Wow, what a difference 19 months makes. I didn't realize I had completely dropped the ball on updating this blog. My whole purpose of it from the beginning was to give others hope that walk this journey after mine knowing they are not alone. Knowing that others have gone down this road before and come out the other side A-ok.
When I started down this journey of possibly ending in surgery I looked all over the internet with so little info on people that had come out the other side ok, pain free, active, and back to their old life. I wanted to do something about that with this blog. Unfortunately I only got to week three and I guess got to feeling so good again, I didn't have time to sit around feeling sorry for myself and blogging about the journey of my doomdom.
So here is my quick update. 19 months later from one of the scariest things I have ever gone through and I am back to living life 98.5 normally. I can walk again without constant incredible pain, I can sleep again and rollover in the bed without feeling like I was just thrown from a vehicle and my spine broken in two. I can wake up in the morning and not cry out in pain. I can workout in the gym and ride my bike and enjoy the things that always brought me so much joy and happiness.
What is different? Well there are definitely things that are different. I can't deadlift heavy... or maybe I can, but I won't. It hurts... right where the fusion was. Um, that's a big NO sign for me. Also if I bend over for too long my lower back cramps up. It's pretty intense but it passes in just a matter of a few seconds. I am still not sure why it does this and I had hoped with time it would go away but unfortunately I have slowly grown to accept it will be with me long term. But it is really such a small inconvenience compared to the pain was in before.
I did return to Crossfit, probably about 8 weeks after surgery. Very, very light weight. I missed my tribe, my people and the workout. But about 6 months ago I decided to join my husband working out at the big box gym and cancel my Crossfit membership. I decided to do this for multiple reasons. We moved about 30 mins away from my Crossfit box and it just took much of my evening away from my family. Also I really wanted to workout together at the same time and place with my hubby and lastly I feel I can listen to my body so much better when I am working out solo. I have a tendency to overdue it and not listen to my body, thus what probably got me into this situation to begin with. So even though I am not at Crossfit now I am glad I was able to return and left on my own accord and not because I felt like I couldn't do it anymore. It's more along the lines of I think it's smarter for me long term with my back issues to let Crossfit go, even though I love it so passionately.
I also haven't gone on a ride over 50 miles in a single ride on my bike yet. But not sure if that is because of my back or I just don't have time now with a full time job and a family (I was a SAHM for 10 years until just a few months before my surgery). So I get out and ride but my rides are usually in the 25-45 mile range.
Aside from those few things, I am all back 100% to where I was before. I will call that a win, and something that I wish I could have seen down the road through a looking glass when I was going through those dark days after my surgery.
So if you are going through this or possibly looking at having surgery, I hope my blog helps you even a little. I am not some fancy writer or amazingly witty and for you English majors out there, you can see my grammar is pretty rough but hopefully it helped someone somewhere....without putting you to sleep. ;-)
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