un-brace yourself

I don't know why I love waking up early on Saturday mornings so much. I think it has to do with training for the half last year and waking up early to run before it got too warm. And probably the fact that I haven't seen many Saturday mornings before 10 in my life. :)

Anyway, life without the brace is great. Wearing an obnoxious piece of plastic for 12 weeks will you really make you appreciate every day that you don't have to wear it.
I started physical therapy yesterday, after about a week and a half of not really wearing the brace. In that week and a half, I was still walking and exercising as I had been and didn't experience any pain or soreness. After about an hour straight of engaging my back muscles during PT, I was pretty freaking sore. I'm pain free now but I'm definitely going to have to keep an ice pack and some Ibuprofen on hand for Monday's sesh.

I seriously plan on writing a blog post that's worthwhile in the next week, I've just been so crazy busy with medical appointments, school, and work. Bring on the real world, I guess?

Speaking of busy, if you or anyone you know is interested in a sort-of-paid marketing internship, let me know! We need more help at the games, possibly more help in the office, and I need more time at the gym. And they're super careful now, promise they won't break your back. :)

Alright, see yaaaa.

"back" in no time :)

My 12 week post-op appointment was yesterday and it went great. Everything looks good; the bones are straight, my incision is healed and the scar is not as gross as it could be, and I'm getting around really well. Most importantly, I'm weening off this brace!
And by weening, I mean, I straight up have not worn it since the appointment yesterday. I also haven't really done anything since then so I'm not having any pain or weakness. I'm going to the Huff after one of my classes just to do some light stuff and see how I do after that.
Shylia came with me and put her big sister foot down and got physical therapy prescribed. So hopefully with that, I'll be even closer to getting back to where I was before everything happened!

I've been signed up to run the OKC Memorial Half Marathon since like September. It's not until April 29 but I don't know if I will be able to run it all since I won't be able to train very effectively for a while. My goal is to go ahead and attempt it and hopefully finish in under 3 hours.

Oh, also- I am good to use my backpack again. Definitely a good thing since I have class pretty much all day today.

I'm going to try to have a better, more specific post tomorrow. Good day!

updates

So blogging is hard. Especially when you've been doing absolutely nothing with your life all Christmas break. :)
Anyway, I'll just do a few quick updates and go get ready for work.

1. My 12 week post-op is on Wednesday! That means I get to start weening off the brace. :) Finally! I'm ready to be done with the weird looks and getting asked what it is/what happened to me every 5 minutes. I'm thankful that it wasn't a body cast or something worse but I'm SO glad to finally be getting it off.

2. School starts on Tuesday. Weird to think that this would have been my last semester of college had I not had the accident or surgery. I'm old! My classes are all from 9 am - 9pm on Tuesday and Thursday. I didn't plan it that way, and while it gives me a 4-day weekend, it's still probably going to suck. I'll be going into the office a lot of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday's from 10-4 so I'm basically going to be grown up. What a bummer!

3. I really want a puppy.

4. Kindles make reading super easy, Temple Run is an awesome game, I can't wait to catch up on Caged and for The Challenge to start back on MTV. So maybe it's a good thing that I'll be super busy this semester.

5. In the next couple of weeks I want to try and replicate this race bib holder. I'm sure it will be a disaster but hopefully it will work.


Alright, see ya.!

review

I have to start going into the office and actually working tomorrow so my plan for today? Do a huge amount of nothing. I figured I would blog just to feel a little productive! But don't worry, I'm not being too productive; I'm just stealing some ideas from my sister and doing a "year in review" type of post.

2011 started off great with a new roommate, a snowstorm, a week off school, lots of wine and Mario Kart 64. My impending graduation really made me appreciate my time as a college student throughout the year. Having freedom and very little responsibility is a questionable combination and it has got to make all of us the most retarded group of people on the planet. But it's a lot of fun and you only get this opportunity once. Might as well live it up!

In May, I ran the OKC Memorial Half Marathon! Definitely one of my proudest accomplishments because not only was the training intense, but we were getting stormed on for the whole two-three hours. I'm glad I decided to follow in my older sisters' footsteps and do this whole running thing. I never thought I'd be able to run even 5 miles, much less 10-13. And I REALLY never thought I would miss the ability to run. (Only a few more weeks!)

I took two summer classes this summer, spanning 8 weeks and totally blowing my tanning schedule. I hit kind of a rough patch and spent some time being pretty down on myself. I feel like I hit my lowest point of whatever you want to call my insane eating/confidence problems. Sounds cliche, but there really was no where to go from there but up. I'm almost glad that it happened because now I'm free to tackle those problems with the knowledge of what goes on when I ignore them.

I started off my first senior semester with a new apartment and another new roommate. I really lucked out in my apartment complex's "roommate matching" service. (yeah, right. they totally just put rando's together.) We never have any drama and I love coming home to sleazy reality shows with my rooms. It makes the stress of classes totally bearable. Not to mention, Jessi is basically like my personal therapist. I just have to pay her in cookie dough. :)

In September-ish, I got my internship. Definitely a great experience (despite the back-breaking). I'm excited to start my professional career and see where life takes me (and I'm really hoping that it is somewhere warm!) The internship is the first step towards that and an awesome opportunity for networking. I feel blessed to still have the experience!

I ended the year in a back brace and beyond ready to get back to normal. The whole incident has just made me a much more grateful person and I'm glad for that. I've grown a lot since October and, obviously, I wish it didn't have to happen in the way it did but it was a good learning experience, nonetheless.

Alright, I'm done dwelling in the past. Putting 2011 fully behind me and I'm ready to see what 2012 has to bring!

home free

I hope you all had great a Christmas/whatever holiday! I was glad to get away from ghost-town Norman to spend time with my family. I spent most of the weekend eating, drinking, and sleeping. Which, I mean, let's be honest: I'm in college, that's normally what I do on a daily basis. But it was great to do it in different company!

I've been working this week so I haven't had much time to play with all my new stuff but I'm already loving my new Kindle and my new Nike Frees.

Not a great picture but they're super bright orange (I know, I know) and dark pink. Can't wait to get out of this brace and try running in them!

As I said, Norman is so dead I've been calling it Bore-man. I hope they're having awesome breaks with their families, but I so can't wait for my roommates to get back. I feel way worse about sitting around watching TV if Jessi isn't doing it with me! My mom got us a movie night gift which I can't wait to bust out when they get back.

Other than that, I've just been walking, working, waiting for these next three weeks to be up and focusing on eating right.

Today's lunch!

 

 

 

 

Beside the movie night and holidays, my goal is to eat 5-6 small, healthful meals most every day this next year. Here's hoping!


I've got to go get ready for work. I've got a couple of friends and family tickets by the way so if anyone wants some, hollaa!

a christmas blog post

So this is probably going to end up being really goofy and sappy but ‘tis the season, right?

Last night was the annual Christmas Eve candlelight service at the good old First Christian Church. While sitting there, seriously considering drawing on a Piddle Pad*, I got to thinking about some things. First of all, when did I and all these people grow up? Agh!
Looking around the sanctuary that I grew up in, it’s hard to believe all the things that have transpired within my and my church family’s lives while I was there and since I’ve left. It’s almost like some weird space time continuum where the surroundings are completely the same (or very similar) but most of the people have drastically changed since the last time I saw them.
Seeing all these people again reminds me of how much they have made an impact on my life, though I may not see it every day. I know it was like pulling teeth for my mother to drag me out of bed and get me to church (especially in my high school years), but I’m glad she did. Whether or not it was in a religion-related way, I know the whole experience helped to make me the person that I am today. A good portion of my childhood occurred at that church or with people I attended it with and I’m grateful to have all the memories and stories that come from it.

Another thing I started to think about is regret. In a way, it’s sad that at the age of 21, I already have so many regrets. It also motivates me to continue to live my life in the way that I see fit and keep myself happy. Throughout my life, I’ve always succumbed to whatever everyone else wanted to do and sacrificed my happiness in order to keep all other parties happy. I’ve always been aware that I do this but I’m finally realizing at just how much it wears on my own happiness. I think I sacrifice what I want to do in order to hold on to friendships but I end up losing those relationships because I give up and get tired of it. In healthy relationships, there has got to be a balance. That’s why my only resolution for this coming year is to stop doing that and to start living my life like I want to instead of watching opportunities pass me by.

So on that note, it’s time to start weighing some pros and cons and deciding who I am and where I want to be. And what better way to kick that off than by watching It’s A Wonderful Life on Christmas afternoon? :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and beautiful, fattening, family-filled, fun holidays! 

*Piddle Pads are pieces of paper constructed to keep children entertained during a church service instead of disrupting it. On the contrary, I think they might have helped add to our disruptiveness.

pre post op

My 8-week post-op is on Monday and I am so ready for it. The feeling in my back is steadily coming back and I have little to no pain so I'm interested to see what the fusion looks like and what the doc says. I will be requesting copies of the x-rays and scanning them on to my computer. I'm actually about to search Pinterest for some ways to frame and commemorate the whole experience. :)
I've also been informed to just go ahead and talk to him about starting physical therapy. I'm not positive, but I'll probably just fold over at the middle if I take the brace off without strengthening my back.
I need to make a list of things to bring up so I'll just start it on here. Feel free to give me any suggestions if I miss something.

1. Physical therapy- when, where, how long.
2. X-rays- can I get some copies?
3. Brace- exactly when the crap can I get rid of this thing and if I have to keep it for much longer, can I get some replacement velcro straps? because mine are seriously disgusting at this point.
4. Exercising- how much can I lift at a time, when can I start running, can I start swimming, basically: let me start again, thanks.
5. Work- I feel pretty useless when it comes to moving stuff around at this point because I'm afraid to do too much. I need to figure out what I can do and what I absolutely cannot do.
6. Nerve damage: what is normal, will I ever get full feeling back, etc.

Uhh, that's all I can think of right now and I've got to go get ready for work. You would think with the broken back and school being over, I wouldn't be able to procrastinate but somehow I still manage it.

Oh, and speaking of school- I still have not heard from my professor about whether or not I passed Italian. Cross your fingers.

Hope you're all having great weekends!