Help, I'm in Traction! 

By Vickie G. Paver

Since I've been going to physical therapy for my back and neck, I've learned a few things. Number one is that if you don't apply some basic "back health" knowledge to your everyday living you can end up paying a big price. Another is that learning your limits and not running your back into the ground so you feel a hundred years old at the age of fifty plus. I've learned that I cannot lift heavy stones, mow the lawn by hand, rake, till up a garden spot all in one day and expect to have my back feeling great. Also, I cannot shovel heavy wet snow from a two-section driveway (64 ft. x 60 ft. and 45 ft. x 30 ft.) by hand, all at one time and feel no pain in my back. And I cannot sit at a computer for hours, working without a break and not have pain. Through all of this I've had to learn that I'm human, not super-human. Over the years, because of my own bull headedness I pushed my bones and spine to the limit. Because I did not listen to my body and never practiced the basics, I paid the price, the price of pain and limited movement.

It was because of these back and neck problems that I ended up in physical therapy for a couple of months. They started working on my neck because that is where I was having the most problems and pain. The therapy of choice, decided by the therapist, was traction. I did NOT like that at all! I was put into a contraption that fit over my head. It fastened from around the back of my head to the front, over my jaw and under my chin, fixing my head in a “no move” position. He added a bag of water that weighed fourteen pounds, hooked it on a pulley and hung it from a door. As I hung there, weighed down and immobilized for 20 minutes a day, it did its job of separating the disks, giving them a chance to rest and heal. The therapist told me the key to traction was to relax. They put moist heat on the back of my neck to help with the relaxation. Traction can do its job if you don't fight it and I learned to relax rather quickly. I had one problem with traction. The chin strap was irritating my chin, but they found some "lambs wool”, which they used to pad the inside of the strap. It helped a great deal. I had a lot time to think while in traction. Also, I was actually willing to do anything to help myself now and that included not overworking my back and body!

Today, as I was "hung" for the last time, I began to think about how this might apply to me spiritually. I realized that as I sat there, unable to move sideways, back or front, that sometimes God puts us in "traction" through certain life circumstances. We feel like we cannot move and sometimes we really can’t. We have to stay still. It is at these times He has our full attention and He can begin certain healing processes. At times it may be for the purpose of letting us know we are not going in the direction that He wants us to and He then gently restates that direction to us. And like the "lamb's wool" kept the chin strap from hurting my chin, so the "Lamb of God, Jesus Christ" cushions us through these lockdowns, so that we are not totally overwhelmed or hurt...more than necessary. As we all know, life is tough sometimes. When we as human beings end up in traction, hopefully we will learn something during these times and apply some basic spiritual lessons to our life for our own spiritual health.