Joanna, I am so happy to hear how much better you feel. That had to be a pretty painful experience for you.  It is nice to have you back here on the blog.  I think I speak for everyone when I say you were greatly missed!

I can say that I can relate to a couple of the things you wrote about. I was recently out of work 6 weeks with a herniated disk. I can truly tell you that I found out who my friends are. I belong to a pretty big church. We have a face book prayer page which I had asked for prayer on a couple of times as well as had posted updates here and there. I was disappointed when only two ladies from my church offered their help to the girls and I during this time.

I was in immense pain.  There were days I couldn't even walk. I found out which of my friends were there for me, and which one's were not.  It was eye opening for me as well, Joanna.

I can also relate to your experience with your fall.  There is, indeed, a strong connection between the mind and body and how they interact. You said you don't exactly remember the fall, but in the split seconds it happened, your mind and body reacted in such a way to land you in the safest manner -albeit not pain free, it wasn't life threatening.

I had the same experience a few weeks ago. I had been successfully nursing my back to health and was feeling pretty good, when one afternoon I slipped on a piece of paper in my den. I also had those split seconds to decide how to fall. I didn't need to reinjure my back and somehow I landed on my hands instead of my bottom.

I think my injury offered me an opportunity to slow down. My life is one hectic pace day after day. It was like the injury was a way of telling me that if I wasn't going to slow down on my own, it was going to slow me down.  I was able to get a lot of rest and spend time with my girls. It wasn't always easy since I was in pain, but it was manageable.

Again, glad to see you are feeling better and that you are back here with us, Joanna :)

Tracy