Ok, so it seems kinda obvious that i'm an active sort of person. Before all this medical fun started i worked 5 days a week out at a barn cleaning stalls and doing other demanding physical labor including lots of yard work, weeding, branch clearing and pruning, and just staying active! Even playing with my dog Charle is activity (although technically he's not my dog, he's my neighbor's and over the past year or two through a series of interesting events has turned me into his companion with access to his home almost whenever i'd like so i can play with him and whatnot, so i end up calling him my dog)
So after actually somehow situating the pillows in such a way that i didn't have neck ache, i ended up spending quite a while just trying to get my back feeling supported. But at least i woke up this morning without that thrumming tension down my spine. So after waking up and lying there in bed a moment, i sighed because i could only think that i was tired of lying around. I know it's safer for me to do, to stay more sedentary, but i've been mostly sedentary for almost two weeks, i'm tired of resting! Granted, neck injuries and nerve damage should be taken seriously as far as healing goes, but, but...i'm losing weight from lying around! I'm gonna lose my mega hay-bale tossing biceps by sitting around blogging all day! I need to stay proactive!
So after turning my neck slightly from side to side to see if there's any improvement as far as rotation is concerned (i'm not thinking to the degree an owl can, but i can't touch my chin to my shoulders yet either) i got up and collected my arsenal of vitamins and necessary drugs including one pain med and went downstairs and got me breakfast. I kept moving forward, even went and got the paper without using the walker to get to the end of the drive without getting dizzy.
I sat down to eat 3 waffles with David at the table, read the comics, and after i had done that, decided i wanted to do some yard work, but since Mom is so against me using the lawn mower (but the lawn neeeds to be cut!!!argh, i wanna do it so badly. And it wouldn't be that hard, i mean the lawn mower could sorta act like a walker) but i held myself back and instead decided to pick up sticks around the yard. I figured it wasn't to laborous. I went over to get my dog Charle from my neighbor and Charle kept me company as i picked up sticks. Charle dosen't so much like the humid weather either, but he'll never pass up a chance to chase a ball once it's thrown, and luckily my left arm isn't as affected as my right arm so i can still throw underhand for him to fetch. (Charle is a golden retriever, 2-yr-old) and so spent a while crouching, bending slightly, and stooping a bit, and then leaning on my walker a bit if i felt a little dizzy or tired, but it felt so great to just be outside! I've been stuck in the AC for so long that the blast of humidity and the slight breeze that was present this morning felt really great.
I watered some flowers and Charle played in the hose a bit (he loves water!) and then came inside for a bit. I had bought Charle a new toy the day i ended up going to the hospital so now i could try it out. It's a tennis ball with a rope through it, but this dog loves tug-of-war, so it's perfect. I led us down to the basement where Beck (my sister) dwells and woke her up (she needed to get up anyway) by showing her the toy. And then i sat on the end of her bed and played tug-of-war with Charle a bit, which in retrospect may not have been the greatest idea. My left arm is ok, but i'm tugging against an 80lb puppy who has limitless energy, and i ended up pulling with my right arm first. That did eventually lead to this band of tension running along the back of my shoulders, up one side of my neck and suddenly i had a bit of a throb near the front of my head, so i did take a break, but i resumed playing with him not long after. Headache was a bit persistant...
So for the majority of this day i've not been to still. The tension in my shoulders has eased a bit, but with a puppy constantly asking for love and attention who can stay still? I wuv my puppy dog! (gives Charle a scratch and a kiss because he's sitting beside me right now panting at my leg with a ball in his mouth) and the day isn't over yet! Hopefully i'll go to sleep a lot easier tonight anyway being at least a little worn out. But i really don't want to lose a lot of my muscle tone so staying active is the way for me to be, i guess i'll soon find out when or if i can push myself to hard...so far so good though !
