When I got home, my children were still up and I gave them the things they needed and they went to bed after our routine. I in the meantime tried to call my husband and finally got him on the phone and we decided to make an appointment to go to the chiropractor first thing in the morning.
I applied some Essential Oils to my back to dull the pain and when my husband got home from work he helped me apply some more for good measure. After the application, the pain was gone but since I was hurting so much before the oils, I knew it was bad. I talked to my husband about broken bones and he said if it were broken I wouldn't even be able to walk and reassured me it was probably just bruised.
I slept, surprisingly well, especially since I don't move at all when I am sleeping and wake up in the same position I fall asleep in. When I woke up, I didn't feel any pain because I wasn't moving. What I did feel was the full bladder sensation (so glad I can still feel that right?). This is a normal thing, it happens every morning without fail.
The PAIN came when I started to move to get out of bed. Suddenly I recalled the night before and the trip to the bathroom seemed enormous. Not only did I have to get out of a bed that is 4 feet off the floor; that is a good thing, really, but I also had to climb 25 stairs to get to the main floor of my home. No I don't want to talk about it, except it was really slow and painful. It wasn't slow because of the pain, just the pressure on my bladder.
At this point I was grateful for some of my other "blessings" of having the body I have cuz my bladder was trained just for a time like this, when I would have to empty it but wouldn't be able to right away.
I started dry-heaving because I was so nauseated from the pain and I had to remind myself to breathe several times.
My husband had called his chiropractor, and we had an early appointment. He helped me find some clothes and then left me to get dressed and help the kids get going on their day. Looking back at that now, I wish I had asked him to help me because I woke up on the floor screaming from the pain.
We went to the doctor and I won't bore you with the details of getting there etc.
Now I am getting to the really cool part about having diabetes and taking care of my body and healthy eating: When the Dr. took the Xray of my back, he showed where the back was out and also pointed out how there wasn't a break, crack or anything of that nature on my spinal column. He also commented how dense the bone tissue looked and how beautiful the xray was. I asked him what he meant and he said for my age, my bones looked beautiful.
What is so cool about this is since I have diabetes, I have been more concerned about what I put in my mouth than before I was diagnosed. I have focused mainly on blood sugars and eating healthy foods. Recently I had started transitioning to whole foods almost entirely to include whole grains, raw and fresh fruits and vegetables and very little processed foods.
I avoid foods that contain ingredients that I can't pronounce or don't know the reason for them being in the food. As I have gotten more information about healthy eating, I have worked on implementing it in my eating habits. I had in the past 6 months begun phasing out products containing soy, high fructose corn syrup, and corn.
I have also been avoiding drinking anything other than water and the occasional fruit smoothie.
I had learned a month prior to this injury, the effect of drinking soda on your bones and I had mentally patted myself on the back multiple times for avoiding drinking it for the last 30 odd years as it has always made my stomach upset after drinking it.
May 5, 2012
May 4, 2012
A Blessing of having Diabetes
I have a blessing that I can say right now is the result of having diabetes and taking care of my body. A couple of weeks ago, just before the weekend, I made a few bad choices that day and ended up getting an injury of my lower spine.---OK: the story is: I left my keys in my husbands vehicle, my bike wasn't rideable and I wasn't about to call a neighbor to help me. I chose to rollerblade and since I grew up rollerblading and rollerskating, I thought it was a little like riding a bike....you never forget how to do it. Right?
Wrong....I turned from my road going to the main road and there is a little steepness to the road. I started putting on speed and tried to slow down. Not being used to the feel of the rollerblades, I didn't slow down but slid the wheels right out from under me.
I honestly haven't rollerbladed since I was teenager, and a young teenager at that. I don't remember the wheels being so smooth and "slippery". That was to my detriment because the end result was I kinda did that oh no, there go my feet...kind of action and before I knew it I was on my back on the road. I was so glad I wasn't riding them in the middle of the road...
When I came down I landed straight on my lower lumbar spine just above the sitting muscles and the tailbone. I estimate I was going about 10-15 miles per hour and weighing in at 155 lbs. the impact was quite heavy. I don't know the math but I would love to know the force of the impact.
I remember just feeling PAIN and panic. Oh no: I broke something, Ouch, Ouch , Ouch--you can substitute some swear words in there...a few bombs passed my lips...and I just laid there in agony trying to figure out how I was going to be able to solve this problem.
As it turned out, a neighbor was out checking the lights on their home and saw the accident and came over to me and asked me if I was ok and all I could do was cry because it hurt so much. She asked me if I could move and I moaned no, please just let me be--
I was finally able to roll over onto my side and sit up but the pain was excruciating. The neighbor helped me up and offered to give me a ride home, because I was having a hard time walking. I accepted and then asked her if she would help me run my errand, which she did and then dropped me home. I thanked her and went into my home. (She was a lifesaver and I will be forever grateful that she listened to that nudge to just check her lights one last time.) THANK YOU J'AMAIS.
Check back tomorrow for more of the story.
Wrong....I turned from my road going to the main road and there is a little steepness to the road. I started putting on speed and tried to slow down. Not being used to the feel of the rollerblades, I didn't slow down but slid the wheels right out from under me.
I honestly haven't rollerbladed since I was teenager, and a young teenager at that. I don't remember the wheels being so smooth and "slippery". That was to my detriment because the end result was I kinda did that oh no, there go my feet...kind of action and before I knew it I was on my back on the road. I was so glad I wasn't riding them in the middle of the road...
When I came down I landed straight on my lower lumbar spine just above the sitting muscles and the tailbone. I estimate I was going about 10-15 miles per hour and weighing in at 155 lbs. the impact was quite heavy. I don't know the math but I would love to know the force of the impact.
I remember just feeling PAIN and panic. Oh no: I broke something, Ouch, Ouch , Ouch--you can substitute some swear words in there...a few bombs passed my lips...and I just laid there in agony trying to figure out how I was going to be able to solve this problem.
As it turned out, a neighbor was out checking the lights on their home and saw the accident and came over to me and asked me if I was ok and all I could do was cry because it hurt so much. She asked me if I could move and I moaned no, please just let me be--
I was finally able to roll over onto my side and sit up but the pain was excruciating. The neighbor helped me up and offered to give me a ride home, because I was having a hard time walking. I accepted and then asked her if she would help me run my errand, which she did and then dropped me home. I thanked her and went into my home. (She was a lifesaver and I will be forever grateful that she listened to that nudge to just check her lights one last time.) THANK YOU J'AMAIS.
Check back tomorrow for more of the story.
May 3, 2012
Neuropathy and a Hint of Blessings
Yep--I have been kinda busy--I don't have a habit of posting--I don't even think about it. The last three sentences make me think about that line in the Princess Diaries where she says: and just look at all the times I use the word I....
I woke up this morning with a pinched nerve in my lower back that made my legs feel like they were just waking up from a long sleep...It scared me--I thought--oh no--neuropathy! Crap!
A visit to the Chiropractor helped get the bone off of the nerve and I have had lingering numbness all day. I am going to my neck doctor tomorrow to complete the move because my upper spine is out too...I hope this takes care of the problem.
It made me think about how having neuropathy would seriously mess up someone's quality of life. If you can't feel your feet or the condition of your skin on your toes or you nails, how will you know when there is a problem? Would your feet die? --
Even worse--if your blood sugars are not controlled enough to cause end stage neuropathy, they are also bad enough to cause nephropathy (kidney damage)--I don't know the -opathy word for liver damage...
I have thought about what having diabetes actually means in a real sense for an extended lifetime, if you live that long. The negative thinking way to see this is: a disease where your body dies one body part at a time and it's just a matter of time.
The positive way to look at it is: I am not Diabetes and I can overcome it--I can choose my actions and my responses to the things happening in my life and I can be proactive in taking care of my blood sugars and doing something about them immediately. I am smarter than diabetes.
I tend to be positive--but I have had periods in the time I have had diabetes that I have been very negative about it; yes it has blessed me in my life, but.....That is what I sometimes--well maybe--a lot more than sometimes...think. Tomorrow I will tell you about a blessing I experienced a couple of weeks ago that was a direct result of how I have taken care of my body because I have diabetes.
I woke up this morning with a pinched nerve in my lower back that made my legs feel like they were just waking up from a long sleep...It scared me--I thought--oh no--neuropathy! Crap!
A visit to the Chiropractor helped get the bone off of the nerve and I have had lingering numbness all day. I am going to my neck doctor tomorrow to complete the move because my upper spine is out too...I hope this takes care of the problem.
It made me think about how having neuropathy would seriously mess up someone's quality of life. If you can't feel your feet or the condition of your skin on your toes or you nails, how will you know when there is a problem? Would your feet die? --
Even worse--if your blood sugars are not controlled enough to cause end stage neuropathy, they are also bad enough to cause nephropathy (kidney damage)--I don't know the -opathy word for liver damage...
I have thought about what having diabetes actually means in a real sense for an extended lifetime, if you live that long. The negative thinking way to see this is: a disease where your body dies one body part at a time and it's just a matter of time.
The positive way to look at it is: I am not Diabetes and I can overcome it--I can choose my actions and my responses to the things happening in my life and I can be proactive in taking care of my blood sugars and doing something about them immediately. I am smarter than diabetes.
I tend to be positive--but I have had periods in the time I have had diabetes that I have been very negative about it; yes it has blessed me in my life, but.....That is what I sometimes--well maybe--a lot more than sometimes...think. Tomorrow I will tell you about a blessing I experienced a couple of weeks ago that was a direct result of how I have taken care of my body because I have diabetes.
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