24 years old and falling apart.  This just sucks.

Around the middle of August I decided to let my husband talk me into going to the driving range with him.  (Backstory: I was in a car accident about 2 years ago in which I suffered severe whiplash and one of the discs in my lower back was injured.  Since then, I've tried to stay away from any activity that may be too strenuous, including going to the driving range with the hubby.)  After watching him hit a few balls, I decided I'd go ahead and give golfing a shot.  So I picked up the driver, had the hubby give me a couple pointers, swung at a few balls, decided golfing was not my sport, and promptly returned the club to my husband and my ass to the ground. 

For the next few days my lower back was in a bit of pain.  I figured I'd found some muscles that I hadn't used in a while and that they'd eventually work themselves out.  Wrong.  The pain increased.  So I called my good friend Courtney who is a massage therapist and asked her if she could do some 911 work on my back.  I felt a little better after the massage, but there was still something lingering. 

The following Thursday while at work, I was walking through the kitchen headed towards the restrooms when my shoe slid across something on the floor and I fell, landing directly on my right knee.  OUCH!  My poor knee bruised over pretty badly, but I could walk with no problem so I assumed I didn't do any damage to the bone.  Meanwhile the pain in my back began to worsen.  Terrific.  So I call my chiropractor the following week when the pain was no longer manageable.  He does an adjustment and puts me on the electro-stim machine and sends me on my way.  I felt a little better, but nowhere near 100%. 

I take it easy for a couple weeks, however the pain continues to worsen and now I'm having major nerve pain in my buttocks and down into both of my legs.  This worries me because now I don't think it's a muscle problem...I think it's a disc problem.  I call my chiropractor once again, describe all of my symptoms to him, and after another adjustment he agrees with my concerns.  He recommends an orthopedic doctor and I go home. 

The next day I get an appointment and go in to see my primary physician.  I describe my symptoms to her, she does a couple field tests and immediately writes up a referral for an MRI.  She also refers me to a neurologist rather than the orthopedist since a neurologist does more work with the spinal cord and nerves.  Makes sense to me, I guess. 

So next Monday (10-2) I'm off for an MRI, and then two weeks later I'll be meeting with the neurologist.  In the meantime, I'm dying with pain.  Positions which were comfortable at one point are no longer comfortable.  It hurts to sit, stand, walk, and now I'm at a point where laying down is uncomfortable and somewhat painful as well.  My primary called in a prescription for a painkiller, but it hasn't helped at all.  So until I get the results from my MRI and meet with the neurologist, I get to live in pain.  And I can tolerate pain to an extent, but dammit I haven't hurt this badly since my car accident.  My entire lower body from the small of my back to my knees (and at times going down to my toes) HURTS.  No amount of stretching, ice packs or darvocet is helping me. 

I'm really worried about this.  A friend mentioned a possible herniation, but after doing some reading up on it, my symptoms don't totally match up...mine seem to be a little more severe.  So I don't know... I just hope that they can tell what it is and be able to help me ASAP. 

We're finally taking our honeymoon trip next month, and I'm already not going to be able to do things I had planned on doing...no more horseback riding, no white water rafting, and certainly no golfing with the hubby.  Granted I now have a legitimate excuse to spend a week on the beach, but good grief.  This was supposed to be a memorable trip for us, and it seems the only memory I'm going to have is "My back hurts too much to do anything fun...sorry honey." 

This is terrific.

Well, here I am...home sick again.  Stomach troubles FTL

I survived the formal party and cooking all the deviled eggs.  Everyone I talked to that had them said they were great, so yay me!  As for the party itself, it was meh...I didn't know many people there, and the music was kinda lame.  But it was fun getting dressed up and going out.  Me and the hubby slow danced a few times, and I got out and did the cotton-eye joe, but that was pretty much it as far as dancing went.

So here I sit at home, watching the 9/11: Five Years Later coverage on MSNBC.  Earlier this morning I watched the real-time streaming video of the Fox News coverage of 9/11/01.  I've been brought to tears now a few times today.  I was not personally affected by the tragedy that occurred on that day five years ago, but I have always been a empathetic person and while I will never truly feel the loss that the families of the victims have felt and still feel, my heart truly goes out to them today and every other day they now live without their loved ones.  May the victims rest in peace and may their families find comfort in the memories of their lost family members. 

And on that note I will end with a brief private moment of silence and yet another prayer for the victims and their families.  -_- Amen.

-K

What a crummy past couple of weeks!  Work has sucked!  It's been crazy busy, and it still doesn't quite seem like it's going to end.  I finally decided to take a breather from the stress and update my Zoints blog.  Ok, so I'm not at work right now...I'm at home.  But I'm not playing Pogo, and that's a pretty big thing for me to be giving up for you guys.  Consider yourselves special.

So, I'm going to update my photo album with some kitty pictures as promised.  I was going to add a couple pictures from our wedding as well, but after looking them over, I decided that I looked a little too much like a big white cow to want to post those pics all over the internet.  I've lost over 60 pounds since then, so maybe I'll eventually let someone take some more flattering pictures and I'll think about posting one or two.  For now, enjoy the kitty cats!

We're going to a formal dance party in a couple weeks.  A friend of ours has recently graduated and her friends and family are having a party to celebrate!  I got to buy a new dress and the hubby is renting a tux for the occasion.  I'm so excited, it's really going to be a blast!  The only catch is, I offered to help out by bringing some food.  So now I get to make enough deviled eggs to feed close to 150 people.  That's a lot of frickin' eggs!  No biggy...I've got a kick-ass recipe from my friend Sharyn.  It involves garlic, worcestershire sauce and tabasco.  Feel free to ask for the recipe!  I love to share 

Ok, time to get moving with updating that album...  Enjoy!

-K 

Well, I've decided to try out this Zoints thing so I can be one of the cool kids too!  So far, it's pretty interesting...but I'm kind of unsure as to where I want to go from here.  I've got a lot of editing to do to this page, and it will probably be a while before I even get started with that.  I'll eventually get a picture loaded, but at this particular moment, I don't feel like searching for something that I feel is decent enough to post on the internet.  So in the meantime, I will provide a picture that my talented artistic pal Mo Navaya created for me. 

I'm exhausted.  I'm finished playing around with this for now.  I may be back later.  Why am I still typing?  Nobody's going to read this...  Ok, going now.  Seriously.

 

-K