Sunday, April 1, 2018: Easter Sunday morning…. I woke up with pain in my lower back out of this world.. So bad that it immediately stopped me in my tracks upon attempting to get out of bed. It took me at least ten minutes to get from my bed to the bathroom, which is a three seconds stroll.. Or two seconds depending on how bad I need to go!

Once I finished up in my destination with all that needed to be done. I continued to get around very slowly the rest of the day. It was Easter Sunday and there were a few minor plans for that day with my daughter. I managed to get through the day okay…  The rest of the week I continued to move about slowly and did some mild stretching and even attempted my workouts, modifying of course. Being that I have dealt with back and neck issues in the past, I figured that this was just another issue that was going to be okay after a few days to a week.

Wrong!!!

Oh my word!!! Was I wrong to think that this was going to just ease up an go away in a week!!! Although, I got through the 1st week just fine.. I let one more week go by as I did my routine things that I normally do whenever I had my back pain flair ups, which included taking anti-inflammatory medication and applying ice to my back. People that know me well already know how much I dislike being cold which included using ice packs! So that meant it was serious! Some days it seemed like maybe it was getting a little better… Up until..

Saturday, April 14, 2018: On this evening… I was in my kitchen moving about my normal slow pace that I had gotten used to, doing whatever I was doing..

I sneezed!!!

Yes, a sneeze… A regular “ah-choo” sneeze.. Caused me to feel so much pain that I saw darkness and stars and went to the floor. #iNever =0  I had never in my life had pain strike me like that!! EVER!!! I managed to get up after a few minutes, with tears in my eyes. Finished up what I was doing & made my way to bed.

The next morning I was blowing my Chiropractor’s phone up.. Yes, on a Sunday morning I was blowing her phone up. Yeah, yeah… I wasn’t expecting to get fussed at for it being Sunday.. I was only expecting what I got.. Which was fussing because I waited so long to even contact her. Okay, lesson learned this time around!!! If you live in the Atlanta, Marietta, Smyrna areas and need an awesome Chiropractor, check her out! Chiropractor Directory

So, since that Sunday, April 15, 2018, I’ve been seeing her pretty regularly for adjustments & trigger point massaging & doing my stretches to help me deal with the sciatic nerve pain.

Monday, May 7, 2018:  I’m five weeks in… On this Sciatica Journey.. Yes, it is indeed a journey for me. I started taking notes aka journaling of what I was experiencing, but not just with my physical conditions. But my mental & emotional conditions.. as well as others around me. So, a lot of the following text will be coming from the notes that I had taken.

A little Journal writing…

Five weeks is the longest I’ve ever been in daily pain. I used to think that the worst pain I had ever been in was labor and delivery. Not anymore! I can actually say that labor and delivery isn’t all that bad. At least it is over within 24 hours, and you get on to your healing process. I have no words to describe having daily pain for five weeks straight. I pray that I never have to go through this again, but if I do…. God help me! At least I will know what to expect and hopefully I will have better options/resources to help get me through it much smoother.

I am very grateful for those who have prayed for me & helped me through this time, I cannot thank you all enough! Especially my Chiropractor, Dr. T! There were days that I didn’t want to move because I didn’t want to feel that pain. Not that laying still was completely painless, but it was easier than trying to move with the pain.

The Struggle was Real!

There were several mornings & some evenings that I just stood still next to my bed with tears rolling down my face because I was hurting THAT bad. I was either just getting up or preparing to lay down.. They both initially hurt the same to do.

The People…

I had the chance to really observe the people around me on a regular… See and hear their reactions to my horrific pain and limited mobility.. Very interesting.

I got the chance to really understand from a different point of view of how people may react (including myself), when someone that they are used to being the one always doing, doing, doing and going, going, going are no longer able to do or go the way they used to. That moment when one realizes how much they may rely on someone else.

…Pause…

At this point… I felt myself & actually caught myself.. Being angry and bitter towards people.. Out of frustration of being in pain and not able to do my daily functions. And noticing how others are reacting to my limitations, did not help one bit.. It did make me think a lot.

The most sensitive person to my pain that I observed, was my 10yrs old (now 11) daughter… Even though I snapped at her a couple times.. She understood when I talked to her and apologized. Her teacher at school told me that Khamani felt so bad for me because I was in so much pain and she felt sad for me because there was nothing that she could do to help me. ❤ 🙂 That has been the highlight of this Sciatica Journey.

At eight weeks in… I was still dealing with some pain from the muscle spasms, along with the tingling, burning, numbness and weakness sensations down my right leg and foot. It had definitely gotten a bit better & I am happy about that!

At the sign of improvement, I decided to get a personal trainer to assist me and take my physical condition into consideration… Shout out to my personal trainer:  Alexis Branch She has been very carefully pushing me through my workouts and telling me not to do some things even when I wanted to attempt them.. lol! So, I am currently in my fourth week of training… This is my final week of training for now.. I will continue to workout as much as I can as long as my body allows me to.

Today…

Today… At 10+ weeks into this Sciatica Journey..

Hhmmm… I’ll save that for my next post!! 😉

 

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Be blessed!

God loves you!

~Dee~