Update

Hi! It's been awhile. My last blog pot was about 2 years ago. Ekk! So today is going to be an update post. 2012 started out great. I was getting stronger, my endurance was up and I was going to the box 5 days a week. I tweaked my back again in February so I took a few weeks off. I rested, recovered and got back at it. I was doing great once again. Hitting new PRs, feeling good and looking good. I was doing box squats on July 2nd, 2012 and that’s when it happened! I blew my back out again! But this time was different. I got into a physical therapist within an hour. Got some pain meds from my doctor and they sent me on my way. Keep in mind that my husband is working out of town at this time. Two weeks on and two weeks off. So I'm home alone trying to do all this by myself. I spent that first day on the couch doing what I had done before. I was still in pain the next day so my mom came and got me. She drove me to her house so she could take care of me. The morning of the third day I was having the worst pain in my left leg. It went from just below my knee down to the top of my foot. It felt like my leg was on fire. Then I realized that I couldn’t lift my toes up. I also had a very difficult time lifting my foot up. I had heard that there was a sports medicine doctor in town that was supposed to be the best. My brother had been to him for a sports injury and had really liked him. So I made an appointment. I had an MRI and when he looked at it was very obvious that my once bulging disk was now herniated. I had also blown out some cartilage and it was hooked around my nerve root, which explained the pain in my leg. The doctor said I had two options. I could try a cortisone shot which would block the nerve and could last a few weeks. However, it would not fix anything, just mask the pain. Or I could have surgery. He pushed surgery really hard because I was a prime candidate. I'm healthy, not over weight, and I don't smoke. He also said that after about 5 or 6 months the paralysis in my leg could become permanent if it was not treated. I wasn't ready to have surgery. I had heard horror stories about people having one surgery and then having to have more and more to keep fixing the damage. So I opted for the shot. I also wanted to do some research. They shot wasn’t that bad. It helped for about three weeks and then the pain returned. During that time I had been asking around about surgery. I heard the whole spectrum of opinions from, "It was the best thing I ever did!" to "I wish I never would of had it done." The thing I found the most interesting was that the people who had a bad experience had one or more of the following issues: Smoker Over weight Inactive lifestyle They didn't spend enough time recovering I figured that the first three were not a problem for me. The last one was going to be a bit tricky. I have a tendency to overdo it. Hence the situation I found myself in. So after a non-successful shot I finally decided to have surgery. However, I had to wait until my new insurance kicked in as I was starting a new teaching job in September. Surgery was scheduled for Monday November 26th. 5 months after my injury. The surgery went really well. Before surgery I couldn't keep my foot up when the surgeon pushed down on it. As soon as I work up my surgeon came in and pushed on my foot again. This time I could keep it up! Instant gratification! They fitted me with a back brace and I was sent home. I took a week off work and was back in the classroom 7 days after surgery. But that was about it for two weeks. I started Physical therapy 4 weeks post-surgery. By the beginning of January I was off pain killers and by February I was off muscle relaxers. At the end of February I was cleared by PT to do a little skiing. I just stayed on the bunny hill the first day. The second time I went skiing I got to go on some other runs besides the bunny hill. For those of you who don't know, my husband and I teach ski lessons in the winter time. (Thats where we meet.) Missing ski season was a huge bummer for me. Although I got to teach 2 lessons towards the end of the season it was just not the same. I was also allowed to sit on my horse and just walk around by the end of February. That was a huge part of the emotional healing process for me. I also just went to the box to hang out. I konw I'm a dork but I love my CrossFit family. Doing that was both awesome and really hard.

Overall recovery went really well for me. It went fast and I was back CrossFitting (very modified) in March. I followed the doctor's orders and was very good. The hardest thing was not being able to do anything. My husband was still working out of town two weeks at a time so I was on my own a lot. We had also sold our house at the end of December and moved intoour new one at the end of February. I felt a little useless during the moving process because I couldn't lift anything heavy. Luckily we have amazing friends who helped us out. I can defiantly say that I was a little depressed during my recovery as well. The three things I love to do (Ride Horses, Ski and CrossFit) I couldn't do. I watched a lot of TV. I was sad so I ate. I gained about 15 pounds. Not that much in the grand scheme of things but my clothes started to not fit as well. Ugh! I was so thankful when I was able to ride my horse more and able to get back in the box.

Things have slowly started to get better. When I finished with PT, CrossFit and riding my horse became my recovery. Along with massage, chriopractic, and ART (Active Release Therapy). BTW if you have never done ART you need to! It's awesome and I love it. My therapist is the best. In fact it's been the single biggest factory in helping me recover. My back problem is really a hip problem. So fixing them is my top priority. It's taking time as I'm trying to fix 8 years of my hips being messed up. Sigh... So fast forward to today, I'm 322 days post-surgery. I'm back at the box three days a week and my lifting numbers are back where they were before I got injured. I’m still working on endurance. I spent most of the summer riding my horse, competing, and winning quite a bit of money! I have achieved all of my recovery goals except one. I want to compete in a CrossFit competition.

So that is happening on October 25th! About 11 months after surgery! I'm using it as the capstone of my recovery. I'm entered in the scaled division and I'm really excited for it. I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime I'm going to write more. I'm going through some transitions and I need a place to talk about them. I know there are not a lot of readers here but I don't care. This blog is for me and a way to keep things straight in my head. I have a lot going on in there and some of it needs to get out! Stay tuned. Peace, Love, WOD!