You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone. I’ve thought about that line more times than I can count over the last 18 months, as I’ve slowly clawed my way back from a back injury that floored me — literally. Much of 2024 was spent in pain. I lost the ability to sit, stand, sleep, walk. Everything I once took for granted was gone, and it tested every ounce of my patience and resilience…

I can’t tell you how happy I am right now. The joy of being (almost) back to full health after over a year of pain and suffering is indescribable. As the daffodils push through the earth, the sun shines a little brighter, and the birds sing ever louder, I feel as though I, too, am defrosting—coming back to life. I’ve never felt so grateful, even for the tiniest things…

For the last thirteen months, I’ve been recovering from a pretty nasty back injury—an L4/L5 disc herniation pressing on my L5 nerve, causing relentless foot and leg pain on my left side. No back pain, just sciatica. At its worst, it gave me foot drop and numbness. I couldn’t even roll my left foot properly when walking.