The Injury...

It's taken me almost 2 months to process everything that happened in such a whirlwind.!
And no it has nothing to do with a pregnancy! Oh I cant wait to be old enough for people to not ask me if I am pregnant, ha! And just for my own records, we decided our last pregnancy 18 months ago was the last child I would carry. Unless God completely intervened, we are not having any more biological children and are journeying down another road right now we are very excited about! God really is able to give abundant peace, clarity, and wisdom in family planning if you will ask for it. He has answered us loud and clear in so many ways that I'll never be able to even write about.  More about that when time deems so...

So, to walk myself back through what happened. Nov. 13th I woke up with the left side of my face completely numb. It was kind of a joke as I figured I had slept wrong or something on my face. I moved on and the next morning I got concerned when I woke up to find it was still numb. It was now Nov. 14th, Tim's birthday. That afternoon, I had been watching my friends 2 children and we were having a big play date. I took the 4 children to Lowes and on the way home the left hand side of my body started going numb. I decided to take the friends kids home and get my own people home!

I call my mom and of course she immediately tells me I am having a stroke. ! So I decide to wait until Tim comes home and give him a fabulous birthday surprise that I am dying. Luckily, we had celebrated on the weekend because I still feel like the worst wife ever for ruining his birthday night. Tim is concerned and after a few phone calls to some family/friend nurses and doctors, we decide to go to the Emergency Room. Let me just tell you if you ever need to get back into the ER quickly, just tell them parts of your body are going numb. Apparently it is a big deal and within 20 minutes I was stripped down on the trauma floor and they were running a EKG, Cat-scan, and all kinds of blood work. They had no answers but eliminated that it was a major stroke, brain aneurism, or anything crazy. They sent me home and ordered an MRI for the following morning with a Neurologist appointment. MRI was freaky if you have never had one. I don't like small spaces so I tried to not think about it. Anyway, MRI was cleared and ruled out a minor stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, and any clots. You know... its a weird phone call the day someone calls to tell you that you don't have MS.  It's like.... okay, thank you... when 48 hours prior that wasn't even on your radar. Anyway, the Neurologist basically had no idea and that was another wasted co-pay. At this point I really need the Lord to intervene. I can't feel half my body and no one seems to have any idea.

And that is always when the Lord steps in. Within 2 days a neighbor and family nurse tell me that they think it is the same problem. The 2 people dont even know each other. My neighbor is a chiropractor and I had gone over there to see if he had any thoughts. He was able to adjust me some to get some feeling back, but told me the next day he thought it was Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. Well, also within those 2 days word has spread through the family and one of the nurses in the family used to work in the Thoracic Outlet Center- crazy. She immediately called and said all my symptoms pointed to that. So, within a week, I went to see this specialist and I was diagnosed immediately with it! Praise the Lord for a diagnosis.... I feel like that is half the battle sometimes!

No to figure out what the heck it is and how do I fix it. Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. Upon learning about it, I immediately felt really sad. It was an injury I had caused. And not meant to.
The specialist told me it was from excessive, overuse, repetitive constant motion. Ay, yi, yi. It is really common in athletes, but he was trying to figure out WHAT I had been doing. Well, pretty soon this doctor un-covered my whole life story between small children, renovating houses, and the house cleaning job I had for 2 years. (Which by the way, I only had 1 house left I was doing and finally closed that chapter of my life literally a week before the injury happened).
Anyway, he said the combination of ALL of those activities for long periods of time basically led to a "burn-out." The overuse in my left shoulder and all the heavy lifting from renovations (which womens bodies aren't apparently made to do excessive amounts of heavy lifting) caused compression on the nerves in the left side of my body, thus causing me to go numb.

Good news? It can all be fixed through physical therapy. Not 100%, but pretty close. The physical therapist said I do have some bulging discs that cant be fixed, but managed and under control. Have you ever been to physical therapy? It's basically like entering the gates of Hell. Oh my gosh. So painful. They adjust you, but also move your tissue/muscles where they need to go, do heat ultrasound, ice, also put you in a machine called Traction that stretches your spine out. I think I may have hit 5'4" now =)
But it works. So I do it. And I love the physical therapist I am seeing. She just tells it like it is. And she has given me back confidence as I again felt like my body totally failed me. She explained professional athletes are the most injured people in the world. And even with million dollar health care and therapy.... when enough is enough, your body needs you to chill. No amount of money can make your body rest and recover.  So, that is what I have been doing. I have been in PT twice a week and trying to rest. TRYING is key. It is very hard and will be life style changing for me.

Tim feels really bad and like he caused this and has told everyone, "I broke my wife." I assure him that I don't blame him for any of it and I share the real estate dream and cleaned houses to help our family through a rough time. It helped us a ton and Tim got us back in the best position now that we have ever been in. We are a team and when you take a side, no one wins. Life leaves a few scars sometimes.

Anyway, I have feeling back and PT is working. I have some set backs when I "over do" it, so we are trying to find a balance.

Either way, I am glad that I entered 2013 feeling all sides of my body, ha! Also glad that God has been with me in sweet ways. Things like this remind me we are made from dust and our flesh will fail us. I am thankful for a strong inside that God can only give.