Today I’m celebrating an anniversary of sorts. Nope, not my wedding anniversary, that was last month. This is the one year anniversary of having cervical spine surgery (though technically August 18th would be exactly one year to the day :)).
Why on earth, you might ask, would I want to celebrate something like that!?
Well, first I want to say that I hope I never have to celebrate an anniversary of this nature again! But in many ways, that surgery was a sort of rebirth for me in that it was both humbling and yet filled me with more determination to continue on my path of fitness.
(S. Fishkind/8/15/09)
Last June (2008), I started to have symptoms that inevitably led to me losing, for all practical purposes, the use of my left arm and hand from the long term of effects of a car wreck I had been in many years earlier.
That accident caused trauma to my spine that eventually led to arthritis in the lower cervical region of my neck and a stenosis (a closing in of the vertebrae) in the C7 vertebrae in particular.
Though I wanted to treat this holistically, I was informed even from various chiropractors, based on my MRI, that surgical intervention was the only option for this type of condition. More space had to be created to stop the impingement on my spinal cord.
Though it wasn’t a life threatening condition, the combination of severe pain in some areas and numbness in others, not to mention the emotional stress from lack of sleep (and the upcoming surgery), seriously affected the quality of my life 24 hours a day.
Fortunately, thanks to the expertise of a brilliant neurosurgeon, Dr. Gregory Langford of the Howell Alan Clinic in Nashville, TN, I sit here a year later, being able to do "almost" everything I could before the surgery (though there’s almost always some lingering effects from scar tissue and other variables from any type of surgery).
All that being said, I didn’t share this experience merely to reflect on the events of last year. Rather I wanted to share it as a story of a physical transformation.
While I was very fit before those initial symptoms ever occurred, I had to rebuild my strength from the ground up after the surgery. I was only allowed to lift a maximum of 5 lbs and for quite a long time afterwards I was too weak to even do a quarter push-up on my knees.
It was a very slow process requiring a lot of patience. From a strength standpoint I was starting almost from the beginning again, but it did prove to me something that I had always believed, that at any age, no matter what shape you are in, most any person can transform themselves if they really choose to!
I had to literally start by first getting basic functional strength back (just so I could even carry a relatively light bag of groceries). I eventually rebuilt myself up to pretty close to the same overall physical condition that I was before the start of my symptoms. I still would like to add at least 5 more pounds of muscle, but compared to what I was dealing with this time last year I'm pretty happy to be where I am right now! :)
(S. Fishkind August 15, 2009/almost one year after surgery)
While that is my personal transformation, other folks may have goals of weight loss, strength gains, greater flexibility , increases in their cardiorespiratory capacity, or combinations of some or all of those things.
Just know, without a doubt, that it can be done. The most difficult part is just starting the process of transformation. The body is incredibly adaptable, but it does take consistent effort and a little bit of time to make changes.
As part of my celebration, I had the above pictures taken specifically this morning so I could show that even at my age (now 49) and after having gone through cervical spine surgery, that with a little persistence, sound training practices, and a LOT of patience, any able bodied person can get into excellent physical condition!
The way I look at it, the time is going to go by anyway, so you may as well make the most of it and begin making incremental changes today.
I know more than ever, that this precious human body is a true gift never to be taken for granted and along with that gift is a deep responsibility to take care it every day!
2009 Scott Fishkind Time4You Fitness
Please visit my website at http://www.time4youfitness.com/
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