Success! (the redux)

Once Upon A Time… (way back in 2010)
There was this girl. She was fat. She was depressed.
She found myfitnesspal, learned to eat well, and discovered the joys of exercise.


She got fit. She got strong. She got bendy.


She was the poster child for MFP Success. In fact, she even found love with a fellow poster child for MFP Success.

(Isn't he gorgeous?!?!?... Although we have both put on a little bit of happy weight since meeting)

And then, one day, just before her birthday last year, she started having back pain.
This wasn’t precisely a new problem, but it had never been this severe before, and nothing was helping.
And then she woke up one day and her left leg wouldn’t move.
She tried to take a step. Her right leg went forward, but her left leg stayed put.
She tried to lift her foot. Nothing happened.
She tried to wiggle her toes. Nothing happened.
A rushed MRI sent her to the Emergency Room, where she was admitted, dosed up with lots of steroids, and scheduled for surgery in the morning (after being asked repeatedly and worriedly if she was pooping herself, which she later learned would have been an even bigger deal)

Happy Birthday to me...


The good news was, I could wiggle my toes after the surgery. The bad news was, I couldn’t do much else. A disc had ruptured and, rather than just pinching a nerve as most ruptured discs (painfully, but not dangerously) do, my spinal cord had become compressed. The neurosurgeon, a brilliant man and the head of neuroscience at the hospital as well as a doctor with the bedside manner of an angry porcupine, informed me that he really couldn’t tell me what or how much improvement I could expect, but at least my toes wiggled!

Yay

I had the dubious distinction of ringing in my 29th birthday using a walker (yes, like the little old ladies use) to drag myself from one side of the apartment to the other. Did I mention I couldn’t feel my leg (other than nerve pain, but no outside sensation like pressure, temperature, scratching, etc) from the knee down? Lovely.

Over the next couple of months, I slooooooooooowly learned how to point my toes forward again. Then I learned how to lift my foot up. The tricky part was learning how to point my toes forward AND lift my foot up simultaneously to take an actual step. Living on the edge in physical therapy, I’m telling you!

Once I graduated from a walker to a cane, my superlyfantasticallywonderfullyamazing boyfriend had the brilliant idea to invest in a fish scale. The four main exercises I was working on in PT were pull-ins (knee bent, trying to squeeze my left leg in towards my right), pull-outs (opposite, pulling my left leg away from my body with my knee bent), push-downs (pushing my foot down), and pull-ups (pulling my foot up). Tim (aforementioned superman boyfriend) rigged it so I could put something around my knee for the first two exercises and around my foot for the last two and he could measure the pounds of resistance with the fish scale.

It was pretty pathetic. Like, I could pull in a whopping 3.26 lbs (and that was my GOOD lift). I’ve eaten bags of chocolate that weighed more than that.

We measured regularly over the next several months. I mostly saw improvements, except towards the end of the year when my back decided it still hated me. Thanks to the last year, I now look like I have an incomplete road map on my back:


I had a spinal cord stimulator implanted and that really helped bring my pain down to a manageable level. I had three months of having to be REALLY careful so it didn’t shift while the scar tissue formed around it, but a couple of weeks ago I was able to start moving forward again. I ditched the cane!

And tonight? Tonight, my superfantasticallywonderfullyamazing FIANCEE (Yes! He proposed last week!) did the measurements again.

HOLY CRAP!
A year ago today, I couldn’t even wiggle my toes. Two months later, I was still really weak. The first time we measured was on June 9th.
Knee Pull-Ins were only 3.26 lbs. Today, I pulled in 34.4 lbs! That is over 1000% improvement!!!!!!!!!
Knee Pull-Outs were only 2.05 lbs. Today, I pushed 38.6 lbs! That’s nearly 1900% improvement!!!!
Foot Push-Downs? They started as my strongest, with a puny 7.62 lbs. Tonight, I pushed 41.4 lbs!!!!
And the foot pull-ups. Ugh. These were so hard! I could only do 1.64 pounds last year. Tonight? That was another huge improvement at 21.2 lbs.

So there’s my success story. I lost (and have kept off most of) a crap-ton of weight and got crazy fit. I had a HUGE setback one year ago and even though I have been through hell and back over the past year, and even though I walk with a pronounced limp and still deal with pain and weakness, I have come so far.

I am turning 30 on Saturday, and it’s going to be fantastic. I might not ever sling my son over my shoulder again, or bend over in an awesome bridge. I might never be the strongest, fastest, or fittest girl on MFP, but I can be the strongest, healthiest ME that my body will allow me to be.