Small Victories

Let me preface this by saying that this will be the first of a two part story……. Somewhere between then and now I took up running.  At first it was just a casual thing. I was determined to keep in shape. We all know, ok, if not all of us, we all will soon find out that after a “certain age”, your metabolism slows down – or in my case, it seems to have gone on a permanent vacation. At first it was something I did while my youngest daughter was at track practice. I’d have about 2-½ hours of ”down time”. Since I’m not necessarily an extrovert, and I definitely don’t subscribe to gossiping, I’d spend a lot of that time by myself. Not that I’m anti-social, I’m sociable enough. In fact I’m respectfully referred to as “Nayda’s Mom” and more recently as “Coach Nayda’s Mom”. Running is indeed an individual sport therefore conducive to my personality type. I find it a time when I am one with myself and nature. It’s a time when I encourage myself. I usually  wind up setting little mini goals – how far can I get in this amount of time or maybe today I can run three miles instead of the usual 1-2 miles. Anyway, over the course of several years, I developed back problems. I believe it’s largely from carrying around those three wonderful children I have along with all their paraphernalia. I always exercised – it was nothing for me to do pilates, play racquetball a couple of times a week; I even lifted weights religiously for about a year. Jazzercise with my friends was always nice. Some nights I’d stay up late and put on my “walking away the pounds”  tapes. There was a period of time when all of us were home (the three children and I) that we would spend each night (usually after dinner) doing our 5 minute abs routine together.  At one point I had a regimen of running all the steps in “Cold Field House” (the basketball stadium for the Maryland Terrapins). I even tried hot yoga (talking about sweating it out – phew!!!). I managed to keep my weight at, what I considered,  a reasonable level but I still had back trouble.  It got so bad that my middle child decided one December morning after I woke up in such pain,  that it was time for a new bed.  So off we went. She winded up buying it for me. I had been sleeping on the same mattress for some 30 plus years! As a twenty something you can sleep on just about anything but as you get older all that changes!! Things went pretty well for about another year. I managed to get through to the next November with what I’ll call manageable pain. Thanksgiving and Christmas proved to be quite challenging but I’m a trooper so I refused to let it get the best of me……then came new year’s eve.  My girlfriend had invited me to go out with her and some friends for New Year’s eve. She even arranged for me to have a date!  Boy I was so excited. I haven’t been out (literally in years!). There was only one problem – I COULD HARDLY WALK!!!! I took all kinds of medicine just trying to get some relief – Ibuprofen, prescription motrin, muscle relaxers, whatever I could get my hands on. I knew the worst part would be putting on shoes. Surely I couldn’t go out without my heels!!!! The good news was that at least the date was someone I knew – and truth be told, he had been my “crush” for many years. I waited until the very last second to put on my shoes – I just needed to get to the car!!! I’m sure my eyes were watering by that time because I was in excruciating pain!!!! After exchanging pleasantries everything was going just fine until it came time to get out of the car. As it turned out we parked around the corner from the restaurant – OH BROTHER!!!!!  You can’t even imagine how many colors of the rainbow there are – I saw all of them double by the time I got to the restaurant!!! I finally had to tell my date how much pain I was in. Of course, being the gentleman he is, he offered to take me home. Anybody that knows me, knows that I can be very stubborn.  My response……ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!! I was determined to have a good time even though I wanted to break down and scream with every step I took. My girlfriend had arranged dinner and then after dinner dancing at a different location and then to bring in the New Year at a Hotel where she had rented a suite. I was determined to get through all of it.  By the time we got to the hotel my date suggested that he drop me at the front while he parked the car and then he would help me upstairs.  I insisted that I could go up by myself and I would meet him at the suite – MISTAKE!!! I was almost literally crawling down the hallway to get to the elevator. One thing that did help me was that I took off my shoes and scaled along the wall as best I could. I knew I needed to hurry or else he would find me plastered against the wall, hanging on by my fingernails and crying like a two year old. I made it just in time. I had just got inside and sat down when he arrived. I spent the next hour just trying to recover in time to yell HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  Happy (NO!!!) New Year (yes). Well I decided right then and there that I would have to definitely deal with my back issues. I wanted to go to the doctor but the company I worked for was sold and with my new job I had to wait until the first of the year for my insurance. So from November to January I suffered. Gone were the days of running – I could barely walk. My New Years eve turned out to be quite a tortuous one. That paled in comparison to the pain and suffering that was to come.  I went from running to barely walking to walking with a walker to not being able to even sit down without excruciating pain. No pain killers seem to make much of a difference.  I winded up getting three cortisone shots that only worked for a very short period of time. The general consensus was that I needed surgery for a disc herniation. I was determined that that would be the VERY LAST RESORT!! I can’t tell you how many days and nights I cried from the pain. In the meantime, I was still going to work everyday. Remember this was a new company I was working for so I didn’t have any sick time.  I would lay down in the back seat of my car and my youngest daughter would drive me to work. I would kneel at my desk and get my work done. To this day, my knees are discolored from all the abuse during that time.  The next part of this story is truly evidence to me that God is indeed watching out for me.  Please stay tuned for Part II.