My Neck, My Back…and Everything Else

Well, I…we made it to 2021. We’re 19 days in and what a journey it’s been already. 2020 said “aht aht I’m not quite done”! I’ve been slightly MIA for a little bit because I’ve been dealing with stuff and didn’t feel like I had much to say. 

But I’m here, I’m back, and I’m ready to talk. One thing I’ve had drilled into my mind over the last almost 6 months is “listen to your body”! This body of mine has taken me through some things. I guess I’ll start from the beginning. In 2010 I was diagnosed with endometriosis. What is endometriosis? In the most general Google terms: a disorder in which tissue that normally lines the uterus grows outside the uterus. This means extremely painful cramps, irregular and heavy periods, and PMS from hell. I’m as used to these symptoms as I can possibly be. This is where the lesson comes in….from August to October I had a period nonstop. I brushed it off for a month then I finally made an appointment with my specialist after my family and friends kept badgering me about going. I go to the appointment and she explained that my body was basically purging, and I need to switch up the way I took my birth control. Ok so boom, I make an appointment to establish a primary physician in NC. I go to that appointment and tell her about how tired I am all of the time and the period I was dealing with. She requests all of the blood tests. Results come back and red blood count..low, white blood count…low, vitamin d…low, vitamin b12…very low. The assumption is everything was low and I was soooo tired due to the loss of blood over the past 2 months. So now I have to take vitamin D daily and I get vitamin b12 shots, started weekly and now monthly. When I say I was tired all of the time, I mean waking up around 7:30-8am and having no choice but to lie down and take a nap at 10am then another nap about 2pm. I started drinking coffee just to make it to and through the sessions with my personal trainer.  Who knows if any of this could have been totally avoided but had I listened to my body and not brushed everything off for some long; I may not have gotten as bad as I was. 

Fast forward to last week. I’m feeling good. I’m not nearly as tired. I can make it through the day without naps (still drinking coffee on training days though). On Wednesday morning I get out of bed and my foot feels weird, kind of tight like I need to stretch it. I keep walking around and forget all about it. I go run errands and go to cheerleading practice where the pain kicks of about notches. Now I’m limping and my foot is even tighter. I finally get home and practice and gradually over about an hour, I can’t put weight on my right foot at all. I mean crawled on all fours to the bathroom. Now I’m panicking and don’t know what to do. Of course, I call my sister, I call her for everything. We agree that if it doesn’t feel better in the morning I needed to make a doctor appointment or go to urgent care. Thursday morning I’m in excruciating pain and in tears. Ok orthopedic urgent care here we come! My sister comes to pick me up and brings me a cane…A CANE, I’m 35 walking with a cane…let that sink in. We get to the doctor’s office and they don’t have urgent care services anymore due to COVID. But luckily there were able to make me an appointment for the same day, about an hour later. We get called back and as I’m trying to walk with this cane and hop down the hallway a nurse says “ooh that looks painful” sis you have no idea. They do x-rays and they doctor comes in and tells me nothing is broken. He examines my foot and said the joints in my foot are inflamed and there is nothing in particular that he can say I did to cause it. My joints?? Again, I’m 35! What in the world?!? I get 2 prescriptions and head home. The doctor said I should be good in about 2 weeks and feel better in a few days. Over the next 2 days I am struggling to walk and stand. Family and friends are coming to bring me food, unload my dishwasher, help me make the bed, pretty much everything because I felt like I couldn’t do anything for myself. Finally on Sunday I feel better, barely using the cane and just some slight pain. Monday is great, a light discomfort and a small limp. But on today, Tuesday, I felt great! Hardly any pain, I drove my car, and made a Target run. Even though I feel so much better I still can’t overdo it. I have to listen to my body and pay attention to what it’s telling me. When you don’t want to sit down, your body will definitely find a way to make you.

I have to say the worst part of this whole experience was having to depend on people the way I did. The strong independent black woman was in tears every day because I had to ask for help. That’s a therapy session in itself. I’m just so grateful that I feel better overall and I have such an amazing support system that checked on me, encouraged me, and fussed at me when I needed it. From now on I will listen to whatever my body is telling me. If ANYTHING feels off, I’m getting it checked out. I recommend you do the same. It’s hard to feel the sparks when your miserable and in pain from something that could have been prevented or minimized by doing your part. Wow this was a long one. If you’re still here, I truly appreciate you! I’m going into year 2 of this here blog and it has been exactly what I needed it to be. I know there is somebody else out there that goes through the same stuff and needs to know that they’re not alone. Some things I refuse to believe happen to me to not be a lesson for myself and someone else. There has to be a bigger purpose. 

Ok ok I’ll let you go. Until next time…