I never learn, do I?

They say that during pregnancy all your ligaments are looser, so you should be cautious to avoid undue strain. Well, never one to listen to sound medical advice, instead of packing wheeled luggage for this trip like a normal person, I opted for a sturdy duffle in addition to my laptop bag, which I crammed full of a lot of stuff besides my laptop.

Altogether, I've been lugging around 40 pounds of luggage or so. Not such a big deal if it's just in the airport. However, instead of taking a taxi from the airport like a normal person, I decided that since I had all the time in the world on Sunday, I would be adventurous and see how it would be to ride the subway in. That added some incremental luggage-toting, especially at the end of the ride since I was only able to get within about six city blocks of the hotel.

Again, this was nothing that would have been back-breaking under normal circumstances, and in fact I felt totally fine until today during a meeting when within fifteen minutes or so I went from feeling relatively normal to being hunched over in pretty extreme pain. It got so bad I had to leave the session and go walk around the hallway outside trying to stretch out whatever the kink was. This worked temporarily, but I continue to feel like I have a big knot or tear in my upper back. Not surprisingly, it's right below the shoulder blade on the side I favor for carrying stuff.

Hopefully it will ease up some overnight. I was thinking of stopping in at Sephora this evening; instead, I may hit the streets of the city that never sleeps in search of a heating pad. Ordinarily I would pop some Advil and not give it a second thought, but ibuprofen is off-limits this trimester, so Tylenol is my only option. I am just keeping my fingers crossed this is better by the time I fly home; a four-hour flight would be a nightmare with this degree of discomfort.