I do believe I was most likely a fish of some sort in a previous life. When I was much younger than I am today, I spent a huge amount of time in the water. Having been tossed in the pool at the age of two had something to do with it, I'm sure. I can even remember the first bone I ever broke at the age of 14 was, oddly, my left ankle. A running accident at camp. I was sent home to the city to have the ankle set and put in a cast, and then I was shipped back to camp with crutches. When parents ship a kid to camp, that's where they stay until pick-up time.
This happened in the middle of a swimming marathon, where each troop in camp had six days to log as many lengths as possible. The group with the most would be crowned victorious at week's end. I decided that I would wrap the cast in plastic Saran wrap, stuff the foot in plastic shopping bags and the leg in a green garbage bag, seal the works with duct tape and dive in to the lake to do my bit. We placed. And when it came time to accept our award, yours truly got to represent our troop and hobble to centre stage on crutches in front of the entire camp. Guess they had all heard of the nut case with the busted fin swimming for our group --- the applause was special to behold.
Yes, I loved to swim. And the one thing I could still manage, first with the ankle and then the back, was swimming. The absolute perfect solution for gentle, non-weight bearing exercise. In the beginning, I would dangle the ankle in the pool or a hot tub with the water jet blowing against the damaged area. Ooooooooo, sooooooooo good! Or use the resistance of the water as I swished the foot through figure eights for comfort and flexibility. Awesomely great!!
With the lower back discs damaged, swimming the breast stroke was the perfect activity to assist with my rehab. My daily exercises already included repetitiously arching my upper body backwards to gently coax the discs back to their original position thereby, over time, allowing the herniation between the discs to retreat. This is the natural position in the water with the breast stoke. So I took the plunge. Every day. For 40 minutes a day. For the next year. And it worked wonders.
Icing, standing, swimming, abdominal strengthening, all added up to a relatively rapid mend. I say relatively 'cause the healing time associated with herniated discs is slow indeed. The trick was to establish a daily routine, set up by my physio team and followed religiously. Which was actually so easy to do. All I had to do was think of the pain to be endured if I didn't.
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