This week marks the end of my genius hour project and coincidentally it also marks the end of the period in which I have to wear my back brace. I had a time frame initially of four to six weeks in the brace but I am extremely lucky and excited to be getting out of the brace at just four weeks. The doctor seems to think that the brace has done its job in healing what it could and not I need to start the process of physical therapy again. I will be doing physical therapy at the Davie hospital in Advance which is nice because it is not very far from my house at all. I am not looking forward to this though because I am just ready to get back to doing what I normally do with sports and working out, but I know that I have to do this in order to get as healthy as possible that way no further injury will occur from what has already happened. Im not really sure what the physical therapist has planned for me to do. I went to physical therapy before I got my brace, and they had me doing things which my doctor said I shouldn't be doing. Im hoping that this go round is different and the physical therapist will have me on the right track to becoming healthy. At this point I just have to hope for the best and TRUST THE PROCESS.
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This week I used my free time for something that I have never done before. I went to a Carolina Thunder birds minor league hockey game. This was such a fun experience, and I really enjoyed myself. I went with my family for my aunt's birthday, because she always went when she was a kid and she was dying for the family to go. I didn't think that It would be as entertaining as it was. Hockey games consist of three fifteen minute periods. There were four fights in the game which means there were about one and quarter fights every fifteen minutes. Our seats were right on the ice so we had a good view of everything. I had guys getting slammed against the glass right in front of me for the whole game. I have a newfound love for hockey games now so I will definitely be getting some of my friends to go to some with me in the future. I actually went to my football coach, and talked to him about maybe getting something together with the team next year. I think that would be a good team experience to get everyone to go watch a hockey game together. I just had such a good time and I want to share my excitement with everyone. I took a video of one of the better fights and I think I am going to include that in my final presentation just to have something entertaining for everyone to watch.
This week I was able to go hunting with my dad in Virginia. He and a couple of our hunting friends lease land in Independence Virginia which is just across the North Carolina state boarder. It is a one hundred and eighty acre cow farm and we go hunting there many times throughout the year. I was excited to get to go again this year because I had not gotten to go as much as I would like and normally do. Being up in the mountains is a great escape from reality for a few days. Having no cell service is a lot of fun surprisingly because you don't care and you don't really worry about what everyone else is doing. The land and overall atmosphere up there is just beautiful as well. I have some pictures that I took while I was up there and I will most likely be including them in my final presentation to show what it is like. I normally wouldn't be able to come up this time of year because my life would be consumed with workouts and preparation for baseball season, but due to my injury I was able to make this trip, and get away for a while. I ended up killing a four pointer which was not what I was after but I was happy with it. I saw a really nice buck from the stand, but he was really far away so I wasn't able to get a shot on him. We had some monster bucks on our trail cameras, and we have found some really big sheds (antlers that have fallen off) but I unfortunately didn't get to see a big buck in shooting range. I am looking forward to doing this more, and seeing what next week's free time brings me.
This week with my free time I decided to devote some time to learning how to tie new knots and create some useful fun items using paracord. I know this sounds stupid but it is actually very fun and relaxing. I have always been fascinated by the amount of things that can be created just using a simple piece of string. There are all kinds of countless things you can make using paracord, some useful and some not so useful, but fun either way. I spent a few hours this week at my desk creating things with paracord. I have always wanted to make a knife handle wrap with paracord, and I successfully did that. I also made a key chain and a begleri. If you don't know what a begleri is it is a type of fidget toy that is very popular in Europe. It is basically paracord with two weighted ends and with practice you can do quite a bit of tricks with them. If you're bored and want something to watch look up begleri tricks on YouTube.... I highly recommend. I also made one for my sister because she would not leave me alone about it. Anyone who has a younger sibling knows the struggle. This was an extremely enjoyable and satisfying activity for me and I will most likely do it again even though it made my hands ache a little. It was nice to just kind of get my mind off things with my back and everything else, and just kind of kick back and have some time to myself.
This week I wanted to start focusing a little more on what productive things I can do with the spare time that I have due to this frustrating injury to my back. I decided to mess around with the guitar for a little bit this week because its been a while since I have played it. This was interesting for me because I did my genius hour project last year (Learning the Chords) on learning the basics on how to play the guitar. It was fun for me to go back to trying to play because it showed how much I had forgotten since I last played. I remembered all of the hand formations that I learned over the course of my project but I was considerably slower on my transitions and not nearly as smooth as I was at the end of my genius hour project. Although it was frustrating to have to relearn transitions it was fun to pick up the guitar and play again. It is so cool to be able to make your own sound and music just by using an instrument. It is a truly unique feeling that I would like to feel more, so I will probably jump back on playing guitar and see if I can further progress my skills since I do have quite a bit of free time on my hands. I could still play wagon wheel fairly well but that is an easy song with only 4 chords and not too many transitions so I would like to keep practicing fun, simple, well known songs until I can play them just by muscle memory and there wont really be an effort behind me playing. I would also like to progress to be able to play slightly more complicated songs to challenge myself further.
FINALLY! My appointment to get my brace was today and I am now home wearing it. My first impressions of the brace are fairly good. I feel like I will get tired of it pretty quick but right now it is not too bad. Something I feel like is worth noting is there was a resident in my appointment today. Just in case you don't know what that is it is basically a doctor in training. Normally this wouldn't be of any significance, but there has been a resident in literally every single one of my appointments for my back. I was talking to my mom about it because she works with residents and fellows every day in the operating room at the Davie hospital, and I honestly thought it was because what I have is kind of a rare injury, but she said Wake Forest Baptist is a teaching hospital so everything through them is going to be revolving around teaching learning doctors. Still I thought it was crazy that all of my appointments have had a resident in the room. Anyways this brace is going to be restraining for sure. I went to take my socks off when I got home and I had to get in some weird "flying squirrel" position just to reach down to my feet since I cant bend down. It is also kind of hot being in this thing which is why im glad that this injury happened right before winter and the colder months, because if I had to wear this during the summer I would probably have a heat stroke. Sleeping in the brace is not as bad as you would think it would be. I took a little nap when I got home just to see how it would feel laying down and it is honestly extremely comfortable laying on your back. (Laying on your stomach is a different story though). I am going to post some pictures of my brace on and off me just to help give a visual of what i am talking about.
So the brace has finally come in. It took them 2 weeks to make it because it was custom made for my torso specifically. The issue is that apparently so many people have issues that require this place's attention so the earliest appointment they have is next Sunday. I personally don't see why I need to go in for an appointment for this thing because i've seen pictures of it and it looks fairly simple as far as mechanics go. I cant tell if there is any hidden features but by the picture it looks like its just 3 velcro straps going across the front of my abdomen. This is also the final week of football for this year which is always a bummer. Football is a sport that I am beyond excited about every year and I hate seeing it come to an end. My main focus at the moment however is getting ready for the upcoming baseball season in the spring. We have a new coach and I have talked with him about my situation and I am pleased to say that he is understanding and not frustrated by it. If the process goes as planned I will be ready for baseball in the spring, I just wont get as much pre-season work in as the other guys. This just means that I am really going to have to prove myself whenever I do get the chance to come back (hopefully sooner than later). Even though I can't do anything I am going to be attending as many baseball workouts as I can just so I can make my presence known and to kind of show the new coach that I am going to be there for the team no matter what. I think we have a chance at being a really solid team this year and I am looking forward to the upcoming season.
This week has been great regarding my pain level. I am experiencing regularly little to no pain throughout my day which is wonderful but also kind of annoying. I still go to all of the football practices and games and I already hate being on the sidelines enough but when I feel as if I could play that makes it ten times worse. I know in my mind exactly what would happen if I tried practicing, I would get through about 5 periods (each period is five minutes long), and then I would not be able to walk. If I had to explain the pain over the course of my injury I would say usually doing regular everyday tasks the pain is about a 3/10 and when I participate in athletics or other strenuous activities the pain goes to about a 7 or 8/10. This football season is about to come to an end and it is extremely frustrating not being able to be out on the field and supporting my friends and teammates. I wish I could be out there to help these last games go good for the seniors because I don't want them to have to end their high school football days with losses. I have been helping out at football as much as I can as far as coaching up the younger guys and even helping out some of the older guys when the opportunity presents itself. I got measured last week for my back brace so it hopefully will be done and ready for me to wear by this time next week. The quicker I can get in this thing the quicker I can get out so I am extremely eager to finally get in this brace and start the 6 week process. I have decided to change the title of my project to "Trust the Process" because as frustrating as it is all I can do right now is trust that after these 6 weeks I will be healed.
This week I went to a spine doctor who was extremely nice and informative, and he informed me that my L2 was in fact fractured and I would not be able to participate in athletics for a while. I actually got pulled out of second period a little early for this appointment which was kind of frustrating because we were working on an important assignment. Besides the whole back being injured and not being able to do the things that I want to do missing school is so annoying. The appointments that I have seem very repetitive and to have to miss an important lecture in class or to miss out on time to work on a project or other assignment is extremely frustrating. Anyways back to my story, after the spine doctor confirmed the diagnosis with me and my mom he talked about how rare this was. He said these fractures are not uncommon at all in teenage athletes especially but he said that he has never seen one in the L2 vertebrae. I´m no doctor but my pain is right above my right hip and I was kind of shocked to find out that the injury was a little higher up. I guess its just nerves or something that carries the pain down to my hip. After our discussion with the doctor they walked me down the hall and showed me into another room where a man was waiting for me behind the desk. He introduced himself and he took me into yet another room where he began to measure my torso to get the dimensions for a ¨custom¨ brace. I was glad that the brace was going to fit well and help me heal better but I was a little angry when he told me that it would take two weeks to be delivered. I am trying to get in this thing as soon as possible, so I can get out of it as soon as possible. My goal right now is to get ready for baseball season and this brace is going to be a pain.
Yesterday I finally got an MRI. I had it done in Winston Salem close to Hanes Mall. I thought I would be going downtown to the hospital to have it done but I was surprised to find out that Wake had a small building close to the mall that was basically only for MRIs. I had an extremely early appointment (for me at least) and I fell asleep in the waiting room. Finally one of the nurses came and got me and took me down the hall. We kept on and kept on walking and we reached the end of the hall with the door going outside right in front of us, and she opened it up and told me to follow her. I was so confused on why I was going outside and honestly I thought for a second that I was going to get kidnapped or something but I kept following the nurse and we stopped at this transformer looking trailer. She told me to stand on this platform, so I did, and she began raising me up to the door of this trailer. The door opened and it was an office and there was a man there to greet me. long story short the trailer was a mobile MRI unit and I just thought it was odd but pretty cool at the same time. Anyways what seems life forever of waiting and being unsure what is wrong and I finally have my CORRECT diagnosis. I have fractured my L2 vertebrae. This is a rare injury and better than having a Pars Defect, but still one to take very seriously. I am out from football for the whole season now which is a huge disappointment to me because I hate every second of not being on the field helping my team. It also makes me worried about my future with athletics and how or if I will be able to participate in sports again. Sports have been such a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember. Every season I always am participating in some kind of sport whether thats football, baseball, wrestling, and I even tried lacrosse, soccer, and basketball for a while.
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