My stupid back

In keeping with the theme of rants, I have decided to take a break from learning about the lining of blood vessels to bitch about one of my favourite things to bitch about - my stupid back.

For those of you who read the blog and who I have only recently met, here is the quick back story of why my back sucks....

When I was 14, I was in a car accident on my way home from a piano recital.  I was mostly okay, but over that summer, I noticed my neck and shoulders were aching a lot compared to before the accident.  I decided to go see my doctor about my, what I assumed to be, whiplash from my accident.  On the way to that appointment, I got into another car accident.  Irony is a slutty bitch. (For the record, I was not driving in either case, as I was 14/15).

The second accident exacerbated the injuries from the first accident, and a plethora of health problems ensued.  I now have a chronic back injury (amongst other things) that my doctors back home have pretty much just told me to deal with.

Usually, I am pretty good at dealing with it.  Certain things, like long plane or car rides, picking up heavy things (like children, for example), or sleeping on a shitty pillow, make it a lot worse.  Even fun things like roller coasters and waterslides leave me aching for days.  Another thing that makes it worse is sitting hunched over a desk/cadaver for an extended period of time.  There is really no way of getting around this in medical school.

Since I am leaving next weekend for Canada and will not be in hard-core study mode for that weekend, I really wanted to get a lot done this weekend.  Unfortunately, yesterday, my back decided to be a complete piece of crap, and I pretty much couldn't even sit at a table.  I forced myself to go to an Anatomy Lab Tutorial, then spent the rest of the day in bed, feeling completely useless, watching my workload pile up.  None of my usual coping strategies (T3s, massages, naps, stretching) made it any better.

I tried to get SOME homework done from bed...readings and what not....but work of this nature was limited.

Needless to say, I was really pissed off.  It completely sucks when you actually have a MOTIVATION to study and physically CAN'T do it.  It is also kind of depressing, because it just re-affirms that I can never be a surgeon, since I simply would not be able to take the physical strain of that everyday for the rest of my working life.

Today, I am feeling a bit better.  I decided to go to the pool.  In Vancouver, one of the things I would do when my back flared up would be to hit a tanning salon (I know it's bad for me, and I already have a tan).  The endorphins from tanning really did A LOT to ease the pain.  It worked for me again today!  A couple of hours by the pool and I feel SO much better.

So, I am now studying.  By the end of the night, I assume I will still be behind on what I had originally planned to have done this weekend, and that sucks.

At least I got a tan.