The Back Came Back

The last week has been a struggle.  It all started on Melbourne Cup day, when I went to the gym to do exercise rehab.  I had been doing really well of late, building the strength of my muscles to assist in the recovery of my back injury.  I was feeling pretty confident on the day, and decided to work extra hard at my gym circuit.  During one of the exercises I felt an pain in my back that I thought I was well rid of, and my first thought was ‘Bloody Hell. Here we go again!’

Thank goodness that it was only a minor pain and I managed to finish off the circuit.  I didn’t think much of the event, and put the heat pack on when I got home, and everything settled down again for the day. 

On the Wednesday, I had to travel into the office as part of my return to work plan, and boy did I find it hard going.  Every hour I had to lay down for at least 15 minutes to make the pain go away.  I used the self hypnosis technique that I had been taught and it helped dampen the pain without the use of painkillers.  I had another session with Susie for pain management in the afternoon, and I could not wait to get in there and make all the pain go away.  The session was good and lived up to my expectations and I experienced little pain on the trip home. 

Thursday morning was the day I attend Hydrotherapy.  I met Lucy, my Exercise Physiologist at Melton Waves, and I told her what had been happening.  We worked our way through the pool routine, and I didn’t feel too bad afterwards.  However, about 2 hours after I finished, the back and leg pain returned.  I figure that I must have just pushed myself a little too hard again.

Friday morning, I awoke to considerable pain, and called my boss and let her know that I wouldn’t be travelling into the office today.  She is very understanding, and I just spent most of the day in bed with my laptop and heat-pack keeping me company, working my way through some of my tasks.  I did another session of self hypnosis to ease the pain, and it worked for most of the day.

Saturday I started to feel much better, however not up to going to the gym to do a circuit like I was supposed to.  I gave it a miss, and went along to the DJ festival to help with the Solar Trailer.  I managed to get through the day with a smile on my face, but deep down I was hurting quite a bit.  I just managed the pain with posture change and small walks, because I really wanted to last the day.  I had been looking forward to helping out for a few weeks, and my injury was not going to get in the way!  After having missed so many eco events because of it, I was determined to treasure this day.  I got home and put the heat pack on straight away, and listened to another pain management tape.  Both helped ease the pain and calm my mind.

Sunday was a great day.  Kim’s sister Lydia came over with some friends for a BBQ by the pool, and we all had a great time.  We met her boyfriend Matt, as nice guy, and her two friends, Becs and Leia.  I had one too many sherbets after the meal because of the pain and by the end of the day I was quite drunk.  It has been a long time since I had behaved this way, and it was a bit of a reality check for me.  I  had a good hard look at why I did this, and figured that I was trying to escape from the reality that I was not quite as healed as I thought I was, and that I still had quite away to go before I was rid of this injury for good.

This morning, once again, I put off travelling to the city and decided to work from home because of the pain.  I have been recovering in bed, doing bit of work where I could, and just trying to come to grips with attempting to get better without painkillers and too much discomfort.

So here I sit, back hurting and legs aching, and I have another gym session tomorrow morning.  I am going to take it extra easy and not push myself too much, but I know that I need to keep doing the exercise rehab because this is what has helped speed up my recovery in the last few months.  I believe that the pain is beginning to ease off now, and this week will be a lot better than the last.  With the ‘Walk against Warming’ happening this weekend in Melbourne, my goal is to recover enough so that I can do the walk relatively pain free.  I feel that even though I have this injury, this injury does not have me!  You can’t keep a good green Gavin down.

Wish me luck.