All About my Back

I realized while writing my 2022 Year in Review post that I hadn't written very much about what happened to my back, other than the little blurb in my 2022 Goals post. So I thought I would remedy that, since that back injury has had a big impact on my activity levels over the last year.

The original injury happened in December 2021.  We got a lot of snow all at once, and shoveling was really, really heavy, especially for the first real snowfall of the year.  The winter of 2022 was especially brutal - pretty much every time it snowed, we had a storm and got a lot.  Plus the snow continued all through April, which is very unusual.

At my mom's suggestion (and by her encouragement), I started seeing a chiropractor (I believe this started in February).  The chiropractor did wonders, and my back slowly started to heal.  I was doing better, and was able to shovel without my back hurting more, as long as I was careful.  Things were looking up!

Then in early April, I reinjured my back again, this time at work! :(  My job, over the years, has slowly become more physical, and I've had a few other injuries from work before this (primarily knee trouble from having to bend down a lot).  As it happened at work, I had to submit paperwork to the WSIB; they were able to cover chiropractor appointments for a little after that to help me get better.

Since that happened, I've had to be (understandably) much more careful with my back.  Overall it's doing better, but the spot does flare up from time to time, depending on what I'm doing.  So I still need to see the chiropractor every few weeks.  

To help though, I found a yoga for your back video on YouTube that I really like.  My mom, who also has back trouble, gave me a list of exercises she does every night, so I've been trying to do them too (this is really helpful for the days I can't fit in a whole video).  And more recently I found a 21 Day Happy Back Challenge that I'm going to do to help as well (I did a few days of it at the beginning of December 2022, but got derailed when I got sick so I am going to restart it). Walking has also been really good - it's low impact on my back, and my chiropractor recommended it as well (particularly on the days when I see her - she said it's good to go for a little walk after having an adjustment done).