Life is Good

It`s been a long while since I have posted an update on my "story". A friend of ours asked how I was doing the other day and whether I had updated my blog recently. I told him I hadn`t because I didn`t feel like I had much more to say, but he made me realize that - maybe I do. And it`s all good.

I had planned to return to work full-time on April 20 but to my great surprise, I couldn`t do it. After half a day of work my energy was depleted and I had to go home. After a few days of this I returned to my doctor. She said it was unreasonable to expect to return to full-time work after months of immobilization. She put me on a progressive part-time schedule and that was much easier for me to deal with. I am now doing four days a week for a couple more weeks and then I will be good to start full-time. I realize in hindsight that it was not feasible to expect to return to normalcy that quickly.

I have since made up with my car. I had no choice as I am totally dependant on it to get to work. Our relationship is better, but we still have our issues, and I don`t trust it completely yet, but I`m getting there. I realize now that I must take some of the blame for what happened...
I`ve made some progress since I`ve started driving again. Now, instead of nervously checking both ways five times before I turn, I only check two (or maybe three) times.

Being immobilized in a halo vest for weeks on end is not good for the waistline. Even though you eat less, you also expend much less energy. It`s not complicated - you move less, you burn less, you get fat. Well, fatter anyway. So now I have a few extra pounds to get rid of. I have been walking on my treadmill for weeks now, but it`s just not enough. So, as of this week, I have slowly (and I mean slowly) started to run again. I am running in a way that allows my knees to absorb as much of the impact as possible in order to save my neck the trauma. My doctor is not too keen about this, but says my body will tell me if it doesn`t like it. So far it`s been ok. What I am really itching to do is get on my bike and ride outdoors, but I don`t have to be told that`s not a good idea. It`s not the riding I`m worried about - it`s the falling. You just never know... And once you`ve broken you`re neck, you remain forever protective of it. Which is probably a good thing.

There is still some neck pain on days when I read alot at work, or sit at the computer for long periods. I also get an achey neck when the weather is raining - just as my neurologist predicted. While my range has improved immensely, I have not recovered full motion yet. But I`m almost there. On rainy days like today however, it seems my neck is more stiff and I feel certain that I need physiotherapy. Yet on other days I feel like it`s fine. We`ll see.

I still often think about the accident and my time in the halo. It seems like a bad dream now, but I know it wasn`t a dream. It was real, and it was life-threatening and it was horrible. But it`s over now, and I`m happy to say - life is good, and as it should be. :)