Provided By Chatelaine | By Astrid Van Den Broek
It was the summer before grade nine. And, still new to what a period completely entailed, I was moaning about my crippling cramps. As in lying on the couch doubled over cramps, ones painkillers were having little effect on. But then in the early afternoon I saw that my favourite show was about to come on—The Monkees. (Really Astrid?) Yup, I was deep into their ‘80s comeback and playing my retro Monkees albums continuously, watching the show daily and had a raging crush on little Davy Jones. I lay down in front of the TV and soon got lost in those Monkees antics I found so charming at the time. The more into the show I got, the more those cramps disappeared and I soon forgot about them completely.
That was probably the first time I discovered that pain can sometimes be situational, that sometimes distractions can help me through pain. It was a trick I employed again six years ago when I gave birth to my daughter. I was determined to have a TV in the labour room and watch my then-favourite show, The O.C. (again, really Astrid?) hoping to distract me from the pain of delivering my first child. It worked for awhile until the TV got shut off because we were moving into serious contractions and delivery mode. But for awhile I got caught up in the Seth and Summer hate you/love you scenes and somewhat lost track of the pain rolling through my lower half. Read More
