On January 3, 2019, I took a fall on some ice. After an ambulance ride to the hospital and having X-ray's done it was revealed that I had a compression fracture in my lower spine. It was described to me as saying that the spine is sort of liked a bunch of marshmallow shaped bones. I fell and landed so hard that I squished one of my marshmallows. It was quite painful as you can imagine.
The only thing I could do was wear a back brace throughout the day and rest, waiting for it to heal. The predicted time frame for this heal was three months. At first, it was kind of nice. Just relaxing and catching up on some shows and movies, plus with the pain doing nothing obviously felt the best. After a couple of weeks, it started to get annoying.
I used to work at a daycare. So going from being on my feet and chasing little ones around all day to nothing was a huge adjustment for me. Once I was able to do a bit more walking and was able to drive again it was frustrating cause I had nowhere to go and nothing to do. Let alone any money to do anything anyway as workman's compensation only pays so much of what you would normally be earning.
My family and friends are working and I'm left alone and bored. I don't even have a hobby to fall back on to keep me busy. I'm just stuck in my house slowly but surely feeling like I'm losing my mind. It gives me way too much time to think which just makes me feel crazier.
When I was told that my injury was getting worse at my last appointment I wanted to scream. It meant another few months stuck in my brace doing nothing. If I get any worse then we are talking about the surgery which means a lot of pain again and an even longer time stuck doing nothing.
Injuries that take a long time to heal are hard to deal with. You feel like you should and could be doing more, but know that if you do you aren't going to heal the right way. I have to be careful with bending, I can't lift anything too heavy and I have to wear my brace all the time which is super annoying and something I just want to be out of already.
I just want to get back to my life. I'm tired of feeling so useless and stuck.
It's all about patience when it comes to the healing process, and my patience is really starting to wear thin.
For those of you who are healthy, enjoy it. Be thankful that you aren't stuck doing nothing. I wrote an article not too long ago about dealing with back injuries and how much you don't realize what your back really does for you. I'm in this tough position where not only am I bored and waiting for this to heal, but I also really can't do anything.
Waiting is hard enough. Waiting several months just feels torturous at this point. Anyone who has to wait for injuries to heal and are hating it, I feel you. I understand the struggle. All I can hope is that once my time has come where I'm finally free of these restrictions, I can get to being myself again.
