A Day Full of Release

Yesterday offered unbelievable release for me, and I am very thankful. With a friend in surgery, awful binding pain constantly in my back and entire body, and a transportation truck a week behind in moving my race truck, I needed some good news yesterday!

My friend Heather had the same surgery, bilateral mastectomies and expanders. She is doing very well, and I even was able to talk to her last night. She sounded great, is doing great, and can even hold a cup, scratch her head, and talk on the phone…3 things I could not do after my surgery. I feel so much better knowing she is through it, the decisions are finished, the questions are over, and now all she has to worry about is healing and getting stronger. And I know she will, she is very strong and has a wonderful family behind her.

I have been experiencing awful pain lately, mostly in my back, but also in my neck and hips and legs. I finally went to the chiroprator yesterday, and I can’t tell you how much better he made me feel.  And I learned a lot about what has been happening with my body.

The most surprising thing is that constant contraction of my muscles leads to loss of motion in my spine. That loss of motion can lead to arthritis and disc degeneration. Our bodies were made to move, and after so many months of pulling my muscles forward-both from the stretching of the expanders and from me standing in a protective stance-I had lost a lot of range of motion in my back and body, and was causing damage to my back. Damage that could be permanent if I don’t do something about it.

He was able to get my back to adjust. It was very loud and felt wonderful. He did a lot of massage and tried to soften and lengthen my muscles that were all bound up. He gave me several exercises to do at home to continue to try to turn things around, and I’ll post photos of those soon so that the ladies going through this behind me will know what to do too.

I still don’t have insurance, so I had to pay full price for the visit, but it was worth every penny. Yesterday and this morning are the first 2 pain free days I’ve had in a long time. And I was able to sleep all night. I can’t remember the last time I slept through the night.

The last little thing that was wearing me down was my truck. Team Courage has had a class 7 race truck donated so that we can get this dream of off road racing to bring awareness and raise money for diagnostic testing for breast cancer to life. The truck has been in LA in storage and has needed to get to Scottsdale, AZ to my guys that have joined Team Courage as techs and support and future drivers. I finally found a transport truck that would do it within our tiny, tiny budget, but due to a series of events the truck has been waiting for a week. I was getting very upset, we are scheduled to race our first race in the Powder Puff race in Barstow, CA on October 9th. But I did get word that he picked it up yesterday, at last.  He called with the update and sounded really excited about the truck. He said “It’s a badass little race truck!” It should arrive in Scottsdale this morning (actually, he said it would be there at 7am, but he hasn’t arrived yet). I can’t wait to get photos of it, and to see what happens next for Team Courage!

Today will be a relaxed day, working at home on the computer until this afternoon when I go to my ‘real job’. Today is my Monday at work, and my off days pass so fast. But I’m thankful that I had a great day yesterday, and during my two days off I was able to talk to many of my great friends: Ashley, Pam, Betsy, Heather, Brendan, Jake, Cory, and Bob. I don’t get to talk on the phone that often, and it was wonderful to catch up with them over my weekend.

So, as you all get ready for your weekend, I wish you tons of wonderful times and happiness!

Be Sociable, Share!

•