My Everest…

A memorable past

My life prior to this was busy.   As my neighbor would describe it, there was never a time when I wasn’t in the car with or without kids in tow…mostly in tow, driving them to their activities.  Sometimes when my husband and I worked shifts we even played the single parent role so it was even more of a challenge but we made it work.  My kids knew what they had to do to make things work if they wanted to participate in their weekday activities, and as they got older the easier it got because they could stay home by themselves and had a bit of freedom in that regard.   They knew when I came home after work on my single parent week as I will call it some days I would eat quickly and it was go time! Off to Scouts where I also was doing duties as a leader so they would do their thing and I mine.   Come home finish off whatever remnants of homework didn’t get done or required help with. Make lunches, tuck the kids into bed, tidy up, relax, and bed.  Lather, rinse and repeat the next day.  On weeks when I wasn’t a single parent, then there were meetings to fill it up, baking, for school, projects to help with  (oj vej the projects!)…fyi teachers….if you send a project home, the project will get done by the parent.  Our helpfulness cannot be stopped especially when some of the stuff you come up with even I cannot comprehend and need to ask a friend with an engineering degree for help! On weekends it was filled with visiting friends, having company over, celebrations, sports and in the winter it was skiing,tobogganing, playing with the kids and their friends, and relaxing.  Usually 3 times a year with the scouts I would help plan a 3 day overnight camping trip.  I would shop for the supplies and go on the camping trip as well.  During the summer we would drop the kids off at camp that was a 5h drive away and spend the weekend up there camping in our trailer.   We would drive up to visit the kids every weekend and  we would participate with the scouts on their Saturday night bonfires and I would do the marches to church as it was something I really enjoyed as a child and still do if my body lets me!  

I guess you can tell that my life was busy and it still was up to a point I had some back issues earlier on that work sent me to physio for.   This physio is one that I have met and am really grateful for. He is one of those people that comes into your life and it doesn’t matter what twist and turns life has in store for either of us, we still manage to come together.  He’s no longer a physio, but a friend.   He’s the one who’s helping me with this blog and has helped me overcome some of the other hurdles life has tossed at me.  

So everyone I know goes to physio with Oh god he’s going to toss on the tens unit and leave me in a room, charge me for it and be on my way mentality!   Not so here !  It was a totally different journey!  He helped me get my back better and as he used to be a personal trainer I asked him if he would help me lose weight.  He did.  Got me under 200lbs and in total I lost 80lbs.   I felt great and I kept it off for about 4 years.   Until about 2years after my surgery!  So knowing that I could trust him with stuff when hands started to feel numb the first person I went to after the Dr was him.  It was really weird at first because it just seemed like it came on after work when I was driving home one of my hands would be all tingly along with the fingers and you’d shake it.   But it wasn’t on just one side it was alternating sides.  Then it was in the arms, pressure in the elbows, came to a point where even sitting was painful this was all so very, very weird!   Test, after test,  finally we got an MRI and it confirmed what everyone was thinking.  Pinched nerve C5-C6.  Surgery recommended.  My family dr referred me to a surgeon waitlist = forever.  My physio consulted with another physio in another clinic that specializes with neck, shoulder and arm pain and I went to him after this.  He helped to get me into the surgeon a bit faster and then we went through the motions of rehab together.  

For him the first few weeks were just trying to live life comfortably.   I would come in and do my cardio on the bike for 20-30 mins.  Do some exercises and he would do some dry needling of my neck on the sore spots and then it was go home and try and do what you would do at home at a much slower pace.  Mind you I was exhausted constantly however I slowly at the pace of a turtle built up everything.  At some point I was at the gym doing weight bearing exercises. I was working hard on my recovery.   I had him on speed dial on my phone. I was not allowed to have my phone on me at work.  But during my recovery process I used it quite frequently to call him. As there were weird lightning bolts of pain.  Odd things happening that wouldn’t go away, but eventually did. But he was there as I was panicking to talk me down and I was glad to have a voice on the other end.  It was tough and all I kept hearing was you can do this and just keep going.  Like the little engine that could.  I think I can, I think I can! Genuinely I did think I could. With all the odd things he had my workplace accommodate for me.  The really odd gradual return to work schedule, the more I worked it the better I got and I actually weaned myself off the meds.  I was happy and proud of my progress.  I saw things going back to normal.  A bit more like with a proceed with caution “normal”  but still I can resume my regular activities…..Not knowing that it would implode on me.