Just Simply Jen

Pillows are crazy things. Unless you are mad about having a zillion of them on your bed and they have to look just so, you probably don't think much about them. You find the one that fits you think will be comfortable and that is the end of it. I have always been that way about pillows. Now I often have needed two to sleep right but that was about as far as the thought process went. The past two weeks have shown me how dependent I have become on one silly pillow.
What is so special about this pillow? Nothing really. It has some great sentimental value because it was a Christmas present from my son in 2007. The story behind it is basically that he was having bad dreams so I gave him my body pillow and called it a "no bad dream pillow." I told him that the plaid in the pillow trapped the dreams so they couldn't get into his head. It worked but he felt he needed to replace it and that is how I ended up with this certain pillow. It's a body pillow that is striped and has the ugliest yellow pillow case that goes over it. I love that thing. This isn't what is so important about the pillow though. When I placed my head on that pillow for the first time that Christmas night, I had a great nights sleep. It was the first time in a long time that I could lay my face on a pillow and feel no pain. My neck didn't hurt. My jaw wasn't pushed out of whack. The tenderness in my cheek was, for once, was not an issue. It was a miracle covered in ugly yellow and I was so grateful.
I'm not going to say I never had a restless night, but it was very rarely pain related when I did. The month that I didn't have the pillow during the move were hell but I related it more to the different, extremely uncomfortable, beds that I was sleeping on. Why is any of this relevant? My wonderful pillow is in Louisiana still at my dad's house. Yup. I had let my son sleep with it so he would be propped up and hopefully not cough so much the last two nights we were there and we left it on the bed. We were about 4 hours away when we realized it and there was no way we were going back for it. We haven't had the money to just go buy a new one so far and I didn't think it was a problem but boy was I wrong. I have only had one good nights sleep since we got back from the trip and that was because I had taken two muscle relaxers. I have taken more muscle relaxers in the past two weeks than I normally do in 6 months. I have not had a pain free day since we got home but I am just learning to muddle through.
I am not saying all of this to whine. More because I am totally shocked that one pillow can change things that much. All I have to say is that my husband better show up at the door Thursday afternoon with the replacement in hand.

Stupid pillows!