The Tale of Back and Acetylcholine

We talked a little while about this ache as if I hadn’t any. “You probably wouldn’t know,” she said convincingly. “No, I couldn’t possibly,” I said  — sarcasm unnoticed seemingly. “You know, my back is really aching so terribly that I could cry,” said she, continuing, “I’d kill for the ache to go away.” I kept myself together as though my pain in the back, neck, or wherever would be something I’ve never heart of before. “Alright, kill me! Really, is it that bad?” I asked wearily. ‘I’ve never ever had experienced the slightest hint of pain,’ I thought bleakly, ‘such as that you want to thrust a screwdriver into the source of pain?’ I continued silently, imagining the feeling possibly relieving pain for a microsecond (until the thrusting-in-screwdriver thing kicks in).

Does anyone even know how much pain a neurological disease, cervical dystonia, for example, could possibly cause. Even if the Botox® shots do help there is still the constant pain. Neck and back, mostly. Fingers falling asleep during certain activities, even lying down on the couch. An arm hanging ‘out of line’ and my thumb or pinkie tingles. Doesn’t sound so neat, huh? Yep. It takes minutes to re-adjust the falling-asleep limb. (Yes, here, I am whining about — hmm, well — minor inconveniences.) —

“Oh, yeah, you have your neck,” she said as though it was nothing. ‘Yeah, I have my neck,’ I repeated silently as if I've never ever heart this before and fired back an imaginary thunderstruck. How could anyone compare backaches with a neurological disorder? A little transient ache compared to a little change in the brain’s circuitry.

Yeah, it’s nothing. The brain is a changing thing anyway, day in day out. Perhaps, your brain changed a little when you learnt the Spanish word for pain yesterday (or: right now! Look it up on the inter-something and tell me...). Sometimes the brain has a few malfunctioning neurotransmitters and circuitries and the like that just don’t work very well anymore apparently. I can tell. But that is vastly different from aches in the back.