Things you didn't know

On a completely unrelated but still awesome note my blog made it to more than 1000 page views! I find this both encouraging and awesome. It's always nice to know someone is reading. I hope that this blog dispenses advice, humor, updates, and an insight into my life. I've noticed more and more lately that many of the people in my life are struggling through some tough things. It seems that life has been pretty hard on all of us lately. It reminds me of a quote I saw recently, "Be kind to those you meet. We're all fighting the hardest battle we've ever faced, life."

I've also found that the people I think of as strong struggle. I have no doubt that when we finally see those strong outer veneers crack there's been a world of struggles that preceded that moment. To me it's kind of like my back problems. If you were unaware I actually have pretty severe back problems. There are thankfully and thanks to an amazing chiropractor some good spots in my back. However there are also some serious problem areas.

It's something I'm always surprised that people don't know about me. Currently my neck has lost half the amount of curvature it should have. It's slowly becoming completely straight which causes a host of problems. My spine is shifted to the side between my shoulder blades. I have three discs that are bulging, they're symptomatic in case you wondered. Also at the base of my spine it curves to the right pretty drastically. It's actually visible on an x-ray how much it twists to the right. What that amounts to is that my nerves are being pinched in two spots on my spine. This causes numbness is both my right hand, right arm and right leg. My lower back is usually the more painful and problematic of the two areas. It's become enough of a problem I'm having a nerve block next week.

I know to many people this seems drastic. The problem is first that I'm ridiculously allergic to steroids. I already have a known allergy to at least two steroids. Obviously knowing that my doctor isn't going to risk trying a third out. Also when I say allergic I mean anaphylactic I will die allergic not it bothers my stomach. So that leaves a nerve block as the next option of how to deal with the pain. The hope is that once we deal with the pain I will be able to do things to regain my mobility which is pretty much at nill.

The point of this analogy is that my back problems are a serious problem that effect ( insert affect if that's the correct one I can never remember which is right when) me daily. However it's something that I have up until recently managed to not talk about. Looking at me you might never guess how bad the problem really is. I mean I've avoided the topic so well people that live with me were floored that I was hurting bad enough to go to a pain management clinic. That's often the problem with the problems in our lives. We face them alone until we can't anymore. That's the moment people see the crack in that strong outer veneer.

I can't tell people to be open about all the problems in their lives. Actually I won't say that because I try not to give advice I know I wouldn't do. But if you're reading this blog then I want you to know something. You are not alone. No matter how overwhelming the problems in your life seem or how good you've become at hiding them there's always someone you can reach out to. I can't promise to hear you very well but I can promise I listen extremely well.