I’m feeling so much better now (just a little back pain) that I finally pushed past my limit, even though I’ve been so careful to take my exercise & physical therapy in easy steps.   I’ve been through this countless times before & really didn’t want to do this again.

We went with some of the families from our  homeschool charter, Greater San Diego Academy, to a robotics lab workshop at Legoland & then had the afternoon to play in the park.  I love rollercoasters & all sorts of crazy rides so I took every opportunity to play with the kids & ride, ride, ride!  Fridays are pretty quiet there now that school’s back in session so many times we could get right back on the ride with little or no wait.  So I ended up going on about 6 or 8 coaster rides (Dragon & Technic), then went on the Knight’s Tournament, which is one of my favorites.  It’s a giant robot-arm, the kind they use in large manufacturing facilities to weld, move car frames, & do all sorts of intricate work.  Here, they’ve programmed 5 different levels of twists, turns, & excitement so you can choose your own level of thrill.  I took the kids on lots of Level 1 & Level two rides before I took one last ride just for myself–on Level 5!  Boy did I have fun!  The kids were laughing at me flying around, spinning while whirling upside-down, with my arms up in the air & my long hair flying out above me like a flag!  I was laughing & whooping it up the whole time.

But when I was walking away after my wild ride, uh-oh!  I knew right then I’d made a big mistake.  It hadn’t even crossed my mind that I’d hurt myself because I’ve been ignoring the warning signs on these kind of rides all my life–I never even thought twice about it.  But I’ve been feeling so much better, & my back is getting in so much better shape,  that now I actually notice when I’m pretty racked up–it’s not merely an increase in my already high pain level.

I have a chiropractic appointment with Dr. Buchel on Monday, along with Dr. Kevin in Physical Therapy, but I’m going to stretch, work out gently, have my mom give me some massage (she’s a Licensed Massage Therapist), and try to mitigate the damage until then.   ;-D

At least I had fun while messing myself up, but now I know I’ll have to take these warnings more seriously, at least until my spine has been stable & healthy for a good while–probably a year or so.  So I’ll chalk this one up to experience & now I’m off to go sit in my mother-in-law’s jacuzzi!