Live & Learn Thursday :: Brain Rest

You all know what time it is! Time for another Live & Learn Thursday link up! This week I will be sharing about the time I learned about brain rest.

I know that things have pretty much been a ghost town around here, but I have a good reason for it. I have been on brain rest for the last few weeks and have slowly been returning to normal life. You see, it all started 15 days ago when Joel and I decided to go night skiing. At the end of the night, seriously on our very last run, I fell. Not a gentle fall. No, it was a head-over-heels several times kind of fall. I totally wiped out and hit my head at least twice. I was wearing my helmet when it happened, thank goodness.

I fell about an hour after taking this picture.

I went home that night with a terrible headache and not much else. Pretty lucky considering my fall. Four days later I ended up in the Emergency Room with extreme neck pain, numbness in my limbs and a horrible headache. After a CT-scan and X-rays I learned that the spill gave me a concussion and a neck sprain. The treatment plan for my injuries was brain rest. I was not to go to work and I was not to use my brain. Um, what? Don't I need to use my brain to breathe? What the heck am I supposed to do all day? Let me tell you, brain rest is horrible.

The first day, I figured I would catch up on trash TV. Watching TV is mind-numbing activity right? So it would be perfect for me. So I watched all my guilty programs, all day from the couch while resting my brain and my neck. Then Joel came home from work and ruined everything. He walked into the living room where I was and he panicked.

Joel: "What are you doing watching TV?"
Me: "What do you mean, what am I doing, I'm on brain rest."
Joel: "The doctor specifically said no TV. You can't watch TV."
Me: "WHAT. No he didn't. I don't remember him saying anything about no TV."
Joel: "Oh my god. You are worse than we thought!"

So that was the end of my TV watching. For days I took turns napping in all the beds in our house, napping on the couch, texting with friends, and staring at the ceiling. Brain rest is the most boring thing I have ever done. It was awful. After a few days, Joel thought it would be okay if I read a book. So I download the next book club book to my kindle and enjoyed having something to do. But it was still really hard not to spend all day working from home, or cleaning my house, or working on blog posts, or doing anything other than napping!

But I am glad that I stuck with it because yesterday I had an appointment with a neurologist who told me that brain is wonderful and I shouldn't trade it in. There is some soreness and numbness but that just means the nerves in my neck are still healing up, but soon I will be back to normal.

So cheers to helmets and husbands - they saved my brain!

Be sure to wear your helmet and be careful out there - you don't want to find yourself on brain rest!

 

Be sure to stop by the link up and see what other lessons are being shared today!

 

XOJO