My Miracle Towel

A couple months ago, I started waking up with what I'll call a crooked neck.  It was just slightly annoying at first, but over time became quite a problem.  I visited my friendly chiropractor across the street and he loosened it up a little.  As he was manipulating my neck, he was quizzing me on reasons my neck muscles might be in a tither...and then he asked the question that I was afraid to answer for fear of what he would say,

"What position do you sleep in at night?"  Oh, phooey, here goes.  "I'm a stomach sleeper."

Ahhh.  I have always been a stomach sleeper, or for at least as long as I can remember, and I really like to sleep on my stomach.  As a side note, Jaybird is what I would call a corpse sleeper - he looks like a corpse - on his back with his hands folded neatly on his stomach.  SUPER CREEPY. 

Back to my neck...the chiropractor described it to me like this, "What if you sat all day with your head turned to the left?  After seven or eight hours, it would be sore and tight." 

Makes sense, I suppose, but it didn't make me very happy.  He gave me some neck exercises to do to help loosen it up and told me to try a couple different sleeping positions.

I tried the suggestions and it would help slightly, but before long, the neck pain first thing in the morning was simply unbearable.  I am not a crier, but one morning, I think I actually did shed a tear.  (I quickly realized that wasn't going to solve anything, I took some Aleve and got into a very hot shower.)

Usually, by mid-morning, my neck would loosen a bit and I could tolerate the tenderness for the rest of the day, but I just dreaded bedtime because I could not stand the thought of waking up with that silly neck pain. 

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to do what we all do anymore when we have a question that we need an answer for...I googled it.

I put in something like, "morning neck pain," and could not believe how common this problem was.  As I would click on a link and read, it was as if some of these people were describing my problematic neck pain.

The most popular solution:  Roll up a bath towel and sleep with it under your neck.  It didn't say that I would have to sleep on my back or my side with the towel under my neck, it simply said to put the towel under my neck.

Sweet Jesus, it worked.  And I mean that.  That towel trick is like a miracle to me.  After only a night or two, the pain in my neck was gone.  Well, Jay (the corpse) is still around, but... (Haha, I had to say that.)

Two nights ago about one a.m., I woke up in a panic.  I could not locate my towel, which had been snugly in place when I went to bed.  I searched in the dark and found that it had slithered up against the headboard.  I was so afraid that because I had been without it, for however long, I would wake up with the pain.  Thankfully, I didn't.

Every morning when I wake up, I put my miracle towel behind the pillow and make my bed.  I'm sure they sell something similar to a rolled-up towel for this exact purpose, but I've been thinking...the rolled-up towel sure looks a lot like a skein of yarn, a very big skein of yarn, or a sleeve that could store a lot of yarn...