I was on my mission for less than 18 days, but it was much longer than that before I stopped reaching for the badge I thought I would wear for 18 months.ĭeeper in my chest, I feel my heart beat a steady rhythm. My chest rises and falls with the next breath and I am conscious of the place where I used to pin my missionary nametag. Record for me, including the time before I was injured. Therapy and yoga classes and now I haven’t had a headache in months, which is an all-time I had three rounds of those injections and four months of physical therapy, massage It was like that for so long that I didn’t even know I was in pain until after they injected the medicine- then I noticed a difference.
I doubted his diagnosis because I didn’t feel anything like the tension he described, but when they did an ultrasound to check, they found the entire muscle group in spasm. The neurologist thought micro tears or inflammation in my neck might be the source of my debilitating headaches. Six months later, my sub-occipitals begged to differ. Weeks.” That’s what my first doctor said. “Whiplash will correct itself after a few I didn’t even know what a sub-occipital was before I saw a neurologist but, as with meĪnd Andy, I now feel like the sub-occs and I are old pals. As those little muscles activate, I feel the desired release in my sub-occipital region. Like you’re restricting your breathing a bit.” I spent weeks choking back sobs, so this is a familiar sensation. Teaching me how to activate those muscles, the physical therapist said “it might feel a little uncomfortable at first, My next breath goes down a little further into my neck and I gently nod my head the way my physical therapist showed me to, turning on my deep neck flexors. Lying on my back, I let the last bit of air release from my lungs and, amazingly, so does My puffy eyelids looked bruised for days after we parted, but they did, eventually, recover. My missionaries have been in Sweden now for almost four months I still talk to them every week. Pictures with the missionaries from my district, but my face was so swollen that I can hardly Big and puffyĪnd bruised, I didn’t know if my eyelids would ever recover. The night before they sent me home, I cried harder than I ever had before. They were triggered again when I tried to go on my mission.
She also cleared me of my symptoms two months after the accident and yet there I was, talking to a neurologist six months later, with all of my symptoms as acute as they were right after I was injured. “It will go away with time,” he assured me, but my first doctor said the same thing. The neurologist told me that difficulty focusing and light sensitivity are classic lingering I thought they relaxed sooner than they did, but I really just forgot I was squinting. Sensitive to even the softest light and struggling to focus, my eyes were strainedįor weeks after I was injured. I release the air through my mouth on an exhale and notice that my eyes are clenched I didn’t even think about it until now…but I never slept like that before Injured, when I first saw my neurologist: “I guess I just started sleeping on my stomach to avoid The sensitivity is caused by nerve pain, but I didn’t know that until six months after I was On an inhale through my nose, I scan down the back of my head, which is sensitive to touch. No skin was broken to make a scar notĮven a bruise remained, but it was weeks before that sharp pain subsided. The top of my head took the brunt of the blow. It happened in an instant, but I was thrown
We had only just piled into our seats when the truck smashed into the side of the car–my side of the car. I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt when it happened. The top of my head…that’s what struck the side of the car when we were hit. Starting up at the top of the head, you can just scan down Start noticing how it feels, taking note not only of the areas that feel uncomfortable, but thoseĪreas that feel comfortable, too. Now just gently bring the attention back to the body and Worthless–but meditation is one practice that actually helps me.Īndy’s resonant voice continues: “and with the next inhalation, just close your eyes and I’ve received countless pieces of advice–sometimes conflicting, often I have never met Andy Puddicombe, but after months of listening to his recorded meditations, Iįeel like we’re old friends. Start off with some nice big deep breaths” Andy’s voice intones these familiar words in my ears. “Now as we begin, just take a moment to get comfortable and then, when you’re ready,