So on October 31st, I had an appointment with the PA for my back doctor. I had emergency spinal surgery on February 10th to remove a lesion that was compressing my spinal cord. The compression caused me to lose movement in both of my legs and the ability to urinate normally. So that was almost 9 months ago. Unfortunately, I still struggle on a daily basis with pain at the incision site as well as extreme soreness and discomfort in the muscles between my shoulder blades. The pain at the incision site is a random, all day type of pain. The discomfort between my shoulder blades tends to get worse as the day goes on. The more I do throughout the day, the worse the pain is. In fact, there are times that I struggle to stand up anymore because the pain is so much. I'm not an expert, but I had assumed that after 9 months this type of pain would have been resolved. I know the muscles in my back are being asked to do more and to adjust, but I thought that would have been resolved a while ago...
Some of you know that health and strength have been a focus of my life over the past few years. A more significant emphasis was placed on these two areas starting last May. I started a year long journey of health and strength training. This journey included packing my body full of nutritious foods and severely limiting processed foods (You have to have pizza now and then!). It also included beginning a strict workout regimen that included high-intensity strength training. I completed P90X3, P90X2, started P90X before switching to the Body Beast, and then finishing off with P90X3 again. I added 40 lbs to my frame, as well as muscle, definition, and strength. I felt on top of the world! In a short week and a half, that all came crashing down. After roofing our house over the course of about 10 days in June 2018, I was spent. The next two months were full of fatigue-filled days. Before roofing, I was strong, energy-filled, and alive. After? I was broken, energy-sapped, and weak. After...
There has been an aspect of this cancer journey that I haven't really touched on, but it's probably the aspect that I have struggled with the most. That aspect is the physical transformation that I've gone through over the last year. Let's get to it... For the vast majority of my life, I have been what I would consider a "scrawny" individual. Despite being scrawny, I've generally been a fit individual. I played soccer my whole life and ran track my senior year. My best mile time was 5:15. I know that's not amazing, but it's pretty good and I think it demonstrates that I've been in good shape. However, my body weight has always been around 130 lbs. On a 5'11" individual that means rather lean! haha There have been a handful of times throughout my life when I tried building muscle. I'd do push ups and pull ups and all that jazz and just could never really seem to make any changes. I eventually accepted what I believed to be the und...
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