The Long and Winding Road to Recovery
As you may know, way back in the beginning of April I left work on a medical leave. I was experiencing debilitating back pain, to the point where I could barely move and I would be up all night either getting sick or not sleeping because I was in so much pain and just could not get comfortable. Finally at the end of June, after spending a number of nights in the Hospital, I got a doctor who actually took the time to listen to me when I was saying that something other than my back just wasn't right. He did tests other than X-rays and I was finally diagnosed as having compressed disks in my lower back and having severe gallstones. The gallstones it turns out were not allowing my gallbladder to do it's job, which is what was making me so sick. In addition to the sickness, because your gallbladder doesn't actually have any pain receptacles, and it needs to somehow let you know that something is wrong, it manifests itself as severe upper back pain! This severe upper back pain was then triggering my lower back to try to compensate, which due to the compressed disks and some other pre-existing lower back issues, was pretty much messing up my life! Finally in late August I had surgery to remove my gallbladder, and with Physio and Chiropractic treatments for my back I am finally on the mend!
This week I have returned to work on a graduated schedule and it seems to be going pretty well. My user profile hasn't been properly re-instated, so on thursday, and so far today, I'm pretty much just chillin, doing misc. admin tasks, which has been kinda nice for easing back into the swing of things! Next week I'm on 3 full shifts before going back to my full-time schedule, so hopefully I won't have been too spoiled by my 6 hour mini shifts!