And I never even made it to the slope. On Valentine’s Day, Chris and I had the perfect plan. It was sunny and the temps were in the mid 40’s so we hit the slopes. But I felt something pop in my back when I laced up my snowboard boot.

“Uh oh,” I gasped at Chris.

A few minutes later, the pain dissipated a bit. I mentioned to Chris that I figured I’d do a run or two then see how I felt.

“You feeling better?” He asked.

“Well,  I can breathe now,” I responded.

He suggested skipping the runs and throwing some ice on it. Time to go home (90 minutes away).

It was such a beautiful day, and I really wanted him to have some slope time so we compromised. I would sit on the lodge deck in the sun and listen to the audio version of A Game of Thrones while he took a couple of runs. Perfect. While he was gone, I got up to throw out my coffee cup, and I realized it was a good thing I hadn’t taken a run. Moving was getting tricky.

On the way home, I felt every single bump and jostle. Ooooooh that was a long trip. But we had lovely heated seats in the vehicle, and that felt better. Back home, I crept over to a comfy chair and threw an infrared heating pad on the injury and tried to slip into oblivion. Bless her heart, my teatotalling mother-in-law even poured a glass of wine to help me relax and get some pain relief.

The timing was not ideal. I had plans to drive a few hrs the next day to have lunch with one of my dearest friends, who I hadn’t seen since September. There was no way I could actually drive, so Chris gave up his plans for the day and drove me. What a guy.

By Thursday night, things were getting worse, and the night was insanely torturous. Pain wrapped around my back to my hip bone then radiated down my leg. If I was on my back, it felt as if someone was scraping a scalpel along my hipbone repetitively. If I was on my stomach, it felt like someone was slamming a softball onto my back.

Friday morning found me prioritizing a trip to the local clinic over a cup of coffee. Something was definitely wrong. I couldn’t even lift up my foot to put my own sock on. I was pathetic.

Such a tiny little pop, and such a huge amount of pain! The clinic was the answer, though. I found out the heat and infrared were the absolute worst things I could have done. A disc decided to pop sideways and pinch some nerves, and everything was inflamed.

Meds reduced swelling, and I was given some exercises to do to put the disc back in place once the swelling receded. Then more exercises would hold it there (in theory).

It was brilliant, and everything happened just as the doctor predicted. It took 2 days for the swelling to go down, and I was able to do more exercises, which did move the disc, and by Tuesday, it was back in position.

I fought a mild fever all week and battled fog brain from medication. Work was interesting since it helped get my mind off pain, but I had to take easier issues than usual since my brain was definitely not up to par. Again, I was reminded of how amazing this company that I work for is, as they encouraged me to take all the time I needed to heal.

This all happened one week before we were heading out on a 31-hr car trip to Utah (where I am working at a conference, and we are visiting CJ, Lauren, Zeb and Bri). I am so thankful that if it had to happen, it happened then, in time for me to recover.

Next year, for Valentine’s Day, I plan to do something different. 🙂