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A lot has happened in my life since the last blog post. Beginning with the first, I started a certificate program this past March with CNM Ingenuity for Digital Marketing. I finally scored money in the form of a WIOA grant to pay for the program. I had been looking at this program for several years, as it pertains to my current job and career path. As soon as I started the program, I damaged a nerve in the shoulder that I just had surgery on a year prior. The shoulder surgery took 8 months of physical therapy and a projected year to a year and a half to heal from. When I damaged a nerve from working out too hard in the gym this past March, I had just hit the 1 year recovery mark for my shoulder surgery. Because I was having trouble writing, typing, and was dropping things, I was sent back to physical therapy to undergo more physical therapy.  I then completed physical therapy for 3 months and unfortunately had to go on a medical hold with my school program I had just started. I started working out at the gym before damaging the nerve in my shoulder mostly because I had gained 40 pounds after my shoulder surgery, and after getting on an anti-depressant, an anti depressant that had the main side effect of weight gain. That is why I had started working out at the gym, since I cannot be overweight because of having a bad knee. I have pretty bad knee issues including patella-formal arthritis grade 3, from knee issues I have been I dealing with since my first meniscal repair surgery in 2012. So I have to maintain a healthy weight not just because of appearance, but also due to the grade 3 arthritis in my knee.

The type of shoulder surgery I had in March 2021 was actually considered 2 shoulder surgeries in one. Since I had chronic shoulder dislocation, my shoulder surgery had a longer recovery time than just a normal arthroscopic shoulder surgery, since it involved fixing a fully torn labrum as well as a torn rotator cuff. The procedure I had is called a Bankart Remplissage repair. I had 3 professional opinions from Orthopaedic doctors look at my shoulder and only 2 of them had experience with this type of shoulder surgery repair. By the time I had surgery, my shoulder had dislocated a total of 6 times. It was considered critical and not elective by the time I had the procedure.

After completing 3 months of physical therapy this past summer, I started to have issues with my knee. Since March 2021 up until now, I lost 20 pounds. I still needed to loose 20 more pounds to be at a healthy weight for my knee and the patella-formal arthritis I had been dealing with for several years. This past August, I sustained a slip and fall in my condo, due to slipping on a hard wood floor and my knee buckling. This caused my knee to give out and I fell face forward into and hit my eye brow in the back of the corner of a chair in my room. It felt like I had been punched in the fact when I hit the chair, and I was knocked out it for a couple of minutes. Dazed and confused afterwards, I realized my eyebrow was gashed and bleeding excessively. I had a large gash and it looked like I needed stitches. Since I live less than a mile away and it was already past midnight, I decided just to drive myself to the hospital. On the way there, anyone driving on the road that night would have thought I was drunk, as I swerved pretty badly and hit a median. Luckily, I go to the hospital safely, although it is not at all recommended to drive after a concussion. I got 5 stitches in my eyebrow and was diagnosed with a moderate concussion. A couple of months later, I had another slip and fall getting out of my shower. This time, I fell completely on my right side, and slammed myself on the tiled flooring. I barely missed hitting the toilet and falling with my arm out. I was able to roll my arm and fall completely on my shoulder, the shoulder I just had surgery on. Fortunately the only injuries I had were a mild concussion from hitting my head on the floor and a large contusion on my leg. Luckily there were no broken bones.

After getting an MRI, I realized I had a torn meniscus. I suspected that there was something more going on in my knee besides just the patella-formal arthritis I had been dealing with for a few years prior. I also saw in the imaging that I had a Bakers cyst on the back of my knee cap. My Orthopaedic doctor informed me that I needed to get surgery to repair the meniscus tear and that he could drain the Bakers Cyst, as well as try to repair some of the cartilage damage in my knee. I will be undergoing knee surgery a week from tomorrow.

Ever since damaging the nerve in my shoulder last March and being sent back to Physical therapy for 3 months, then sustaining 2 falls afterwards due to knee instability and being told I now need knee surgery, I haven’t had much time to focus on this blog! I wanted to introduce myself in this blog and share some of my story.  I will be focusing less on my personal experiences and writing more general topics from a non-fictional, non-personal point of view. Going forward, I will be writing topics on spirituality, psychology, holistic health, alternative medicine, nutrition, and sobriety. I shared my story to give the reader some perspective on my background, to understand my  experience and point of view with the subjects I will be touching on in this blog! I hope it helps or inspires others to take care of their whole health: mental, physical, and spiritual. All three of these are connected and needed to maintain overall wellness.