Pain in the neck

For the past two Sundays (as well as Monday the 16th), I’ve given up hours of my life for a friend of a friend’s art project. He’s making a feature-length movie for his MFA that has no dialogue, is shot in HD, and uses synchronized swimming both as content and metaphor. I don’t pretend to understand, I just look good in a swimsuit. (Or better than pasty art school kids who don’t know how to swim.)

A handful of us from the swim team are playing a swim team in the movie and we practice, walk, swim laps, perform and ignore the main characters. Pretty much true to life. It was fun the first day, as there were two elite-level swimmers from the Aquanuts. Monday night ran late, with just me swimming laps in the background. (Out past 12:30 on a school night, oh my!)

This past Sunday was supposed to be 8 hours of shooting, but my time at the pool was cut short. In practicing a lift, where we raise and then throw the main character (a non-synchro swimmer) out of the water, the guy came down on my head, snapping my chin into chest and neck down. When I realized it wasn’t a simple injury (and when no one came over to see if I was OK), I changed in the locker room and walked off the set. Every bump of the road hurt as I drove myself home.

Today, three days later, all that remains is the stiffness. I’ve recovered my range of motion, albeit slower and not “normal.” My mid-back still aches, probably from holding my shoulders up to protect and support my neck. There’s a dull ache at the base of my spine, but it’s not like the initial hurt. Tomorrow I’m seeing an accupuncturist to see if getting my Qi flowing helps. It’s my first time, but, hey, I work in Berkeley, so when in Rome… besides, I don’t want a chiropractor to adjust me, nor a body worker to squeeze and wring out the area, nor a “regular” doctor to tell me to rest.

Needless to say, I won’t be going to swim practice tonight.

7 Responses to “Pain in the neck”

  1. Mom Says:

    Stephen, that’s not a good way for your Mother to find out about an injury. And we were just on the phone last nite !! You’d best do something!!!. Love you anyway !!!

  2. Mel Says:

    Ouch! Neck injuries are no fun and no laughing matter. Good luck with the acupuncturist. I’ve found it to be one of the few things that gives me some measure of relief and actually am long overdue in going back to see mine.

    I love that your mom is leaving mom-type comments. 🙂

  3. Kari- WillBlog4Yarn Says:

    Feel better!

  4. Dave Daniels Says:

    Uh oh…you didn’t tell your mom before posting it? You’re gonna have to knit her something extra special now. Hope your acupuncturist can help. Feel better.

  5. Elemmaciltur Says:

    Ouch! Hope you get better soon!

  6. Michelle Says:

    Sorry to hear about the injury. It really sucks that no one came to check on you….where is the humanity?

  7. meg Says:

    Just catching up – sorry to hear about your injury. I hope it’s back to normal now. Take care.