When I first got on SteemIt, I definitely planned on making at least one post per day, but unfortunately that hasn't panned out yet due to my health. The past week or so has been one of the most drastic downturns I can remember in my three years of dealing with my injury. I haven't by any means felt good this afternoon, but I've been good enough to sit at a computer, my neck unsupported and use my arm without immediately having major issues. Since, I didn't get to post yesterday, I wanted to walk through what the past month or so has been like for me because it's a good microcosm of how the past three years have been.
I started the current physical therapy program I'm on in December 2016. It's been a lot of two-steps-forward and one-step-back. The week before Christmas (last month, December 2017) I hit my personal highs on all my exercises and weights in therapy. It was a big achievement for me, and I was starting to gain confidence again. Now, I should say, I've hit "personal highs" three or four times and then had major setbacks, so what happened next was par for the course...
The Friday before Christmas, I was rear-ended. My vehicle suffered minor damage, but the toll it took on my body was much worse. Without going into all the boring details, I'll just say I lost around or a little more than 50% of all my gains from the past year, and in several places I was basically back where I was in December 2016 where I started. This was devastating to me because of all the time, money, effort, emotion, etc... I had put into my rehab. On top of this, tax season was just about to start and I worked in an accounting office.
I took it all in stride, though, because I had faith in my physical therapist and in where I was in my faith; so for the next few weeks I worked extra hard at therapy, and as frustrating as it was to be so behind, I gradually saw my reps and weights go back up - so much so that just two weeks ago I had already made it back to about 75% of where I was. It was a big deal and I was starting to feel good about my recovery again; then, last week happened.
This is where things got a little complicated. The week prior we had a small snow event in our state, and due to my recent accident I've been extra cautious when it comes to driving; therefore, I missed two days of work. Normally this isn't a big deal because I work from home a lot, but because of tax season, these were particular tasks that required me to be in the office. Also, due to the snow a meeting got canceled that I had to attend (I'm on the board of a local non-profit).
So, let's reset to Monday, January 22nd. On that day I had therapy and that's the day I got back to 75% and had a particularly long session. The next morning (Tuesday) I had an appointment with my brand new neurologist. I was there for almost 3 hours and had to do a lot of tests and they had to take 14 vials of blood (which I didn't know about). From there I had to immediately meet a friend to pick up his tax documents; then go straight to work - where I worked for 4 straight hours. You may say "4 hours? Are you kidding?" but, even on my good days I don't usually work 4 straight hours due to me not being able to sit with my neck unsupported or use my arm that long. Two is normally my limit. On top of this, instead of going home and resting, I basically had to go home, eat, and then go to that make-up board meeting. In retrospect I probably should not have gone to the meeting, but at the time I didn't realize what else was to come.
I work two more 4 hour days Wednesday and Thursday. By this stage, I start noticing my body taking a bad shift. Typically, for me, when I over-do-it I won't feel the true effects for a day or two. I had therapy Friday, though, and so I figured I would get through that and everything would be OK.
At therapy that Friday I had my longest dry-needling session ever at almost three hours. Dry-needling can have an effect on your body like a surgical procedure; so, a lot of the same rules apply as far as not doing anything too physical like lifting weights or exerting too much of yourself. Unfortunately, I did just that as soon as I got home that afternoon when I found my dog would not get out of her kennel. She wouldn't even move, and I was worried something was seriously wrong, so, I spent the better part of 30 minutes trying to carefully get her out. Now, she's not a heavy dog, only around 20 lbs., but I struggle with 2 lbs. (you read that right) in therapy. I'm also someone who gets stressed easily, and if you know anything about stress, one of the things it does is causes your muscles to get tense - this is an extremely bad thing for me as it makes my spasms really go into overdrive in a way I can't get under control.
So, once I wake up Saturday the fun really starts for me - this is when my week of over-activity catches up with me. My migraine is at a steady 8 or 9, which is the point where I start getting very irrational and delusional with my thinking and have some issues thinking/speaking. I also had a lot of numbness and weakness in both my arms, hands, upper back, jaw, right side of my face, and legs. These are scary symptoms, but their symptoms I've dealt with before, and so I have experience calming them down; however, this time no matter what I did I couldn't get them to go away.
It wasn't until my therapy session the following Monday that those symptoms subsided. It was definitely the longest I've dealt with them, but even since then it's been hard to keep those symptoms at bay. I've got them at a point where I can calm them down for the most part, but almost any prolonged use of my arm or tension of any kind of my neck - or any kind of stress just cause the numbness to come back.
So, as silly as it sounds, just sitting at my computer and typing and using my mouse causes me issues, especially if I don't do something quick - as in 10-20 minutes quick. The good news, though, is that I was able to get a reprieve this afternoon and make a couple of posts. Hopefully this is a sign of a trend back towards recovery. I'm certainly going to believe that's the case!
- Jay
PS: For anyone interested - the diagram below shows how connected your shoulder and neck are. I have a lot of issues, but two particular spots that have been triggered the last couple of weeks have been my deltoid and my sternocleidomastoid. For many people who deal with migraines, they actually come from the sternocleidomastoid. If my deltoid/pectoral is in a lot of pain/spasm, it travels up the sternocleidomastoid to my temple and gives me a wicked migraine. I also have migraines that travel up the back of my head/neck, as well, but these front muscles have been particular bad the past two weeks.
