A bit of a blog post for a change...
The past few days my back has been giving me grief. Twinges and aches all over. It gets like this sometimes. Not sure if it's general inactivity working on a laptop all day, my osteoporosis, or a throwback to the car accidents I was in over a decade ago. I suspect the latter!
The pain can get debilitating. It's really annoying and frustrating to have to live with, but usually, after a few days of taking it easy, resting up as much as possible, and in between doing light stretching exercises, it comes right!
I've been having episodes of back pain for years and I suspect that it is connected to a time when I was involved in two car accidents within 2 weeks of each other, followed a year later by an indoor karting accident...none of the aforementioned being my fault. Even more annoying, right?
The first accident happened coming off the M40 motorway in England. I took the offramp and came to a stop at the top where it met the roundabout, as there was a vehicle approaching on the roundabout from my right, over the motorway bridge, to which I needed to give way. An uninsured, unemployed driver of no fixed abode crashed into the back of me, pushing my vehicle into the roundabout, narrowly missing the oncoming traffic. Whiplash incident neck and back number one...tick.
2 weeks later to the day, I was driving down a residential street in my area and stopped at a red traffic light. About 10 seconds thereafter, another uninsured driver crashed into the back of me in a brand new vehicle that his wife had just picked up from the dealership. Whiplash incident neck and back number 2.
6-9 months of physio ensued and a litigation matter between insurance companies. I had no sooner got back to what I thought was normal when, on a fun day out with family at the local indoor karting track, I drove over a high bridge and as I descended the other side, braking hard into a bend, the steering column snapped and the accelerator got stuck on full throttle, causing me to slam at full speed into the side wall. Whiplash incident neck and back number 3.
This time the paramedics were called out as I felt I couldn't move; everything just felt locked up and I was in pain and the karting company didn't want to take any chances. 2 hours later, fully inspected and given some recovery support, I was discharged by the paramedics.
I did do karate and took up yoga in an effort to ensure that I was exercising and doing the stretching that my body required, but unfortunately, my karate instructor moved to Oman and his business closed down during covid lockdown. My yoga instructor also canceled the evening class that I used to attend due to covid (she's a pharmacist so a front-line worker and had to cut back her yoga sessions). Alongside this, I discovered I had osteoporosis and started struggling with rotator cuff tendonitis and reduced range of movement in my shoulders so I was back to the physio and had to put my newly signed up '90 day Bodycoach' training on hold which was supposed to be giving me the fitness training I needed in the absence of karate and yoga...sigh.
And so here I am.
18 months after my shoulders first started to give me hassles, I am finally close to emerging out the other end of physio, almost back to normal, although I still have some stiffness and aches in the joints.
I am hopeful my back pain will resolve itself in a few days' time if I continue to alternate between rest and light stretching and reduced hours sitting in front of the laptop.
But all in all, I have to be grateful as today I got to wake up to a job and a beautiful family. I am alive and I spent the evening with my children reading, cooking, and playing junior scrabble. This in itself is amazing as my youngest has immense struggles with reading and writing and he is the one that wanted to read and play scrabble tonight😍
I can't show you a photo of my back pain or my kids playing scrabble (as we keep their faces off the internet as far as we can manage it) so what's the next best thing?
How about a pic of me and William Zabka from The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai? Standing strong and ready to take on the world. It was taken a couple of years ago at Comicon London, when I was actually able to pursue one of my passions in life (ie: karate) and the world just felt a lot more right all round.
Photo credit:
The William Zabka photograph is owned by me as I paid for the meet and greet and photo op at Comicon London.