It’s now been about four months since I suffered from my back injury and I am so grateful to my body for how it is healing me up. Despite still being in a bit of pain and not yet able to get back to everything that I love to do, I am feeling the best that I have ever felt in my life. I feel that for the first time in a long time I have a healthy work/life balance, I am showing kindness to myself, my skin is clear and healthy, I am sleeping exceptionally well and I have heaps of energy. An added bonus is no animals have been harmed in the process! It’s hard to believe that I have made this sort of progress in just four months. I am certainly not Superwoman. I was not born with any natural super healing abilities or mental toughness. What I have achieved has been a result of stubbornness and a desire to avoid being in pain. At the end of the day I am a massive sook who didn’t want to be in pain and didn’t want to give up on things that I love!
There are a lot of people out there who really don’t have a clue as to the level of the back injury that I sustained. This is not in a malicious or ignorant way (look I’m also sure that there are people out there who also really couldn’t give a crap and that’s perfectly ok), but they just don’t realise the extent of my injury. I’ve had people surprised that I’m not back to teaching, I’ve had people confused when I tell them that I am still in pain every day, I have also had quite a few people say to me that they know someone who has gone through the exact same thing, then proceeded to tell me that they had a bulged disc…. Then they have told me that I’m lucky because this person was off work for months and months, still taking pain killers years later and therefore that it was a worse injury than mine. Now, I want to make it clear, this is not a competition by any means. There are people out there who have had much worse back injuries than I have. People who have broken their backs, severed their spinal cords….I really do feel for these people and the hell that they have had to endure. I can only begin to imagine it….
What I am trying to put forward in this post is this. My injury was REALLY BAD! Yes, I did have a bulged disc in L4/5, but I also had a disc extrusion in L5/S1- think exploded disc…... Add this to severe impingement of the sciatic nerve, massive degeneration of the spine and a back that is riddled with arthritis. I think people assume that my injury wasn’t that bad because I only had two weeks off work, I’ve been swimming since week three, I’ve been back to teaching SHBAM since well before the three month mark, I’m doing PT and weights and I’ve been off pain killers completely since just after the three month mark. I’m also walking around feeling pretty happy with a smile on my face!
Why am I telling you this? NO! It’s not because I want anyone to stand back in awe at the impressiveness of my recovery. I honestly couldn’t give a crap about that sort of thing. I’m telling you this because despite what the Doctors, Specialists and other Health Professionals say, a bulged or an extruded disc is not a death sentence. It’s not something where you need to resort to surgery or to be on painkillers for the rest of your life. Unless of course, that’s what you really want. Me personally, I couldn’t think of anything worse than chomping down on painkillers for the rest of my life and giving up everything that I love.
I’m nothing special. I’m an average person. I’m just stubborn and too wimpy to want to put up with being in pain for the rest of my life and to not be able to do the things that I want to do. Even for someone who is not highly physically active, surely you would want to be able to live your life without being in constant pain.
Since being told the extent of my back injury, I have done absolutely everything in my power to heal it through Mindset, Nutrition and Movement. The three key principles that I believe are crucial to EVERYTHING IN YOUR LIFE! Without working on all three of these principles, there is no way that you can have a happy, healthy and fulfilled life. I honestly don’t believe that it is possible.
This stuff doesn’t just apply to back injuries. It applies to so many different kinds of injuries and health conditions, obesity, diabetes, depression, especially those related to poor lifestyle choices (and this includes overtraining). It’s a case of deciding how badly you want to feel better, how sick of feeling like crap you are and actually taking control of your life.
No one is going to do it for you. You will have to be the one that puts in the hard yards, but honestly, what do you expect?? It’s all for you anyway so why shouldn’t you be the one that puts in the effort and reaps the rewards??
Sitting back and whingeing about things, it really doesn’t matter what it is, fixes absolutely nothing. Getting of your ass, learning what you need to do and then doing everything you can to change things is the only thing that works.
Want to know more?
Feel free to read some of my past blogs or flick me a message. I’m always happy to answer your questions or help you out!
Kris xx