid but told myself to look confident and not lose a step, but nothing could dampen my high spirits!!

So anyway back to earlier today: after the cramping and vomiting had passed, and I had brushed my teeth and washed my face, I stepped out into the punishingly hot midday sun and felt that all was right with the world. I even decided to reward myself with some junk food at the staff pub, and they were playing some country that had me tapping my foot and dancing in my seat! For once even the gloom and doom being reported in today’s papers had no effect on me – ALL WAS WELL WITH ME!!