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 ;)