Ow

Turns out I didn't just pull a muscle after all. No, not dramatic enough for me.
Today it hurt a lot more. Thought we'd take Small to the park so I could walk it off but couldn't stand up straight, Small was trying to hold my hand and I was almost in tears with the pain of reaching down to him too. I was genuinely starting to think I'd broken a rib somehow, except you can't break a rib *somehow* if you break it then you kind of know at the time. Also, no bruises so it wasn't like Big had been chloroforming me in the night and using me for kick boxing practice either. But still, ow. Less than five minutes in the park and I asked Big to drop me off at A&E then take Small back to the park on his own while I waited.

There's this question they ask, I'm sure you've heard of it if you haven't been in a position to be asked it yourself  - "on a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the pain?"
Well, excuse me but I'm not a masochist, I don't have the wide enough experience of levels of pain with which to have them sorted into a neat grading system. It hurts like a bastard though. I settled on 7. I'd rate giving birth to Small about a 7 too, so I hope I never experience 8-10. They gave me codeine, which at least sorted out my sore throat. Actually no, I just thought it hadn't done much good until half an hour ago when it started to wear off. I'm looking forward to the next little pill of joy now. After being thoroughly checked over and having a collapsed lung ruled out and also a broken rib for the same reasons I mentioned above, they decided I've pulled, stretched or torn the cartilage  between my lower ribs on one side. I got a script for more codeine, advised to do some self-physiotherapy and to watch out for coughing anything up along with a range of options for who to call to depending on colour of said expectorant. Lovely.

Little trooper that I am, I'll be going into work tomorrow, probably in a corset to keep the ribs supported. It's times like these my alternative wardrobe comes in damn handy.