Well....I am injured again. And it's pretty scary this time.
A couple of weeks ago I had picked up a 2 year old that was about 30 pounds overweight, and I picked her up wrong and pulled a muscle in my back. Then a week later my little sister was being a brat and punched me in the spine, JUST when I was starting to feel like it was healing. That hurt sooooo bad and I was miserable all week.
Well, Monday I was sitting down doing homework. I stood up quickly because my mom was calling and my phone was across the room....and when I was about halfway up (kind of squatting) I heard a really loud snap sound. Instantly I was in excruciating pain and couldn't finish standing up. I started screaming and fell over and my mom told my boyfriend to take me to the ER and she met me there.
In the ER they did x-rays and said that they didn't see anything and sent me on my way. I was absolutely miserable the next day and my mom managed to get me an appointment Tuesday with her neurosurgeon that did all 3 of her spinal fusion surgeries (she has degenerative disk disease), who is one of the top back specialists in the country.
We went to see the doctor....he pulled up my x-rays and INSTANTLY saw that my spine is fractured. It's not near my spinal canal so it's not like I'm paralyzed, but it's still really scary.
The part that is broken is the pointy part that sticks out the back. It snapped off. It's my lower back and it REALLY hurts. I have these shooting pains all down my right leg and I have an MRI scheduled for Saturday to see if the disks or ligaments are injured. They are concerned a disk may have blown because of the pain down my leg. There is a major nerve called the sciatic nerve that they think may be pinched, and if it is something that major then I may end up needing surgery.
At this point, I don't need surgery....but I have a follow up appointment on the 28th with the back doctor to look at the MRI and decide what we need to do.
UNTIL THEN I am so absolutely frustrated. I had just cleaned my room so I had space to start this spark people exercise challenge that I found on youtube and I wanted to do...and now I cannot bend and I cannot twist and I cannot lift anything more then 10 pounds. It's so absolutely frustrating.
I'm still losing weight. In the past 5 weeks I have lost 12 pounds. I was just recently put back on Ritalin and have basically lost all appetite since then, and I'm having to force myself to eat to make sure that I get to 1200 calories a day (if not more). I am still losing, so I should be happy....but I want to exercise too. I had just bought a new Pilates mat and I haven't even used it yet.....I just bought a new stability ball (which is actually the only thing comfortable to sit on with the broken spine and the doctor told me its great because I can stand up using only my legs) and DVD set and I can't even use it for exercise. It's disheartening.
I forgot to talk to the doctor and ask if there was anything that I COULD do....but I was wondering if you guys could suggest some things that I could ask about.
I need exercises that don't have me lifting more then 10 pounds and where I keep my back straight and don't twist or bend my back. I'm not as concerned about cardio as I am about muscle building, but suggestions for both would be great. I will take the list you guys help me come up with and I will show it to my doctor and ask what I can or cannot do before I attempt anything.
If you read all of that, thank you. Any support is welcome. Even if you don't have any exercise ideas, it's still good to know that there are people out there who understand how hard losing weight and getting healthy is when life gets in the way.