The Most Important System
Roughly 2 months ago I was walking in the park with my 20 pound weight backpack. I was busy playing Ingress and walking deeper into this park. The trails at the back were a swamp, slightly muddy from whatever rainstorm happened around that time.
I began stepping over larger and larger branches, until I slipped. Falling backwards with a large weight pulling me down. A little pain, but I got back up and continued my journey.
Days became a week and I had this strange pain in my back. I thought it would heal itself, but after another week or two passed - this didn't seem to be the case. I live next door to a chiropractic place so figured it would be a good place to start. The first session consisted of x-rays which on my next visit resulted in the outcome of a stress fracture in my lower spine.
They weren't positive on that though, so we were going to wait on radiology to confirm. The confirmation came back and rejected that, which was good to hear. I didn't have a stress fracture, but still had a ton of spine pain. At this point, it was time to schedule an MRI.
My first MRI ever and boy those machines are loud. A bunch of large metal circles spinning around really make some noise. At this point nearly 3-4 weeks after this fall in a park, I was in pain. Sitting hurt, driving hurt and generally anything that wasn't laying down - hurt.
The MRI came back with the official news - A herniated disc and a bulging disc both in my lower spine (L4-L5 & L5-S1). Knowing the diagnosis doesn't help cure the pain though, the 15 sessions of Physical Therapy over 4 weeks is going to cure that.
I've only been through one session and I've failed my body. I am active (I think), I play soccer, I swim, I run, I walk, I hike with heavy weights. Yet, my first session of PT put me through so many stretches and activities that I could barely do. The human body is a complex system that we (I) must take care of. Once I get through this recovery, daily stretches and preventive care will be my top priority.
Spending money for recovery and being a useless crippled young adult is beyond annoying. The human body is the most important system and I won't forget that again.