Pain and a Plan

I hate my back right now. Here’s the deal. In middle school I came down for a rebound. Something happened. Something hurt. I spent the rest of the game laying on my stomach with an ice pack. The doctor said I pulled a muscle. Said to stretch.

Pshhh. It’s more than that.

Long story short: Saw a chiropractor and thought it helped until one adjustment left me in paralyzing pain after I drove off. Cried in a grocery store parking lot for a good 20 minutes until I was able to move.  I finally got an MRI about 10 years ago and found out I had one ruptured and one herniated disc. Old damage. Yeah, it happened in middle school… The Doc told me I would have to have surgery one day but for now I was young and to go home.

That was it.

I’ve been lucky and it hasn’t been a problem in 3 or 4 years. But, as I’m currently falling apart in my 32nd year on Earth, it has flared up again. There was not one moment where I injured it again; I think it was just from gradual irritation as I spring cleaned around the house and garden these last few weeks. Having a bad back is terrible. Not only does it cause immense pain, but the cause of the pain is INSIDE the body, so you can’t really prove to others how much you hurt. Like, for instance, you severed your arm (or, at least, fingertip, as two of my coworkers have done recently). You have a nice, big bleeding wound with evidence of your pain oozing all over the place. “Wow. Look at that! That must hurt like hell!!”

That doesn’t happen with back pain. It’s kinda like a headache… Nobody seems to really believe how much you hurt. Unless, of course, they have been there.

Let me show you a little something-

source source

You know how the thought of a dentist hitting a nerve while he is drilling your tooth makes you cringe? Well. Think of a bad back pretty much doing the same thing, only the nerve is your Sciatic nerve and it sends pain exploding down your back, butt, leg, and toes, making it feel numb at the same time so you feel wobbly and can’t walk correctly. You can’t stand up straight, because that only presses onto the nerve more. It feels pretty much like death, and nobody can tell. Except, of course, for the wails of agony and a face that I have only made during back pain and childbirth (pretty similar).

Good news is, I’m on the mend. After a weekend of doing bupkis and then regretfully having to take two days off of work, I feel as though I am recovering. These last three days have been nothing but Ibuprofen, ice packs, heating pads, and sleep, on constant rotation.

Another bit of good news…. two little blonde beauties have been learning how to do the dishes this week

Yay for chores!

In other news… we started a little challenge on Sunday. We spent a freaking butt load, and I mean BUTT LOAD of money (over $1200.00!) on groceries and eating out last month. We are challenging ourselves to eat every meal at the house. I am documenting it all and will have a post on Saturday of all of the meals for the week. No happy meals for the girls! No eating a fast food lunch when we forgot ours at home! No hitting up the local restaurant at 7:00pm because we are all too tired to do anything else! There is only one exception that I know of for the month, a trip to Six Flags. Other than that… game ON.

A pause and a breath

Hey there. It’s been a long time.

I’ve had the best of intentions – truly, I have. But you know how that goes….   I approached the last few weeks of teaching at school and it seemed as though the whole world landed on my head. Ouch! I’m on summer break now, though, so all is well on the home AND work front. I’ll give you the short run of what has been on my mind these last few weeks -

• My foot problem. I think I’ve mentioned before about my foot hurting me before and after runs.. it hasn’t gotten any better. I definitely have some sort of issue with the joints in the ball of my left foot.  It has put running on a hiatus for about two months now, but I tried a 2 miler today with different shoes and had good results. I am hoping that it will lessen with the different shoes. I’m not sure, but all internet research leads me to believe I have sesamoid problem.
• My workouts with the Man are still going strong, but I unfortunately haven’t lost any weight I’m getting a lot stronger, though.. so I’ll keep at it. And I will have to tell you that I’m getting some nice thigh and butt muscles from the squats that weren’t there before
• We, the family, just got back from a week-long vacation on the Florida gulf coast. It was beautiful. The day after we left we heard that the oil had made it where we were. This spill is devastating to me. So much bigger than people realize, I fear.
• This summer is all about baking experiments for me! So far this week I’ve tried pumpernickel bread, sourdough, and a failed healthy cookie. I will share the recipes when I get something right I’m not sure how making bread everyday is going to help me lose weight, but it’s something I’m willing to work around. I love my carbs!

Since I’ve neglected posting for a while, I thought I might give you a little slideshow of what’s been going on… hope you enjoy!

a brew at the abita brewery

windy and rainy at the new orleans jazzfest

our new pest

the Man at the brewery

pecan crusted heaven fish!

van morrison at jazz fest

all A’s for kindergarten!

chickpeas, quinoa, marinara, romano, butterfly

abby had swimming lessons

relaxing for a week!

front and center at the braves game!

me and my beauties

grilled scallops and shrimp at the Boondocks

I have no excuses now – I will be back!