Getting better.

After two full days of laying on our pull-out sofa, barely moving, continuously staying lathered with Tiger Balm, drinking nearly the entire bottle of  La Romaine Cotes du Rhone, and frequently using the heating pad; I can say that I am getting better. Friday morning I went to the gym for my "Back and Bi's" day. I was feeling motivated and upped my weight on the seated compound row machine. Either my back really wasn't strong enough to handle the 20 extra lbs or near the end of my set I tweak in all the wrong ways. I felt it immediately. I knew enough to get up and I went into a full squat position to ease some lower back tension but I stubbornly finished my entire routine at the gym. Sans lower back of course. I was really hoping my time laying on the bench in the sauna afterwards would ward off any looming trouble. Luckily for me my back waited until after I had picked up Terra, came home and made lunch for both of us, and sent her off to bed before it seized up completely. Also luckily for me Paul came home about 1pm that day and hasn't stopped taking care of me. What a lucky gal I am! It was so bad that I could not stand up more than 10 seconds without getting dizzy and nauseated.

So after two days I am getting better. We were able to get out of the house long enough to check the mail and guess what? Everything that we have been waiting for came! We got  notices that two big boxes are waiting for us, we'll have to pick those up tomorrow when the post office opens again. Hooray! Christmas strikes again in the Bryan house (Christy and Mom, I'll call after we open them). After checking the mail we headed to "The Bunny Store" and bought Terra some winter clothes for next season, all on sale! Paul and I concluded that we really like the children's fashion here in Japan. The clothes are all cute but still very tasteful. We are slightly terrified of the selection in the states judging solely on the selection in the on-base Exchanges. No thanks, I do not want to dress my 4yr old as a stripper. By the time we were finished shopping my back was calling to me as well as my stomach. We tried a Ja-Mexican place that we have been avoiding our entire tour here because of bad review rumors. We were very surprised and quickly changed our opinions of Obligato. My back now screaming at me, we headed home. Back to the couch, back to the heating pad, and back to the Tiger's Balm.

Tomorrow we have some more errands to run, let's hope it goes a little better. Not sure if I'll be back at the gym next week, not smart to push such a serious injury. Aside from all the pain and difficulties, I am loving the long weekend (Paul get's Monday off). Have I mentioned that we also had to take out all our summer clothes? Yup, suck it Winter! Spring is here. Now let's just hope that Summer doesn't come too early and let's also hope that we get out of here before Summer smacks us in the face.

Much love,
~M