Bedridden to Bike Riding in Four Months

MY HISTORY — ORIGINALLY POSTED JUNE 12, 2024 ON INSTAGRAM@THEPOINTOFYOU

Four months ago, I was doing morning yoga, and my sacroiliac joint gave way, causing severe muscle spasms and sprains in my pelvis and low spine. I literally couldn’t hold myself upright. This is the repetitive injury, that started when I was 15 years old and forced me to give up a professional ballet career in my early 20s … that I’ve experienced on and off throughout my life … only it had never been this bad before.

It took me 1.5 hours to get from the floor into bed, with Bryan’s help, and another hour to get downstairs (when we realized that’s where the only bathroom is in our house). The next morning, it took me 2.5 hours just to figure out how to roll myself from my back onto my side and stomach, without straining the SI joint and triggering excruciating muscle spasms, just so that I could go to the bathroom.

I spent 5 weeks working, eating and sleeping in bed and then slowly building back the strength to sit up, stand up and walk, without a brace, at my normal pace.

On Monday, four months after the injury, I finally was able to take my first real bike ride, again. It was only 10 miles, on the stretch of the Historic Columbia River Highway between Hood River and Mosier. My leg muscles were more tired than I want to admit, but my back held out (with support from a brace), and it felt so wonderful to be pedaling in low gear up a gently sloping hill on a paved road through old tunnels, next to such gorge-eous scenery …. much sooner than anyone expected I’d be able to.

Lots of letting go and new beginnings this year. Feeling so happy and grateful!