OUCH!!!

Greetings friends and family,

Sorry I haven't updated our blog in a while, we've had a lot going on and I hurt my back and was in extreme pain for three days. Did you know that there is a high percentage of stay at home mom's that injure their backs? Yep, apparently we (stay at home moms) abuse our backs in the worst ways. We carry our little ones on our hips, we pick our children up from a bending position, we bend and twist while taking laundry out of the washer and we bend over (with bad technique) over a hundred times a day.

I woke up one morning feeling sore in my low back and when I got out of bed was in extreme pain. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what I had done to hurt my back. I tried taking a warm bath--with no relief so I took some advil. After a few days of this pain, I called my chiropractor. He was on vacation and wasn't returning to the office until Aug 13th. I then called my massage therapist and went in for an hour and a half massage. She told me she thought something was wrong with my L5 vertebra and recommended a chiropractor that she knew. When I called he didn't have any open appointments for that day. So then I called my regular doctor, because the weekend was approaching and I didn't want to be without pain meds if my back got worse (if that was possible). My doctor couldn't see me, but another one could. Basically all she did was ask where it hurt and then prescribed Vicodin and Flexeril--I still didn't know what happened to my back. I called my chiropractor's office again and asked the receptionist if she could recommend another chiropractor. BINGO-- I was able to get an appointment that day. After an x-ray the chiropractor diagnosed me with a bulged disk in my L5 vertebra (massage therapist was right) and Facet Syndrome. Facet Syndrome occurs when the back of the spine which interconnects to one another (the facets) compresses and irritates the soft tissue in between. This inflames the nerves exiting the spine and causes symptoms of numbness, tingling, burning and achy soreness along the nerve path. Not very comfortable at all.

So now I am going to chiropractor appts. every other day getting flexion treatments, getting treatments with electrodes (?) and ice packs and have to wear a brace all day long. This seems to be helping a lot, but I'm still not able to perform certain tasks and I was instructed not to do much at all for a while. How does a stay at home mom do nothing when she has three kids, is the team mom for football, and her husband is gone 24 hours every third day? I didn't know my job was so hazardous. Maybe Derek will give me Worker's Comp!! I should at least get some kind of compensation for my pain and suffering. :) --Don't ya think?

On to another subject--we are preparing to leave for a week long adverture at Young Life's Wildhorse Canyon camp in Eastern Oregon. Derek is volunteering on the medical staff and our whole family gets to tag along. We are really looking forward to it. We've heard that it's extremely fun. I, of course, won't be able to do most of the activities, but I will take lots of pictures and will post them when we return.