Week #11

Hey, guys!
Not much has been going on, I guess. Well, unless walking in the Relay for Life and having a herniated disc are not much...
I guess I'll start with Relay for Life. It was Madison's first year doing it. I was on the team Exxon Cruisers and we were "Cruisin' for a Cure." We did really well, raising over $4,000 for the American Cancer Association. The day of the walk kinda sucked, as it rained nearly the entire time and we were walking on a muddy track. That made for some fun! All in all, though, it wasn't bad. I had screwed up my back earlier in the week, so I had decided to try to walk earlier, in case I wanted/needed to go home. I had asked the doctor if I could still walk in it. She said I might regret it later, but I would be able to. Well, I regretted it. Not completely, mind you. It was fun to be out there...there was live music and just talking with people was cool. What I regretted was stepping in a hole...HARD, and then I had to go sit down. But I walked with my friend and co-worker, April, and we had a good time. She told me later that she had stayed the entire night (it went from 5:00pm Saturday evening to 7:00am Sunday morning). I was there from about 2:30pm to 9:30pm (I got there early, obviously).
As far as my back goes...I was doing laundry last Thursday. LAUNDRY, of all things. We have a stackable washer and dryer. Well, I bent over to put a new load in the washer and immense PAIN shot into my back. I immediately stood up, trying to alleviate it, but I found I couldn't stand up very straight. Mike had left for work about an hour prior to this, so I knew I couldn't call him to come back. I decided to go lie down on the couch to try to straighten myself out. It helped, but as soon as I moved, I hurt all over. I managed to get up and finish getting the laundry started. The next day I had to work again, but when I woke up, I could hardly move, so obviously I called in sick. Later that day, I was able to call the doctor and make an appointment. She said that with how it happened and where it was hurting, I had herniated a disc in my back. So she perscribed me some really good drugs and told me not to do a lot of heavy lifting (ummm...HELLO! I'm a groomer...of animals...sometimes really BIG animals!). *sigh*
So, after that, obviously I wasn't able to get to the gym for a couple days, though I did walk for an hour on Saturday. So I gained back two pounds making me 238 again. Dang, I can't get past that number! I've decided to take it easy and not go to the gym for a little while. On the bright side of things, the doctor did give me a few exercises I can do for my back, which coincidentally are core exercises, which coincidentally are what I need to be doing to try to tone my middle. So, in a way, me hurting my back is a good thing, right? ;-)