Wow, where to begin to explain this statement!?
I guess I'll start where I left off; Turkey Day. My sweetheart's family came into town and it made for a wonderful Holiday. I can't imagine anything better than good company and good food, except making it through with relatively little damage to the scale.
I'd like to say the same was true for Christmas but unfortunately, not possible. On December 18th, my sweetheart and I ran our first race together, the Celtic 5 miler. It started out a wonderful morning, got there on time, warmed up, started the race, was keeping good time and about half way through I felt some familar pain. I recall telling my running partner (my man), "I think I have a problem. I think I have a pinched nerve". At the time, the pain wasn't too bad, came and went. We even managed to keep up the same pace, a little more than a 10 minute mile. I was thrilled that we finished our first race together and in an awesome time of 54 minutes and some change. As the adrenaline wore off, we walked around to check out the various costumes and kilts and get some food. It didn't take long for the little bit of pain to turn into crippling pain. Within 20 minutes I was leaning on my man and hobbling back to the car. Spent the next few days trying to convince myself that after a few days at the chiropractor, all would be well. By the end of the first week, I decided the chiropractor wasn't helping at all and was on the phone reaching out to my doctor, requesting stronger medication and an MRI. Unfortunately, our Christmas vacation in NC was canceled. I was taking high doses of hydrocodone every 4 hours just to function and even that was just getting by. Instead we stayed home, played Mario Brothers and Donkey Kong and experienced and had Chinese food for Christmas Eve and Indian food for Christmas. There was no cooking in my condition.
The MRI informed me that I had a "sizable" herniated disc in my S1/L5. In addition, a fragment had separated from the disc and was pushing my nerve to the right and impinging my nerve routes down the left leg which is why I was unable to sit. I found relief only when lying on my belly. At work, they installed a keyboard try so that I could stand all day long, in order to get my work done. After two cortisone shots in January that gave me relief for only a couple of days, we pushed on and scheduled the surgery for February 7th. It couldn't come fast enough. The Docters at Mercy hospital are amazing as is the hospital itself. I cannot say enough good things about them all and am happy to recommend them to anyone suffering with back issues. They all did their best to fit me into their schedules, even when they had no room, because they understood the pain I was in and were truely eager to help.
The surgery has come and gone and I am still in the midst of recovery but doing wonderfully. I may not be running, but I am walging. Walging = walking with jogging intervals. Currently, I am up to 4 miles, alternating between walking and jogging every 5 minutes, several times a week. I up the jogging and decrease the walking a little bit each week. In just a few more weeks time I get to start taking Zumba classes again and maybe even start up my P90X and ab work again. I'll be taking my first post surgery Spin class tomorrow evening and am super excited about it. Hope to zip lining this summer too (a belated birthday present from my sweetheart!). Not sure I'll be training for that half-marathon just yet, but it's not that far out of my sights. Currently up about 15lbs from my previously reached goal weight, but I'm working on that too. Slowly but surely!
More updates to come!
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