Seven Months and counting

After a while away from blogging, I've decided to come back to it in case there are some folks out there reading this. I'm mostly thinking about the scoliosis forum people, as I think most of my friends can see my progress and don't visit the blog. Feel free to leave comments, that might help motivate me to update my blog more often.

I've been to my surgeon for my 6 month check up, and he has almost discharged me. The only reason he didn't was because I was stunned that I wouldn't need to be seeing him on a regular basis like I have since I was a teenager. I guess that is because I had a really bad looking x-ray that was getting worse each time I saw him. Now, I have a good looking x-ray (in perspective with the old ones), and am hoping it stays that way.

I've hired a personal trainer at the gym to help rehabilitate me and keep me motivated to go. I know it's not great to need someone else to keep you motivated, but it really helps get you there if you know you'll look lazy if you haven't been more than a couple of times in a fortnight. It's also great to have someone that sees you at the gym and asks how you are going. I don't like to dwell on things, but it is nice to have it acknowledged that it is hard to exercise when you are in pain, so it's not just about getting my act together to go. The good news is that I don't have many days where the pain is debilitating anymore like before my surgery. When I have a bad day now, I can tolerate the pain (usually).

I still have to modify activity and am nowhere near normal, but am so much closer than I have been for years. I love going out in the evenings now, and it seems like I don't have to come home early like I used to because of pain. Ok, so that is still happening some times, but not as badly or as often as it used to. I haven't been to physio for a long time!

My university work is going ok, I have definitly been set back by my surgery and the associated pain and problems both pre and post op, but I am doing my best. I do feel like I have had a run of bad luck, my mum had a relapse of cancer which was super stressful. But I am determined not to crash and burn, even though the urge to pack up my books and take a job at the supermarket sometimes seems like the easier option.

I am also hugely grateful for the support I have had from some of my friends and family over the last year or so. I realise that some people are better at this than others, for whatever reason, but it has meant the world to me the ones who made the effort. It was very disheartening when I was recovering to not hear from heaps of my friends, so those people I have mostly let fall by the wayside. Life is too short to invest emotional energy into fair weather friends. So I am focusing on the great people in my life, and making sure that I direct my energy and efforts on to them, and don't think about the bad stuff. Life is good, and I have so much to be thankful for.