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The Injury That Changed My Life For The Better

December 11, 2013 @ 18:30 By Gavin Webber 8 Comments

The event that I am going to tell you about changed my life, both physically and mentally.

Many of you will know that in September 2006, I had a green awakening, and I started to change my lifestyle to one with a lower environmental footprint. But that is only part of the story, because I believe that there was a second defining moment in my life that really woke me up, made me stop and re-evaluate my life even further. I grew stronger through adversity.

Here it is the full story which is a partial rewrite of a post I published way back in the second month of this blog.

On Friday the 17th August 2007,  I volunteered to spend the day working at the Collingwood Children’s Farm.

The place I work for let each staff member take one day a year as volunteer leave, so that you can participate in community volunteer work. I believe that this has two purposes, one, to boost staff morale and enhances team-building, and the other enhances the company’s standing in the community. From my point of view, it is usually just plain fun.

I arrived in my hybrid car at about [8:30] am, did a quick tour of the chickens and community vegetable gardens on my way to the main building. Some of the vegetables were huge! I had never seen Savoy Cabbages so large. They must have been fertilising them with Giant’s poo or something like that!

My friend and I were early, so we had a coffee in the open air cafe. It was a lovely setting. You could hear the goats, chickens and ducks doing their thing. It took me right back to when I was a child growing up on the dairy farm in Loxton North, South Australia. So many memories came flooding back from all those years ago.

The rest of the volunteer team arrived at nine o’clock. There were eight of us all up. We met the lady who allocated the work and she gave us the briefing for the day. In the morning we were to weed the orchard and in the afternoon feed the animals. We all grabbed the gardening tools necessary for weeding, hoes, wheelbarrows, rakes, buckets etc. and we headed over to the orchard.

We received yet another briefing regarding what weeds to pull out and what to leave alone. I learnt that dock relieves the pain caused by stinging nettles. As Shakespeare might have said, “To weed, or not to weed, that is the question”.

One botany lesson later, we got stuck into the weeding. We began to get down on our knees and pulled out at least 20 wheelbarrow loads of weeds. Some of the weeds went to the ducks and chickens as food, some for the goats, and most of them were dumped on the compost heap. I was running wheelbarrows mostly, but did about 30 minutes of weeding to begin with. We managed to knock it over by about 1130, so we decided to go to the pub for lunch.

We returned to the farm after lunch and met up with the farm lady again. She was impressed that we had finished the orchard so quickly, but soon got us started on feeding the large animals. We loaded up a cart with about six bales of hay and proceeded down the shared bicycle track to where the animals lived. I am not sure of the order, but we fed horses, cows, sheep and goats.

I was told to enter the goat enclosure as the feeder was way on the other side of the paddock. A few of us volunteered to carry hay down to the feeder and I decided to grab most of a bale, which was quite heavy, and proceeded to run, as most of the goats were chasing me!  I was especially wary of this three legged nanny goat who had her eyes on the hay I was holding.  Not a good move as you will see.

We moved onto the other animals and threw the hay to some of them. We then went back to the main building where the ladies fed the lambs and a calf with big bottles. They gulped it down in no time flat. We also watched a cow being milked with a very cheeky cat trying to abscond some of the fresh milk. There were about ten primary school kids at the farm all learning how it worked. I still think that some kids thought that milk comes from bottles or cartons, instead of cows!  At least they know better now.

It all went downhill from here.

As it was nearly the end of the day, and time for the photoshoot, we all gathered to pose.  I remember a large twinge and a bit of pain in my lower back as I sat down.  I didn’t think much of it at the time as I thought it was nothing to worry about.

After the happy snaps, we all said our goodbyes and headed home for the weekend. It had been a really educational and fun day.

However, as I was driving home, I started to feel intense pain in the area around my lower back.  After about 20 minutes the pain began to travel down to my buttocks on both sides then down to the back of my knees. I even loosened my belt, thinking it may be too tight.

By the time I arrived home an hour later, I was in excruciating pain.  I managed to take some pain relief, then laid down.  I thought that I had pulled a muscle or something simple like that and that the pain would subside in the morning. But alas, it was not to be that simple.

The pain persisted all weekend and I spent it in bed trying to recover. I found that if I attempted to sit, the pain increased, however if I stood or laid down, it abated slightly.

On the Monday morning I managed to drag myself down to my GP, Dr Spence, and he quickly diagnosed “Discogenic back pain”.  Apparently I managed to get a bulging disc that was pressing on the nerves that travel down the legs.  It was the three legged goat who was the culprit!

Dr Spence signed me off work for one week and said it should heal fairly quickly. So after six months, one CT scan, one MRI scan, bi-weekly visits to Physiotherapy, many acupuncture sessions and 4 specialist visits later, I was diagnosed with a L5/S1 disk bulge with tears in the disc lining. And OMG, the pain! It was unbearable most of the time.  It was like having a four foot toothache from my lower back all the way to my big toes.  However, Dr Spence continued to look after me, and helped me get through the really low times.  Great bloke.

I couldn’t drive a car for more than 10 minutes without pain, and stupidly I worked part time from the second week of the injury. Upon reflection, I should not have worked for at least six months.  I don’t remember much about the work that I attempted to do because I was always high on painkillers.

So I bit the bullet and began to utilise Public Transport in earnest. Why did I not use PT earlier! There were no traffic jams, I could stand comfortably or sit a little while, and I managed to get to the office with a small amount of pain, and all in less time it took to travel in by car. Not only did I lowered my carbon footprint by not driving, I was less stressed by the trip.

Resting during my long recovery, and zonked out with drugs.

Even though this was a physical setback in my journey of a sustainable lifestyle, it did not affected me too much mentally.  Sure, I got frustrated, but knew my limitations pretty quickly if I attempted to do something stupid.  Pain was a great de-motivator at times.

But that didn’t stop me.  In fact, I became even more determined to keep my sustainable living quest alive. The kids and Kim helped in the newly built vege patch and performed all of the heavy work. I couldn’t bend too much or lift anything heavy anyway.  That meant that some things didn’t get done the way I wanted it, but I learnt patience in the process. Kim still tells me off if I even look like doing something silly that could set be back even now.

I even remember one time that I actually crawled to the veggie patch when I was in excruciating pain to do a spot of weeding.  Early on, I was quite stubborn, but soon learnt to let go.

During the 18 months of part time work, I must have read about every book in the Melton Library, covering subjects like Climate change, Organic gardening, Peak oil, sustainable living, and how to preserve food.  I think that I read about 100 books during my recovery, at the pace of nearly two a week.

Now you know why I know so much about preserving!

All in all, it kept me sane, kept my mind off the injury, taught me to slow down, and learnt not to get frustrated when things didn’t go my way.  

A brilliant man who helped me understand myself better was Nelson, my Chinese Medical practitioner.  During one of my twice weekly acupuncture sessions, he suggested that maybe my injury happened at this time in my life for a reason.

You know, I do believe he was right!  It has often be said that through adversity comes clarity and purpose.

Because of my injury, and spending the majority of my time at home flat on my back during the first year of recovery, I became very close and in tune with Kim and all the kids.  I became aware of my surroundings, I now live in the moment.  I treasure the gifts that nature give us all, and have figured out what my purpose is in life.  It took many long hours flat on my back to work out that this what I needed to do in my life and that I need to share it with as many other like minded people as I could.

My favourite recovery couch.  This is where I first learnt about peak oil!

I believe that if I didn’t have this life changing injury, I may not have started this blog.  The mind boggles at the mere thought of not having all of you sharing my journey with me is unfathomable. ;-).

Did you know that the first six months worth of this blog was actually hand written with a pencil into a little A5 notebook whilst I rested on my back?  I then typed each post in 10 minutes bursts at my computer whilst high as a kite on pain relief.  Hell, it was painful, but I persevered because I need to tell my story.

After the initial 18 months recovery and three additional relapses, it took me a further year of rehabilitation via occupational therapy and lots of special core body strength exercises to recover to a state (about 95% recovered) that I am at today.  As I am much more active, I find that I only need to visit the gym fortnightly to keep those core muscles strong.  Gardening and bike riding does wonders for my fitness.  I have been relatively pain free since mid 2010.

So there you have it.  Now you know the full story of why I am like I am.  The back injury taught me many valuable life lessons, and made me a better man.  All I needed was time to reassess everything, which in the end I certainly had in abundance.  Being on ones back for such a long time gives you that time in droves.

Has anyone else had a life changing injury that at the time felt devastating, but upon recovery you found that it was a change for the better?  Have many of you learnt to slow down and discover the power and clarity that goes with that slowing down?

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Filed Under: Gavin, Health, Libraries, Path to Freedom

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About Gavin Webber

Gavin Webber's daily goal is to live a more sustainable lifestyle, in an effort to reduce his family's environmental footprint so we can all make a difference for our children & future generations to come.

Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

Comments

  1. Sol says

    December 12, 2013 at 06:38

    I came across your blog maybe 6 years ago? maybe 7. I am on a journey also I think it is a lot slower than yours.

    next step, we will find a new home with a garden that is bigger than this one. and then I can up my growing area. I hope to achieve at least 60% veggie production

    Reply
    • Gavin Webber says

      December 12, 2013 at 07:43

      Good luck Sol!

      Gav

      Reply
  2. Kim says

    December 12, 2013 at 06:39

    Yes these things can make you who you are…perhaps because we finally have time to stop and think. When I was a child I had cancer,when I was thirteen I decided that I was going to do something in life that made a difference. Then when I had my own children , I was concerned that perhaps the processed food I ate as a child may have contributed to me getting cancer and so my own children ate home grown food from the time they were babies. I am glad you hurt your back ,Gavin …because perhaps it was the making of you.

    Reply
    • Gavin Webber says

      December 12, 2013 at 08:52

      Glad you made it through okay Kim.

      Yes, it did help to define who I was, and when I think about it, so did all the events that lead up to it. We are all just a collection of life experiences when it boils down to it.

      Gav x

      Reply
  3. Roots and Seeds says

    December 12, 2013 at 07:19

    Hi Gavin… I also have had severe back pain, so know what that is like!

    I have been on the “alternate” path for some years however after a stroke last year, from which I am still recovering, I have honed in on my priorities even more. I am still unable to do a lot of physical outdoor work which has been frustrating at times but something I’ve accepted – and I am improving slowly. I’ve also had lots of rest time which equates to good thinking and planning time as you have found, so I’m even more convinced that what I’m doing is the right way for me and my family.

    Sometimes it takes an accident or major incident to catapult we silly humans into seeing another way of living. A former colleague from decades ago was a real drinking, partying fellow and he was very badly injured after literally walking into a bus. The long recovery period was a turning point in his life and he didn’t want to go back to what he had been.

    Reply
    • Gavin Webber says

      December 12, 2013 at 08:58

      Hi R&S. These sorts of setbacks do give us plenty of time to reflect. At the time I did occasionally wonder if I would ever get better, but in hindsight, I am glad that I didn’t fully recover. Every daily twinge is a reminder to keep taking steps forward.

      I also had an experience that affected my work/life balance. An friend of mine who was about the same age, died whilst at work. Very sad, and it was a rough time for all those around the office, not to mention his family. One good thing did come of it. I reassessed my own work hours and decided that it was time to downshift, partly because of what happened to my friend, and partly to help Kim at home (she has MS). The end result is a balanced lifestyle.

      thanks for sharing. Gav

      Reply
  4. Donna says

    December 13, 2013 at 07:48

    In some ways this was a difficult post to read as I went through similar back pain, but for not as long as you. I couldn’t sit, stand or drive. It did have the lasting benefit of making me aware that any day I can get out of bed is a good day. I’m glad some good come from your injury but I wouldn’t wish that sort of pain on anyone.

    Reply
    • Gavin Webber says

      December 13, 2013 at 16:22

      Hi Donna, I praise the maker for every day that I am not in pain. At the time, I never thought it would end. Thanks goodness for intestinal fortitude. x

      Reply

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An Ordinary Australian Man Who Has A Green Epiphany Whilst Watching A Documentary, Gets a Hybrid Car, Plants A Large Organic Vegetable Garden, Goes Totally Solar, Lowers Consumption, Feeds Composts Bins and Worms, Harvests Rainwater, Raises Chickens, Makes Cheese and Soap, and Eats Locally. All In The Effort To Reduce Our Family's Carbon Footprint So We Can Start Making A Difference For Our Children & Future Generations To Come.

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