I have serious injuries from a car accident and in spite of good chiropractic care, I suffer from back pain. Many a morning, I would be unable to get out of bed if I did not know how to relieve back pain and spams fast. The easiest way is to use reflexology which is also called shiatsu or acupressure. It uses the same points on your body as acupuncture, but you only apply pressure rather than using needles. Look in the library for a book on hand reflexology which is easier to administer than foot reflexology. Find the chart which shows where the spine runs along your thumb. Press on the sore points on that line on both hands, and you will be rid of your back pain in a few minutes. Sorry, I really should draw a picture and scan it and also write out the directions. Until I get around to it, you will have to find the directions in a book.

Now, now, now ladies! Calm your feathers. Ianna was just asking a question. It was not an attack on your poor little defenseless Annie. :[ (wink) ianna, I took pictures of the morels I found today, but I cannot reveal the exact location of where I found them for fear of having people come stomping through my property and me having to get out old Betsy to warn them off with a few rounds over their heads. JK, but it is serious business around here and someone would come onto my property when I am gone and rob my shrooms. As it is, I am in competition with the wildlife to find them first. Where I find them every year though, is unprecedented according to some "experts". What can I say? I guess I am lucky. A few tips: When I rinse the morels before cooking them, I do so in a dishpan. Then I take the rinse water out to the exact spot I found them and throw it out there. I hope that any Morel spores that get rinsed off get returned to the wild and will make more next Spring. It seems to work. When I collect them, I use a mesh bag so the spores can fall out and thereby go back into the woodland soil to grow more next year. It would be a shame if people end up harvesting them out of existence. We have to be responsible stewards of the earth. Morels like to grow at the edge of trees (the drip line) where soil is rich and moist. I find them in grass or in leaves. Around here, they grow under the native Cedars (Juniper trees) and under Elm trees, at least where I have found them, but where the soil is rich & moist. You can do a GOOGLE search to read all about Morel hunting - when, where, how and all that. You can find images of them and lots of recipes. They only come up in the Spring - no fear of getting poison mushrooms because nothing else looks like them. I will also post the photos I took of the Morels I found today as soon as I get them uploaded. I'll post a special topic about it so you can see. Tomorrow I will go out again and see if there are new ones to be found. At $80 per lb, they are a real treasure and luscious eating. ~Annie

Yes, I did the same thing on Saturday, baked my cookie doughs that I froze. WHY didn't I think of doing that many 'achy backs and feet' years ago! You all put the 'bee in my bonnet' and made things a LOT easier! Bless You and Merry Christmas!

I first got the back pain about 25 years ago, after helping someone move. I used that position pictured above to read and study for exams and recovered. A couple years ago it came back after I over did it pulling out ivy, and/or lifting. It has become chronic but bearable. It is always bad in the morning, and If I am on my feet or walk my dog for more than 25 minutes it kicks in. Right now I am taking just aspirin, and sitting probably too much. It seems to be getting worse. I am thinking about trying to cut out nightshade veggies, as I hear they cause inflammation. The one side of my butt gets hot and swollen and hurts. I am glad it's not a spine thing, which I thought I had a couple years ago, but now it is only on the one side. I have taken aleve/naproxin (I sometimes get pain on the other side from my hip replacement and take only if necessary) but I hear it is bad and can cause Alzheimers, which my mother died of. But I think every case is different. I avoid doctors so am just dealing on my own. I hope your pain subsides quickly. Also, sleeping with a pillow between your knees if you sleep on you side may help.