Back To Life

After nine long weeks of immobilization in a halo vest and 5 further weeks in a rigid cervical collar, I am finally healed enough to return to my normal life. I have been slowly weaning myself off of the collar in the last couple of weeks and to my surprise, have regained a good amount of range in my neck. It`s not perfect but it's a huge improvement.

Now of course as luck would have it, my two year old car battery gave up on me just when I needed it the most. This is not helping my already shaky relationship with my car. It let me down again. I had planned to use this week to get used to driving again and do some long overdue errands before returning to work. Instead, it left me stranded at the gas station. It' a good thing there's still the week-end.

I am looking forward to my return to work and the end of my long hibernation. It will be an adjustment to be sure, and I have no idea if I will be capable of working a full day at the computer, but I plan to give it my best shot. I am confident that it will all work out.

The entire affair seems like a bad dream to me now. It's amazing how quickly we forget pain and suffering once it's over. When you're living it, you think it will never end. But of course it does, and then you have trouble remembering the details. This is one of the reasons why I wrote this blog - to remind myself of how close I came to losing everything, and to remain grateful for being spared the worst.

My visible scars are healing, although one pin site continues to give me trouble. I will likely seek medical intervention in the coming months to improve the scar, but it's such a small matter in the scheme of things, I've put it low on my list of priorities. In any case, my dermatologist has advised to wait and see if there is further improvement down the road before doing anything. As for my fracture, I am told it is 75% healed, but will take up to a year to heal completely. I am also told that rainy, damp weather will likely always cause me pain. I always thought this was a myth, but according to my neurosurgeon it's an unfortunate fact.

Not much else to say other than life is getting back to normal and, other than my pin scars, you would never know that anything had happened. I am pretty much back to my normal activities, other than running. I will need to talk to my doctor about when I can return to my usual exercise routine. For now, I am walking on my treadmill and I plan to return to the gym after my return to work. I suppose my body will let me know what I can and cannot do.

I am still contemplating the purchase of a new, safer vehicle. At the very least, I am considering installing side air bags for my car. I continue to be very nervous about driving, especially at intersections. I don't think I will ever feel relaxed about driving again.