Off to the "Crazy Farm" I go

ALL (yester)DAY (and night) I have been having dreams that are acting more like hallucinations. In my previous post I wrote about my back injury and the leg pain that has accompanied it.

Yesterday morning (so I'm talking Friday) I woke up at 5:30 because of my leg pain which has become normal. At this time I do my back stretches, read scriptures, feed the dogs etc. I then usually fall back asleep some time in the afternoon for like 3 hours.

So, as I was saying Friday morning began in this way except I was feeling horribly nauseous. Not totally bizarre due to all the meds/herbal supplements my doc has me on. I writhed around for about an hour before Nathan had to leave. After which I went into the bathroom and threw up. But wait, this is where the fun begins.

Kya and Pepper were scheduled for a vet appointment that usually takes a few hours. I was to drop them off in the morning. However, I called Nathan and said I just couldn't do it. So he called our good friend Jaron, who was not going in to work today and asked him if he'd help out. He of course said yes, and Nathan called to inform me of the plan.

I felt like the leg pain had abated enough that I could venture to sleep again. (it was about 2 hours until the dogs were going to be picked up). The whole time I dreamt all these crazy scenarios. The reason I mentioned they also seemed like hallucinations is because in the dreams I was asleep in bed (like I was in reality) awakened by something odd but too tired to really do something. In fact, in real life my eyes tried to open but I was too tired to stop any of the shenanigans.

A couple of my favorites:

1) I'm sleeping. I hear someone trying to get into the front door. I assume it's Jaron (now referred to as J). Instead, these two kids who are like 10 come into the house and steal the t.v. right from my bedroom. I of course do not stop them because I'm too tired. I only realized it was a dream when I woke up and remembered that we don't have a t.v. in our room in the first place.

2) I'm sleeping. I hear J coming in through the garage. (we have a keypad so this is actually possible). He says hi to Kya and Pepper, goes and pets them, and gets them ready to go. Then he walks into my bathroom and begins to look through my medicine cabinet. I try to stop him because there are embarrassing things in there (like dulcolax. Serious pain meds make one constipated) but again, too tired to utter a word. I only realized this was a dream when one of my dogs in reality barked... and I did not hear J in the house at all.

Eventually the dogs were picked up without my t.v. stolen or my privacy being invaded. So I was left to sleep unfettered. Except for dreaming that I was reading my current book, Twilight, as I slept. This one is not new. In high school it happened a lot where I'd dream I was actually reading the text of my current book and thinking that I'd finally figured out how to read books so fast and that everyone else was a sucker because they couldn't read their book while they slept.

During the day I also dreamt that I got about 100 new emails and voice mails on my new iPhone and feeling so overwhelmed to be so popular. I realized this was a dream when I remembered that I only have like 5 friends. :)

OK so tonight's episodes are my favorite (these just happened about an hour ago).

1) I'm back in high school. It's lunch time. I don't have a lunch. I thought I'd just go run over to Wendy's and pick something up. It's important to note that in this dream I'm my current self. A 26 year old, married, college grad. Anyway I go out to the parking lot and see the security guard whose job it is to not let students leave for lunch. As I was trying to scheme a way of getting out, I remembered that I didn't have a car anyway. I went back into school and someone handed me a Wendy's lunch and drink. I thanked that person and went to bed.
Nathan hears me getting into bed and asks if he could have my six piece chicken nuggets. I cursed myself for not getting into bed more quietly so I wouldn't have to share. I realized this was a dream when woke up because I was actually moving my hand through the sheets looking for my lunch and coming up empty handed.

2) Back in the high school cafeteria. I was sitting down and seeing my old high school friends. Dennis Lyons turns around and says hi. We chit chat. In real life Dennis did go to my h.s. and church as well, though I'm not sure what he is up to these days.
Anyway all of a sudden a bunch of steam comes up from what looks like miniature manholes in the ground. I got scared thinking either it's steam or poisonous gas. My fears were alleviated when Dennis got up and stood in the steam... to get the wrinkles out of his shirt. He came back and asked if I could tug his shirt a bit to make sure the wrinkles really got out. I realized this was a dream when I woke up, trying to tug on a non existent shirt in the air.

3) Last but not least, it's the first day of the upcoming school year. In this dream I'm my current self, a teacher though, not a student. For some reason my mom drives me to school. Perhaps to help me get my class ready, though since it's already the first day the time for that is over.
At any rate, once I get to my room the principal tells me they had to move me into the room next door at the last minute, which used to be Ms. Woolery's room. (real teacher, not real description of room). The principal gives me the keys to my new room, and a dollar for the inconvenience it may have caused me.
The first part I walk in to is a little kitchenette. It has a sink,dishwasher,cupboards and a fridge. It's obviously too small for a class of 20 which my mom and I are discussing in great exasperation. All of a sudden I see a small door which opens into another room. I excitedly show my mom and say, "Oh, this is the actual classroom part. The kitchenette is a bonus. How cool!" By the way, the "actual classroom" is about 10x12.
All of a sudden Kerry Marino, a friend from college, walks in to help me get my class set up. She had heard about what had happened and drove all the way from Dallas to help. She starts by looking through the cupboards in the kitchenette and finds hundreds of treats that Ms. Woolery must have left in there from the year before.
Kerry and I are so excited! She found a "Little Debbie" Moon Pie and quickly began to eat it. I found a little pack of sweet tarts and opened them up. I dumped them into my mouth, but nothing went in... I realized this was a dream when I woke up actually making the motion of trying to dump this candy in my mouth.

I got out of bed, went to the kitchen, and made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It just seemed like the right thing to do.

Channeling the old lady in me

By now some of you may have heard about my latest and greatest back injury. But you may not know all the delightful details about it. Let me run them down in a nutshell.

1. I have chronic back problems going back to junior high. I had surgery on an inexplicable herniated disk when I was 13.

2. My last really bad episode (prior to this latest one) was about 4 years ago... at the end of our honeymoon. Bow-chicka bow wow. Just kidding. It was the culmination of stress that led to my downfall. I had been planning a wedding,finishing my last semester of college, studying for finals and moving. Oh and let me not forget that on my wedding day, I left my luggage at the hotel in San Antonio and didn't realize that fact until I was three and half hours south of San Antonio for our reception. This could obviously be a post of its own.

3. This last back injury happened over Memorial Day Weekend. Note the stressors leading up to this were the TAKS tests, the end of the school year and a horrible incident with one of my students.

4. I was out pretty much the entire last week of school with the exception of the final Friday.

5. Worst pain ever in my life. I haven't had a baby yet... but I feel it would not be too far from that kind of pain. Just in a different area of my body, naturally.

Let me just pepper in a few more details. Sunday night the pain was solely in my lower back and had gone from pesky to annoying. As the following day was a holiday, I really wanted to be able to do our planned activities and I thought a back brace would help. Nathan and I went to the gym so I could soak in the hot tub after which we picked up a back brace at the drug store.

The brace seemed to help and I was sure that I'd be able to ejoy the day off on Monday without a big problem. I went to bed with the brace on but decided it was uncomfortable. As I arched my back to get it off a searing pain tore down my left leg. It felt like I had electric bolts shooting down my leg and 100 charlie horses in my left....buttock. :)

I got a bit of sleep that night. In fact I averaged about 3 hours of sleep per night for the whole week. I foolishly hoped that everything would be better by Tuesday so I could go to work. It was very apparent by 2AM that that was not going to happen. My 3rd grade co-workers REALLY stepped up to the plate for me. From getting lesson plans ready for the sub, to covering for me at an after school meeting. They were AWESOME!

I went to work on Wednesday but was told to go home because I looked like death. Thursday I had a sub, but still had to go to work for at bit of time to get some end of year awards prepared etc. Friday, the last day, I hobbled in to work for our end of year party. My class was great and very helpful. Poor kids walked at my pace (snail crawl) from place to place. I really wish I could have a do over and really have a great last day of school. Instead though, I ran out of pain meds by noon and the rest of the day was pretty grim for me.

The best part about Friday was that my mom and dad drove up to Austin to help me pack up my room to allow for summer cleaning. When I say they helped me, I mean I sat in a chair and told my parents where to put stuff. It was kind of like Freaky Friday. I felt like I had the body of a 65 year old person and my parents had the body of a 26 year old. They were such a huge help. They stayed the night with me as Nathan was doing an over night activity with the young men from church.

Saturday morning seemed like things were getting better. Instead of being hunched over, I was able to stand up relatively straight. Leg pain,still there. This continued the entire day and night. I got about 45 minutes of sleep. Obviously I was delirious by Sunday morning and the only doctor open on Sunday was my family doctor. That blessed man gave me Vicadin, muscle relaxers, and steroids. I took them once I got home and fell into a deep sleep for the first time in a week!

I've gotten progressively better since then. It turns out that part of a disk in my back is slightly touching a nerve, thus all the leg pain and paralysis of my left toes. I'm going to physical therapy and have regained movement in my toes. Yay!

To make this post even longer (sorry) I just want to quickly go over the silver lining in this whole thing.

- My physical therapist found that my core muscles (front and back) are extremely weak which in turn do not protect my spine adequately. This is good to know because now we can work to fix that. Had I not been aware of this, she said, when the time comes for Nathan and I to get pregnant, I would be in bad bad shape. Can you imagine?

- Though I had a meltdown or two, I now have a super human pain tolerance.

- I have the best parents on earth. I already knew this, but now all you know too. :)

- My husband is an angel. He was on the front lines of all this. He got me through my lowest moments, took a day off of work to help me, took care of all the house stuff in addition to going to work and still fulfilling his church duties, took the dogs out on walks even if it was late at night and the list goes on and on.

In short, I never want this to happen to me again but at least some good came out of it. Oh and P.S. if anyone ever needs some fun pain meds, give me a call ;)