Gifts are for giving

I had my birthday a bit ago, and just last weekend celebrated with my dear friends Erin and Leo.  This is the gift they got me - they're mugs with zippers on them!  (for those of you who don't know, those of us who have had this surgery are called 'zipperheads' because the scar resembles a zipper) Amazing.  Love them, and such a sweet and thoughtful gift.

Back to work

This week and last I've gone back to work.  I've been increasing my hours slowly, and hopefully by next week I'll be on a normal full time schedule.

I'm struggling with my mornings right now.  As much as I want to get up and get my day going, mornings seem to really be killing me.  I am so groggy in the mornings, and still very achey.  I want so badly to be a morning person!  It's embarrassing to have such a hard time getting up in the mornings - it's not because I'm lazy or just like to sleep.  Some mornings, I seriously just cannot get up.  I can't get out of my bed.  I can't explain it any other way.  I hate it.  I could do so much more with my life if I could get up early and get on with everything.

It's hard.  It makes me mad.  It makes me tired.

A trip to the ER

It ended up being fine, so let's put that out there right off the bat.

Yesterday I was shaken from my sleep with a terrible, pulsating headache.  A pain I hadn't felt since I was in the hospital.  I tried to ignore it, I even got to work.  It just kept getting worse.  It got to the point where I couldn't make any sudden movements or it would get worse.  I couldn't bend down, it was horrible.  After some prodding from my coworkers I called my primary, since at this point Milwaukee was closed.  Long story short, the doc on call said to go to the ER because if I were to come see her that's where she would send me.

At this point my dear husband was already sent home from work - I had called and told him that I may be going into the ER.  His boss kicked him out without waiting to see if I indeed was going to the ER.  So he got home and we went.

After several hours, a CT scan, and blood test, everything came back normal.  I was given morphine (after a VERY painful attempt in my right arm, they switched to my left), and told that if it persists I need to come back for a lumbar puncture.  I am happy to report I am feeling much better today.

My only idea about why this happened is this:  I ran for the first time the day before, it was a very short run and it was intervals so just 90 seconds at a time.  Maybe that jarred something and caused it to inflame?  The ER doc didn't think so, but that's my only idea about why this happened.  It was a HUGE headache, i mean a monster.  It makes me mad, it's been three months and I can't even go for a jog without paying heavily for it?

So much to say

I keep thinking that I should update the blog, but I don't have much to say.  The memory foam mattress topper came yesterday, and I slept on it last night.  It's much better than sleeping on that bed without it, but still a little sore.  Maybe it takes some getting used to.  I had to sleep on the guest bed a bit last night, which I think the cat enjoyed.  He has now taken to sleeping in there all the time, which is funny.  It's his own room.

I'm still having headaches, although I haven't had the real head-splitting kind in about 2 weeks.  They wax and wane, and some sort of pain is always there.  I'm hoping that will subside as I continue to heal.

In other news, I am back to work and back to the gym.  Good news on both accounts.  I think this week I'll be back to work mostly full time, although I'm just going to play it by ear.  Being back at the gym has been great, although I find myself cautious and wanting to do a lot but not wanting to over do it...  So far, so good.

To flyball practice tonight.  In two weeks Georgia and I will run in a tournament in Auburn, but just for one day.  It's my first tournament back.  I think two days would have been too much, so I'm thankful we can run just one.  I'm working on speeding her up, so maybe we'll have a new personal best!

See, nothing exciting.

Keep on keepin' on.

Today was my second day back at work.  My job can be very physically demanding, but also there's a lot of computer work to be done.  Yesterday I spent the day on the computer organizing and catching up, and today I did computer work and actually did some shooting.  The camera is heavy, I can tell I am much weaker and tire very easily.  To be expected, I guess.  I've been recovering for over 11 weeks now (I can't believe it's been that long...), and that's a lot of time away from my job.  And away from my life in general.  Typically I work all day, go to the gym, come home and take care of the animals, eat dinner, go to bed.  I'm a major creature of habit, being out of my routine for so long has been a bit jarring.

I am so thankful for my job.  My boss has been so amazingly flexible that it has taken so much stress away from me.  Especially since I've been away for much longer than I thought.  I'm lucky to be going back to a job that I love, and I'm able to go at my own pace.

Speaking of pace, I got back into the gym this week.  Sunday, actually.  I have missed the gym so much. SO. MUCH.  I've had to hold myself back a bit to be sure I don't over do it.

I feel like since the moment I got to the hospital that morning I've been climbing up hill.  As long as I can keep climbing, I'll be ok.  I'm still having the headaches, and working hard on figuring out how to best reduce my nightly leg pain.  It's a constant adjustment to learn what my body can do and what it can't, and it's definitely a learning process.

The next step

After several nights sleeping in our guest room (the mattress is much firmer than our mattress) I have felt a lot of relief from my night time leg pain - that's the good news!  I have ordered a memory foam mattress topper in a twin size, I'm going to try putting that on top of our existing mattress.  Jeff loves our mattress and would rather not get a new one if he doesn't have to, so we're trying this first.

As far as headaches go, I am still experiencing pain.  Well, I'm still experiencing leg pain as well as headaches.  The neck brace didn't seem to change my symptoms at all, nothing noticeable.  I haven't reported that to Dr. Heffez yet, I've been waiting a few days to see if things have gotten worse since I've taken the brace off (this past Wednesday).

I am going back to work this week, I'm starting half time and will work up to being back full time again.  I still get tired easily and don't have much muscle endurance.  It is still uncomfortable to bend over at times.  I am working on getting a bit of my 'normal' life back.