100 Days of Pain: What it’s taught me [Part II]

First post in this two-part series can be found here.

As my boss has often reminded me over the years, life is a marathon, not a sprint. I fully under­stand what he is say­ing now. It’s impor­tant – no crit­i­cal – that we slow down to take care of our­selves. It took some­thing as severe as an injury and 100 days of pain for me to fully get that we can’t afford to not step back and make sure we’re doing alright. The mon­e­tary, phys­i­cal, emo­tional, and men­tal price over the long-haul is much steeper than any per­ceived imme­di­ate down­side of main­tain­ing our well being.

Hav­ing time to reflect dur­ing these 100 days of being at home in pain has taught me a lot. Here are some addi­tional things I’ve learned that I will be sure to take with me and apply to my post-pain life:

1. While the affects of Vicodin aren’t always appar­ent to you, they are to others.
2. Chil­dren can’t com­pre­hend debil­i­tat­ing pain, and that’s a good thing.
3. It’s impor­tant to learn how to be com­fort­able ask­ing for what you need.
4. Back pain forces you to be rather cre­ative when hav­ing sex, and icing after­wards is crit­i­cal (though unromantic).
5. It is pos­si­ble to still approach life with a smile when you’re in pain (but it sure wears you out).
6. Phys­i­cal exer­cise is a must for the brain, body, and soul.
7. Doing noth­ing does so much for you.
8. It is pos­si­ble to for­get how to walk properly.
9. Dri­ving with­out a co-pilot under the influ­ence of Vicodin isn’t advis­able (lost a taillight!).
10. It’s pos­si­ble to miss work, but not when you’re in pain.
11. While twit­ter can’t replace in-person inter­ac­tion, it can help.
12. The lit­tlest things, like cards of encour­age­ment, really do help.
13. Vicodin is not addic­tive, as long as you keep tak­ing it.
14. Pay­ing the doc­tor a visit can be the high­light of your week – make the most of the inter­ac­tions you have every day.
15. Peo­ple don’t want to hear how bad you have it, but they do like to hear opti­mism in the face of adversity.
16. Ani­mals have an amaz­ing abil­ity to sense pain as well as pro­vide com­fort (hav­ing your cat lie down beside you can feel really good when you’re sick).
17. Some­times, get­ting out of bed is indeed a legit­i­mate goal for the day.
18. Com­plete strangers can be incred­i­bly sup­port­ive and encour­ag­ing (thanks twit­ter friends!).
19. It’s nearly impos­si­ble to con­cen­trate for more than a few min­utes under Vicodin and pain.
20. It can feel really guilty tak­ing a nap in the after­noon, but that’s just what you need to do sometimes.
21. The Bed Desk is a life­saver – it enabled me to cre­ate this blog while lying in bed on my back.
22. Vicodin can make you for­get what you’ve said (even just a minute ago)
23. When you’re spend­ing the major­ity of sev­eral months in bed, it’s impor­tant to get out (a trip to Peet’s Cof­fee and Tea every once in awhile helped keep me sane).
24. Amaz­ing work­places do exist – my com­pany (Jump Asso­ciates) was even more focused on my long-term well-being than I was at first.
25. Don’t take an easy, quick  bowel move­ment for granted.
26. Never for­get to help those around you, no mat­ter how big your needs are – you’re also help­ing yourself.
27. Pain has the power to make you feel like you’ve run a marathon, even when you did absolutely nothing.
28. Hob­bies are impor­tant (get over how lame the word sounds).
29. Take time to reflect at the end of every day on how you are doing personally.
30. You need to be on a vigil watch over your own health­care, as no doc­tor can care as much as you do.
31. It’s impor­tant to read non-business books (like Born to Run) – they have the abil­ity to change your life.
32. Work can lit­er­ally kill you, if you let it.
33. It’s actu­ally not that hard to eat no refined sugar, dairy, or gluten – it’s just not what indus­try wants you to think.
34. It’s crit­i­cal to stop and play, every day – being around chil­dren can help remind you how to play.
35. Vicodin can make you for­get what you’ve said (even just a minute ago).
36. The right mas­sage at the right time is not a waste of money, nor time.
37. Trust those you’ve sur­rounded your­self with when they say you need a break.
38. Stay close to and in con­tact with fam­ily – there’s a power there you just won’t find any­where else.
39. Spend­ing some time in nature sheds quick light on how mate­ri­al­is­tic we can get.
40. There’s noth­ing quite like the feel of cool grass on your bare feet.
41. You can waste years of your life when you’re not in touch with what turns you on.
42. You only get one body, and it’s usu­ally too late by the time you real­ize this.
43. It’s never worth putting off a life goal – live it and take a step towards mak­ing it a real­ity every day.
44. Don’t take any­thing for granted – rel­ish what you have.

Get out there and do some­thing you enjoy. Now!

What do you think?

• What have injuries taught you about yourself?
• Have you found you have become a bet­ter per­son after hav­ing to deal with dif­fi­cul­ties in your life?
• What have your learned on your life jour­ney, and when?

Read Part I of this two-part series here.

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