Taking a health break from life

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The beloved husband cutting down a tree.

It’s Murphy’s Law. The weather broke. It was time to clean up the yard, plant stuff and start the garden. In a nanosecond, a muscle in my back had a spasm (and not in a good way) and I’m out of commission for several days.

Tomato plants were looking at me with unhappy roots crowded in pots. A tropical water lily was begging to go back into the water. Weeds were asking to be pulled (ok, maybe they weren’t).

This body wasn’t cooperating. We cut down a tree and a trimmed half dead shrub before my body said, “No more. Not today. Maybe next week. Get the ice pack woman! Maybe a Starbucks too! (my body is very vocal)”

I was reminded of how precious health is. How it all changes fast.

The beloved husband had to do a lot of stuff that I normally do. I was reminded how grateful I am to have someone who didn’t roll his eyes or complain.

I was reminded that my cats like to eat no matter how my body is. Oh yes, they poop too.

I’m recovering nicely but here’s a shout out to everyone who lives with any chronic condition. I’ve no patience for illness but yet others manage without making everyone around them crazy. I am in awe of you. I prefer to make people crazy. It works for me.

 

 

85 thoughts on “Taking a health break from life”

  2. I hope by now you’re back to yourself with your normal activities! I have often noted that one day with a headache and I am reduced to a puddle! I do have friends and family with chronic health conditions and pain and I am amazed at how they persevere in their own way. I’m grateful every day for good health.

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    • I have a few friends that have chronic conditions and I have great respect for them. They manage it and don’t whine near as much as I do! I am good now.

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  4. Muscle spasms in the back don’t like to be hurried. It sounds like you’re doing the right thing. Your husband deserves some extra kisses.

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  7. Kate, I’ve been quietly following while I’m having a break… hope you feel better soon, but for your well-being hope that you don’t come back soon, have a good break, best wishes, Valerie

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    • Each day I wake up hoping it’s over but sadly not yet. Still stiff and sore but much, much better. Enjoy your break and hope to see you back sometime.

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  8. I think it is incredibly ungracious of the cats to continue pooping while your back is in spasms. Self-involved much, Hazel? Et tu, Gracie? Sheesh.

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  9. Living on my own I have nobody to complain to…. except the cats. Funny how they understand human talk when I shout “Dinner!” But they don’t seem to understand English when my knee goes out…

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  10. I’m complainer too. I have a cold this week and you would have thought I caught the plague.
    I hope the recovery is full and fast. Nothing helps the mental side of it like being able to dig in the garden. 🙂

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    • So right about garden therapy. Tomorrow I will try to spot my overgrown tomato plants and my husband will help but it’s not the same therapy as the solitude of doing it alone.

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  12. Once again our bodies seem to be in alignment, Kate (seriously, this has happened frequently). Last week I injured my lower back somehow (for the first time ever!). I used to mock colleagues who worked at a ‘standing desk’ when I was still working. I thought it was a ‘dumb fad.’ I’ve now needed to do all computer work standing up this week. I even created a make-shift stand up desk. Aaaagghhh, not fun! (What about my gardening you ask? Surely you jest!)
    I hope that the ice packs, Starbucks, and humor worked their magic for you!!

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  14. Speedy recuperation to you, Kate!

    I hate it when my back goes out . . . a less frequent occurrence since moving to Florida. But I have spent a few night here sleeping in a recliner because I couldn’t get into bed.

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  15. I’m glad your back is better. Hope it stays better indefinitely. I know what you mean about sitting at a desk. I have to get up often and stretch or I’m in trouble.

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  16. It sounds like you are on the road to recovery, Kate. CH and I both have low back pain issues and our backs can “go out” in a second. Mine happens about every year and if I am lucky like now I can go for a couple of years. The pain is something else! It usually takes about a week to feel like I can move again… I always tell people it makes my back feel like those crazy skeleton decorations that you hang on a door!

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  17. Sorry to hear this, back pain can be so miserable! Yay for your hubby and yes I definitely think Starbucks should be part of your cure. Throw some chocolate in there too, that has wonderful healing qualities!v 🙂

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      • Been going on fifteen years. I had dental surgery several years ago and they put me on Oxycodin (or something like that) for two days. For two out of every four hours I was pain free. I had forgotten what that felt like. Silver lining. 😉

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  22. I understand how you feel with that spasm from nowhere! I stay in fear of it happening once again. H had a left carotid endarterectomy surgery on Tuesday. He gets much more attention from me when out of commission than I get from him. (Whine) I just try to stay healthy. Hope your back is better! ~Elle

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  23. Bummer. Hope it gets better soon. My husband has a back issue so I am the one who looks for things in the back of the fridge or gets the pans from the bottom cupboard so he doesn’t have a “relapse.” I have a bad knee but fortunately it is not a painful condition.

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    • My husband has a chronic back issue. He does daily exercise and monthly treatments and is amazingly good. Every once in a while, he will get sciatica which sidelines him for while but not often.

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  24. So you’re one of those patients😊
    Sometimes the body doesn’t cooperate with our schedules and to do lists.
    Feel better soon..:) Kudos to your husband.

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  26. Owie! Speedy and full recovery to you! Caffeine will help speed the delivery of pain meds, right?

    I know exactly how you feel. Every day I wonder, “Will this be the day my back goes out again?” (Fingers crossed I haven’t Murphy’s Law’d myself.)

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  27. Back spasm, ugh! That’s the main reason I do yoga — to avoid that unpleasantness. I sit and type a lot and invariably my back goes out if I skip the stretching.

    Hope you are back up and at ’em soon.

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  28. Hogs and snout kisses my sweet friend. Chronic conditions suck to the lower depths of hell. Yep, I said it. I see it first hand with my mom. She has good days and she has bad days. She likes to fool all of us that she’s always up and smiling. But us anipals see the grimaces, the pain that flashes across her face and we are the ones with her when she is finding a hard time to get up out of bed in the mornings. We feel you completely and send you MAJOR hogs and snout kisses to a better day. ❤ XOXO – Bacon

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    • Snout kisses sure got my attention. I learned the hard way a few years ago that pigs will jump up on their hind legs for food. I had no idea until we were visiting a pig pen in Amish Country, Pennsylvania. I held up a banana peel to drop into his pan and he jumped right up to snatch it and when he landed back in the mud, I took the brunt of it splashing outside the fence. I remember his snout. As a matter of fact, I had just kissed a goat moments before.

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  30. Poor you Kate, I can sympathise. If it doesn’t hurt to laugh, I put my back out by leaning over a chair to turn the stereo off. I hadn’t been married very long (about 2 weeks) so you can imagine the stick I took as no-one believed me!

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  31. it’s good that your body is very verbal… we often forget to listen to our body and it often ends with pains…. we have horrible weather and I’m glad I haven’t to work in the garden… my body said to me, enjoy a ben&jerry’s and look at the sky not at your awful lawn :o)

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  32. Sitting here reading this while I wait for the Bayer Back and Body pills and the heating pad to work their magic on my pinched nerves so that I can do the daily core strengthening exercises required to keep moving. I have all the outdoor work to do. The hubby is still gainfully employed and the 60 hour weeks don’t seem to stop for him. Be grateful that you have a husband who will pitch in. Best of luck to you.

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    • Whenever I feel sorry for myself, I remember that there are people who have this more often or all the time. We are both retired. That helps a lot.

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  33. Oh how I sympathize! You just go ahead and make people crazy. Take it from an expert. It’s very therapeutic and you will be back tilling the soil in no time at all.

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  34. Hang in there, I know how you feel, I was an active person right up to the year 2000. Now some days I can mow the grass and wash the car and help the wife. Then those days come where the ailment wants to play. I have a nerve that pinches in the back just like the old John Wayne thing. Takes days to get over. I hope you feel better soon. Just know that your post helped brighten my day with the humor you placed in it. My body is vocal too. It cries out for cookies when I hurt.

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    • Cookies? Love your body! My husband gets the pinched nerve thing and he’s down for a few days. My doc does ultrasound treatments which are very helpful for me. Still, I’m out of commission for a few days with a lot of outdoor work waiting for my return.

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