Between Second and Third Follow up

Hello again,

Between January 29 and April 15, not alot happened I think. The one event that does stand out big time is my 25th birthday in March. It was hard for me because another year has gone by and I am still not back on my feet so to speak. I did manage to get out of the house with my mom and dad and go to Tony Romas for a bday meal which was made possible b/c of the booths that I could rest my head back against something that helped keep the pain at bay for longer. It was quite exciting because of the fact that I only manage to get out of the house maybe once a month due to pain and then being stuck in bed for at least a day afterwards. My goodness it was fun though! I wasn't able to manage to stay long enough for dessert but I was able to make it through long enough to eat most of my meal. The one thing that I disliked was having to wear the brace and the waitress asking about it and she felt bad for me. I don't like when people feel sorry for me.

As far as progress physically, I was told I could take off the brace for longer periods of time but I experienced a fair bit more pain along the loose rod which had me wondering if that was a good thing or not. I also noticed that my back muscles were incredibly weak which I had feared would happen with wearing a brace. But the other option of not wearing the brace and having further complications would have been worse. Also about the beginning of April my arm muscles were finally getting strong enough to hold up a book long enough to read about a chapter at a time which for some odd reason I had not been able to do up until this point. I also was able to lift a heavier weight and not just the puny little 1 pound weights. So I now had reading to keep myself occupied for the most part. I also managed to go into the greenhouse for about 10 minutes at a time to plant some seeds before the pain got too severe. My family found it amusing watching me go back and forth between resting and being in the greenhouse so much. If nothing else I got excercise walking back and forth. I usually managed about three trips to the greenhouse in an hour! The walk back to the house was always very painful though. At least I felt as if I was accomplishing something which was something I had not felt since before the surgery. But I quickly learned my limits realizing that there was alot of lifting that I needed help with and sometimes it really got to me that I had to ask for help to lift something as small as a pot of dirt. It would feel like my hands were tied behind my back that I could not lift anything. But my family was great in being willing to help me out in any way possible. I love growing flowers and I wasn't going to miss out on it. Little did I realize at this point how theraputic it would be to be growing plants in the greenhouse during all of this stuff I've been dealing with.