Back hurts but I'm alive and still grateful for the pleasure😄

A bit of a blog post for a change...

The past few days my back has been giving me grief. Twinges and aches all over. It gets like this sometimes. Not sure if it's general inactivity working on a laptop all day, my osteoporosis, or a throwback to the car accidents I was in over a decade ago. I suspect the latter!

The pain can get debilitating. It's really annoying and frustrating to have to live with, but usually, after a few days of taking it easy, resting up as much as possible, and in between doing light stretching exercises, it comes right!

I've been having episodes of back pain for years and I suspect that it is connected to a time when I was involved in two car accidents within 2 weeks of each other, followed a year later by an indoor karting accident...none of the aforementioned being my fault. Even more annoying, right?

The first accident happened coming off the M40 motorway in England. I took the offramp and came to a stop at the top where it met the roundabout, as there was a vehicle approaching on the roundabout from my right, over the motorway bridge, to which I needed to give way. An uninsured, unemployed driver of no fixed abode crashed into the back of me, pushing my vehicle into the roundabout, narrowly missing the oncoming traffic. Whiplash incident neck and back number one...tick.

2 weeks later to the day, I was driving down a residential street in my area and stopped at a red traffic light. About 10 seconds thereafter, another uninsured driver crashed into the back of me in a brand new vehicle that his wife had just picked up from the dealership. Whiplash incident neck and back number 2.

6-9 months of physio ensued and a litigation matter between insurance companies. I had no sooner got back to what I thought was normal when, on a fun day out with family at the local indoor karting track, I drove over a high bridge and as I descended the other side, braking hard into a bend, the steering column snapped and the accelerator got stuck on full throttle, causing me to slam at full speed into the side wall. Whiplash incident neck and back number 3.

This time the paramedics were called out as I felt I couldn't move; everything just felt locked up and I was in pain and the karting company didn't want to take any chances. 2 hours later, fully inspected and given some recovery support, I was discharged by the paramedics.

I did do karate and took up yoga in an effort to ensure that I was exercising and doing the stretching that my body required, but unfortunately, my karate instructor moved to Oman and his business closed down during covid lockdown. My yoga instructor also canceled the evening class that I used to attend due to covid (she's a pharmacist so a front-line worker and had to cut back her yoga sessions). Alongside this, I discovered I had osteoporosis and started struggling with rotator cuff tendonitis and reduced range of movement in my shoulders so I was back to the physio and had to put my newly signed up '90 day Bodycoach' training on hold which was supposed to be giving me the fitness training I needed in the absence of karate and yoga...sigh.

And so here I am.

18 months after my shoulders first started to give me hassles, I am finally close to emerging out the other end of physio, almost back to normal, although I still have some stiffness and aches in the joints.

I am hopeful my back pain will resolve itself in a few days' time if I continue to alternate between rest and light stretching and reduced hours sitting in front of the laptop.

But all in all, I have to be grateful as today I got to wake up to a job and a beautiful family. I am alive and I spent the evening with my children reading, cooking, and playing junior scrabble. This in itself is amazing as my youngest has immense struggles with reading and writing and he is the one that wanted to read and play scrabble tonight😍

I can't show you a photo of my back pain or my kids playing scrabble (as we keep their faces off the internet as far as we can manage it) so what's the next best thing?

How about a pic of me and William Zabka from The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai? Standing strong and ready to take on the world. It was taken a couple of years ago at Comicon London, when I was actually able to pursue one of my passions in life (ie: karate) and the world just felt a lot more right all round.

william_zabka_lfcc19_sun_0092.jpg

Photo credit:

Wolf Blur on Pixabay

The William Zabka photograph is owned by me as I paid for the meet and greet and photo op at Comicon London.



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You are a fighter @samsmith1971.

I was in three car accidents but I got whiplash from a collision that wasn't even a car. I was 15 years old and parked my go kart at the end of the track. The kid behind me had been using the gas petal the whole ride and didn't even know there was a break. He slammed into my car hard. At that time go karts had no neck support and my neck still cricks. None of the injuries I had over the years went away. They just got worse. So maybe my advice is useless...

I will just let you know what my Taekwon Do teacher said to me when he came to visit after ten years. We did some review kicks and exercises. After that he said, "Let's try grabbling". He pinned me way too fast. Then he said, "You are finished with Taekwondo. Please study Thai Chi. It will be better for you." Maybe it is time to study Thai Chi and Yoga at home. Just tell the kids you need this time so they don't distract you. I know kids love to sit on mommy when she does up dog and crawl under mommy during the down dog pose.

Good luck

!WINE


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Brilliant advice @mineopoly from one who understands what it's like🙏 I do hope to get back to yoga classes at some point as I really enjoy being in the quiet zone with a small class, but for now I just do a few of the yoga exercises that I know help my back... but you know what it's like...life gets away with you and when everything is going well...you let things slide. I need to make it part of my daily routine from now on for sure. I hope you manage your pain ok when it comes back to haunt you on occasion. Thanks for the !LUV and support.

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I hope your pain goes away soon. I really don't remember when I didn't have back problems. I have a couple of fractures in my lower back that will require surgery. I spent a couple of years without pain therapy though just using yoga and light exercises, but I can't avoid it now. I have an appointment in November to see a surgeon. Something about a spinal fusion. It sounds like a rock band. I take hydrocodone for the pain on the weekends as taking it while I'm at work is a big no no.


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Oh, I do feel for you 🙏😥My hubby had a spinal fusion in his early twenties. He had picked up a radioactive source at work and it was much heavier than he anticipated and his back went. He thought he had just pulled it but month and months later discovered damage to the discs and the end result was a spinal fusion. The plate and screws that were inserted in his '20's have since been removed as his body rejected them about a decade later, but the bones fused nicely. He's 52 now and goes to yoga once a week and swears by it. He runs (up to half marathons) and cycles a lot (indoor and road). So there is life after spinal fusion :-) He says yoga changed his life in terms of flexibility and pain management. I'm sure he'd be happy to share info with you if you wanted to know more about the procedure and experience first hand though things are certain to have changed over the years. I hope you manage to keep your pain under control and find a workable solution after your consult. Big hugs 🤗

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That's a lot anybody would have to go through, and look at you, you're still alive!..

I haven't been too involved in accidents, just minor injuries from sport and other things I do so I can't understand the pain you must be going through.

I am hopeful my back pain will resolve itself in a few days' time if I continue to alternate between rest and light stretching and reduced hours sitting in front of the laptop.

I'm sure it is, just keep on taking stretches and doing thing you have to do to prevent more occurrences, I'm sure you'll be fine.

You still have happy moments to share so do well to make good use of it and enjoy every moment to the fullest!!.

Wow,You looked really happy to meet him.

Thanks for motivating the rest of us @samsmith1971


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I do not know why - but I keep missing your posts on the dreemer tag!!!!
And I see that you're using it hahahaa so it must be the time I'm getting on??? weird - but I haven't seen you in a while so I came straight to your blog my friend!!!

my goodness.. I was reading this and just shaking my head!!!! you have been through so much! and i LOVE that picture at the end! cuz that is just a fighter! hehehehehe

The best part of the blog - scrabble with the child that struggles with reading and writing. yes!!!!!! these are the treasures of life!!!!

i love this post - it's so inspiring and uplifting!!!! and i love you!

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aw, you are too kind my friend. And thank you for visiting my post ... ha ha when I write blog posts I kinda freewrite them so sometimes there's a bit of a mix in there, but it's just how I am feeling and relating to things in my life and connecting the dots both internally and externally. But goodness me, you have so much on your plate yourself! I hope that things have started to settle down a bit for you now🤗My youngest is being assessed for autism, ADHD, and demand avoidance by CAMHS in the UK. Hopefully, we will have some proper feedback in the next 1-2 months after being on the waiting list for 3 years and finally having an online assessment about 8 weeks ago! Children's mental health support here is appalling in terms of resource availability. A few Educational psychologists and Occupational therapists have confirmed their observance of sensory processing disorder issues and demand avoidance, and have said that they support an assessment for austism spectrum disorder and adhd too. He does struggle a lot and has an EHCP (Education health Care Plan) at school which means he has an official documented local authority requirement for the school to provide certain forms of support to enable him to access the curriculum. These past 2 weeks have seen a little light go on inside of him though. He went from telling me (remember he is 8!) that he would never amount to anything, could never see himself being successful at anything, is the worst in his class at everything, and can't even read or write properly ...TO "...mommy please can I read to you every night before bed even just a few pages so I can get better....Mommy please can we play scrabble before our reading time so I can practice my words ... " You know what? I read loads as a child and was read to as well. I also played scrabble often in the evenings with my mom on my parent's bed on weekend evenings. We all have our thing... and no doubt he'll find his niche in life ... but by God I love this child and I won't let him wallow in the depths of feeling unworthy. If he can find it in himself to dig as deep as this is taking him to try to make something of himself ... and in the process find a love for words ... then this in itself is ACHIEVEMENT. Thank you so much for dropping by. Love you too @dreemsteem. You have the most infectious personality I have come across on this platform. Your joy and enthusiasm permeate everything you do and it is a pleasure to be involved in supporting you and dreemport and counting you amongst my friends💗🙏

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oh i blog the SAME way - but you know what?? I think that's so important.

when we just let our minds and hearts spin like that - we are so open and vulnerable and that allows our readers to really truly connect with us (in my opinion!!!)

ahhhh - autism mom :)
takes one to know one - and it's exactly why my heart sang when I read that. Because that's the kind of thing that made my heart sing when we were going through it with our son. He is now 21 - and part of our team actually! and what an amazingly beautiful journey that has been!!!!

Most people don't know that he is autistic right now (unless maybe its another autism mom that says hmmm is he on the spectrum! hehehe)

My son had sensory processing issues too - but he has conquered them - as he has truly conquered so many of the things that were issues for him! It has been AMAZING to see. I don't know if you put any weight into gluten intolerance - but we tried this as a whole family - for him - and it benefitted the ENTIRE family! my migraines and his went from being 3-4 a week, down to about 1 a month. And HE started to grow in leaps and bounds! it takes MONTHS for you to get all the gluten out of the system - and then it takes MONTHS for you to REALLY start seeing changes in the mind - but we have been off gluten for about 8 years now. I just won't go back seeing this man that our son has become!

and he was a gluten FIEND (and so was i.. hahah) so it was so hard to break that gluten habit. but if you DO want to try it... ask me ANYTHING.

also - i can totally relate to every single thing that you're saying about his feelings and insecurities and all that. and as a mom - i was right there!!! just worrying about what age 5 would be like.. age 6, 7,8, all the way to 99!!! YOU KNOW??? hahaha

but let me tell you - i remember the day when my son said "I love you" and meant it for the first time, not just repeating it robotically.

I remember him reading his first words at 5.. and though they were much later than our other two children - WHAT A CELEBRATION. (i have tears in my eyes right now hahahah) i still have the video and get SO happy seeing the pride in his face when he finally learned what those letters were doing!!!

oh my gosh - you will have SUCH a difficult but BEAUTIFUL journey ahead of you!!! and so many people told us that our son was so lucky to have us as a family - and they were so wrong. He has opened our hearts and eyes and minds to a whole new world of love and determination and understanding and blessing. and i know I'm preaching to the choir - hahahaha cuz i can read it in your comment above!!!!

I love that we now have ANOTHER thing to unite our hearts... oh please please - anything you need, run to my DM or comment or WHATEVER.

Your son and you were MADE for each other. and your whole family too. do not forget that when the seas get rough. You were all hand picked for each other.

love you so much!!!!!

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I will definitely DM you. I am sitting here shaking my head at the talk of gluten as I wondered about this a few months ago for my eldest who is 10 and suffers with incredible migraines. He would be having them daily but for his meds, and then he still gets them 3-4 times a week even on meds! But we only removed gluten from his diet for a few days some time back, on a hunch, and didn't see any change, so my hubby was dismissive of the impact it could be having. I had no idea it took so long to leave the system. We will definitely be revisiting this approach, thank you! As for your son, and my youngest, we are both truly blessed🙏The battle has been immense and exhausting but he is just so precious in so many ways, I've lost count. I am also nodding and smiling now. Your son sounds like an incredible young man, and helping to run the Dreem team too...well ... that is just amazing. You. I was meant to connect with you💗🙏 My cup runneth over ...

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no no no... it takes MONTHS to remove all the gluten from the system

and there can't be ANY slips. it has to be ALL TRACES of gluten (and it hides EVERYWHERE so be very sure) gone...

a few days won't make any difference at all - and might even spike the headaches/migraines because of withdrawal.

If you remove gluten - take a look at how he's feeling 3-4 months down the road - it is HARD. but i can tell you stories! oh my gosh!!!!

hehehehehe yes - you'll love to meet him - he only blogged once on Hive because he works full time - but here.. take a look here :)

this is us singing together for Hive Open Mic

take your pick! hehe

Poison and Wine his favorite

Boat song my favorite

hehehehe

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