For over a year now I have been wearing a back-brace, 23 hours a day, 7 days a week. It has been a pain in the butt to say the least, I couldn't bend at the waist, my spine and all my back muscles ached, my right hip hurt so much at one point that I literally couldn't move my leg let alone walk and worst of all I had to wear it while I was sleeping.
However, tonight I will go to sleep, for the first time in over a year, and be able to toss and turn however I find it to be comfortable. I can bend and run and leap, granted with not much proficiency, but it still feels utterly amazing to be able to do so again; and my hip hasn't bothered me all day, a new record.
This time in the brace has really opened my eyes (yeah I know it's cliche) to how much about my body I took for granted. I didn't realize how enjoyable it was play tag and wrestle on the trampoline with my cousins (their favorite pastime apart from chasing me down and trying to wack me with wooden swords) until I couldn't join in any more. My flexibility has degraded massively as well, whereas before I could do a full splits and not feel that much pain, now I can't even touch my toes and my right leg refuses to raise straight up to my chest, it always swerves to left (away from where the hip-plate used to be on the brace).
Despite this I'm glad that I got the brace, you know why? Because if just a couple more months had passed without my parents noticing my lopsidedness, the brace wouldn't have been enough to fix my back. Do you know what they do then? They fuse 70% of the vertebra in your spine permanently in place, which means a mostly complete loss of flexibility in your upper body.
"Is there a point to all this?" you may ask. Why yes there is, the point is twofold.
1. Don't take the little things for granted (another cliche, but nevertheless true)
2. Don't slouch while playing computer games.
