Sometimes "someone" equals "nothing" and sometimes "no one" equals "something." Sometimes.
Pushing to one's physical limits can be rewarding, be there's also a point where it just becomes self destruction. Recovering from a back injury has probably become the hardest physical challange I've had to endure yet, and we ain't exactly talkin' Double Dare here. I broke my collarbone at birth (a sign of things to come?), had my tonsils and adnoids taken out at age 6, nearly lost my hearing due to fluid in my ears and had to have tubes put in only a few years later. Broke my right ankle in 7th grade, had my appendix removed in 8th grade, broke my other ankle in 9th grade, then shortly thereafter sprained it so bad I was told it was "better off broken" and physical therapy was required that time. When I look back to compile this list it sounds bad, and yet I've often regarded myself as being in good health, haha, though maybe I shouldn't.
I remained dormant for many years after high school, until I started playing ice hockey again. That was the spark I needed to get moving again. At 28 I had my first physical since high school and was told I had the lungs of a less than 20 year old person. That was pretty damn cool, and I hadn't even started really pushing it yet. A few years later I got into running and everything changed. I was pretty in shape from playing hockey 3 out of 4 seasons, but that took it to a whole other level. I got hooked on the natural high and good vibes it brought. Hockey was taken to stratospheric levels, and I felt better than I ever had. But it would not last.
Once I was hired for a management position at work every changed, as it has so often these past few years. I had to start working nights, longer hours, holidays. In less than a year and a half I'd put hockey on the shelf because I "couldn't find time" to float within my quicksand work schedule. Everything became about "the job" and less and less was about me, or my health. Then 8 days into this year I injured my back and everything changed... again.
Thanks to an MRI and numerous trips to the chiropractor, I was diagnosed with a partially pinched nerve near the base of my spine. In the first few weeks I experienced what I referred to in my head as "electricity" or "lightning bolts" running halfway down the front and all the way down the back of my left leg. I started to lose feeling in my left foot, and even my groin area went numb at times. I couldn't even bend over to turn on the faucet, and I had to bend down on one knee to turn on the shower. No previous injury or ailment even came close to the pain and debilitation that this brought me. It was uncomfortable to lay down, to sit up, to stand, to walk, to live. I got a firmer mattress, new pillows for the couch, but it was all about chiropractic therapy twice a week and time.
I re-alphabetized my 900+ CD collection, adding in all the new ones I'd aquired over the past few years but never found the time for. I made great use of my new aquired PS3, buying tons of movies off Amazon and signing up for NHL GameCenter, allowing myself to watch nearly every televised game every night. I was on disability, hanging out at home, having what should've been the time of my life, but the relaxation and nearly stress-free lifestyle I made for myself soon became my own personal version of The Shining as the days and weeks and months just melted away. Like the snow that covered the ground on my first trip to get diagnosed, time ceased to exist months later when I was improving but still home-bound. I ran out of movies and games and bullshit chores to keep myself occupied. Watching all that hockey on TV made me want to fucking *play*, yet I could hardly even walk around the block without feeling as though my lower back had been severely bruised and beaten by a baseball bat attack. I had my fill of peace and quiet, I just wanted the opportunity to twist around and bend over and lay on my side and walk and run and feel like a functioning human again.
It took 5+ months before I could return to work. At first I came home after work and my legs turned into stone pillars. I was forced to come up with a pre-work "routine" to get my body ready for the task of walking around a grocery store for 8+ hours a day. I began to ride the stationary bike before work to keep my legs loose. I'd partake in all sorts of stretching routines to keep my back from tightening up. I've had to get crafty and change my approach to life a lot in order to feel good again. There's that change again, it's so sneaky, isn't it?
It's been 3 months since then, and I still do all those things before work. Long days. Hard work. Very little time. Free time was all I had before, but could only do so little with it. It's but a distant memory now, but I just worked 6 days straight and feel pretty fucking good, and after today I'm scheduled for 10 in a row. I'm up for it.
Pushing to one's physical limits can be rewarding, be there's also a point where it just becomes self destruction. Recovering from a back injury has probably become the hardest physical challange I've had to endure yet, and we ain't exactly talkin' Double Dare here. I broke my collarbone at birth (a sign of things to come?), had my tonsils and adnoids taken out at age 6, nearly lost my hearing due to fluid in my ears and had to have tubes put in only a few years later. Broke my right ankle in 7th grade, had my appendix removed in 8th grade, broke my other ankle in 9th grade, then shortly thereafter sprained it so bad I was told it was "better off broken" and physical therapy was required that time. When I look back to compile this list it sounds bad, and yet I've often regarded myself as being in good health, haha, though maybe I shouldn't.
I remained dormant for many years after high school, until I started playing ice hockey again. That was the spark I needed to get moving again. At 28 I had my first physical since high school and was told I had the lungs of a less than 20 year old person. That was pretty damn cool, and I hadn't even started really pushing it yet. A few years later I got into running and everything changed. I was pretty in shape from playing hockey 3 out of 4 seasons, but that took it to a whole other level. I got hooked on the natural high and good vibes it brought. Hockey was taken to stratospheric levels, and I felt better than I ever had. But it would not last.
Once I was hired for a management position at work every changed, as it has so often these past few years. I had to start working nights, longer hours, holidays. In less than a year and a half I'd put hockey on the shelf because I "couldn't find time" to float within my quicksand work schedule. Everything became about "the job" and less and less was about me, or my health. Then 8 days into this year I injured my back and everything changed... again.
Thanks to an MRI and numerous trips to the chiropractor, I was diagnosed with a partially pinched nerve near the base of my spine. In the first few weeks I experienced what I referred to in my head as "electricity" or "lightning bolts" running halfway down the front and all the way down the back of my left leg. I started to lose feeling in my left foot, and even my groin area went numb at times. I couldn't even bend over to turn on the faucet, and I had to bend down on one knee to turn on the shower. No previous injury or ailment even came close to the pain and debilitation that this brought me. It was uncomfortable to lay down, to sit up, to stand, to walk, to live. I got a firmer mattress, new pillows for the couch, but it was all about chiropractic therapy twice a week and time.
I re-alphabetized my 900+ CD collection, adding in all the new ones I'd aquired over the past few years but never found the time for. I made great use of my new aquired PS3, buying tons of movies off Amazon and signing up for NHL GameCenter, allowing myself to watch nearly every televised game every night. I was on disability, hanging out at home, having what should've been the time of my life, but the relaxation and nearly stress-free lifestyle I made for myself soon became my own personal version of The Shining as the days and weeks and months just melted away. Like the snow that covered the ground on my first trip to get diagnosed, time ceased to exist months later when I was improving but still home-bound. I ran out of movies and games and bullshit chores to keep myself occupied. Watching all that hockey on TV made me want to fucking *play*, yet I could hardly even walk around the block without feeling as though my lower back had been severely bruised and beaten by a baseball bat attack. I had my fill of peace and quiet, I just wanted the opportunity to twist around and bend over and lay on my side and walk and run and feel like a functioning human again.
It took 5+ months before I could return to work. At first I came home after work and my legs turned into stone pillars. I was forced to come up with a pre-work "routine" to get my body ready for the task of walking around a grocery store for 8+ hours a day. I began to ride the stationary bike before work to keep my legs loose. I'd partake in all sorts of stretching routines to keep my back from tightening up. I've had to get crafty and change my approach to life a lot in order to feel good again. There's that change again, it's so sneaky, isn't it?
It's been 3 months since then, and I still do all those things before work. Long days. Hard work. Very little time. Free time was all I had before, but could only do so little with it. It's but a distant memory now, but I just worked 6 days straight and feel pretty fucking good, and after today I'm scheduled for 10 in a row. I'm up for it.