As most of you you know, we have decided to move to a 55+ community. We looked at various communities for a few months, and settled on one in which we plan to live out the rest of our days.
We have to sell our home quickly, so we spent the last 2 months throwing out old books and documents we no longer need, donating furniture to Habitat for Humanity, discarding old furniture/personal items by arranging many “bulky trash” pickups with the county. We took 10 boxes and 8 garbage bags of old papers to a free Shred Event held by our credit union! Every single day, we worked to wrap and pack all of our worldly possessions. I kept telling myself that I needed to pace myself and listen to my body. Up and down flights of steps all day long, bending over and picking up items, wrapping large and small objects in bubble wrap and/or brown wrapping paper … it was beginning to take a toll on our “over50” bodies …
We packed most of our clothes in plastic tote bins and stacked them to the basement. When we were 95% complete, we called our real estate agent to come over, take a look at our home and let us know what else we needed to do to list our home for sale. He mentioned cleaning the windows since light makes rooms look larger. Well, I started cleaning windows. The top part of the windows was easy, but when I reached down to clean the bottoms, I could feel something pulling on my right side. I ignored it. I was so excited about listing our home for sale and moving that I pushed through the pain. I went to bed with lower back pain, but I didn’t think much of it since I had been managing my lower back pain for 10 years with stretches and core exercises. When I woke up the next morning, it felt like a bomb had gone off on the right side of my body! I got up and could barely walk! I asked my husband to help me pour some Epsom salts into a warm bath, which usually helps relax my muscles. After 10 – 15 minutes in the bathtub, I carefully got out of the tub and began to dry off. I realized that I couldn’t stand up straight, so I sat down on the edge of the tub to dry off. I was in trouble, and I knew it.
As soon as I could drag myself to the phone, I called an orthopaedic physician to make an appointment. Fortunately, I got an appointment for the same day! Diagnosis — pinched nerve, 4 – 6 weeks to recover. By that evening, I was on prednisone. The doctor also prescribed physical therapy. That night, the nerve pain was excruciating! It felt like my right hip and leg were on fire! All I could was sit on the side of the bed, moan, and rock from side to side. The pain was so intense that it brought tears to my eyes. My husband suggested a heating pad, which did help. All night long, I moved the heating pad to the pain spots. Five days later, I began physical therapy.
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