Finding Balance While Sidelined With A Broken Tailbone!

Life happens. One day you have a busy to-do list, which in my case included a horse lesson in the middle of the day, and then something happens that alters not only the rest of that day's routine, but the routine for the next 6-8 weeks! That's where I'm at. I fell off my horse. :( I had finished my horse lesson (about an hour) when my instructor had me practice with a little cantering. It slipped my mind to tighten the cinch before I got Cody (my horse) to pick up some speed, so as he did, my saddle shifted to the right of his body and dumped me onto the ground; smack on my tail, then my head ~ straight back.  OWWW. I'm 42 years old and to this point had never broken a bone, but I knew something was wrong. There is hurt, and there is hurt that feels wrong. I now know the difference. I was able to walk to my locker, call KC (at work) who immediately left to come take care of the rest of the kids' afternoon(hero), and Holli (my 18 year old) to come take me to the ER (heroine). That part is sort of a painful blur; getting checked in, being examined, getting a pain shot (which I tried to decline, but my daughter made the call that it was necessary - so thankful she did), & x-rays. Yep. Its broken, right where the red line is in the photo.  6-8 week recovery of no bouncing, no straining, no bumping the area, then a full week of no exercise AFTER it no longer hurts AT ALL. Today is day 13.

Nursing a broken bone is so different than waiting out a pulled or strained muscle. A broken bone heals at about the pace of putting on three coats of paint on a wall during the rainy season.  Lots of waiting. S. L. O.W. Finding what hurts and what doesn't. Restless sleep. Achey days. You can't stretch it, or roll it, or massage it. Its just about time. And so, I wait.I share this because I now know what it feels like to wait out an injury. I'm SO thankfulbecause I know it could have been so much worse, falling off a horse onto the hard ground. But the reality is, its also frustrating to wait out a healing bone no matter how grateful you are that it wasn't worse. So I put to practice what I talk about during the healthy, whole days. Trusting God. Even when the plan doesn't make sense. :)I am finding a new norm in my now disturbed routine. I have to lay down a lot because the aching gets so bad during the day, and that has to be okay. I'm learning. I conked my head pretty hard (slight concussion) so I'm also dealing with headaches and a pretty stiff/sore neck. I'm learning to just let my body heal when my brain wants so badly to do 15 other things rather than lay my thudding head and throbbing tail down. You may be reading this thinking "I'm so glad I'm not TRACI!" :) or you may be reading this thinking "I can relate!" If you are in the season of "healing & resting" I'm right there with you. We WILL be active again. We WILL work out and feel fully alive again. But for now, we'll continue to eat clean (a healing body doesn't need lousy food, it needs healing, clean foods!) and learn to enjoy down time because that's our story right now. :) But so help me if you're not injured and reading this, I hope you are inspired with a new perspective of thankfulness for your fully capable body and TAKE CARE OF IT! :) I am still leading people through weight loss programs - my fingers can still type and my phone still works! :) If you'd like to get your body going and to feel FULLY ALIVE, hit the CONTACT ME button above and shoot me an email! :) ONE OF  US needs to be working out! :)Always....In Relentless Pursuit of Excellence.....TRACI :)......or "Tailbone" as my kids have taken to calling me ;)