You Think You Have Problems… Until You Have Only One Problem

I guess I owe you all a blog post.

Life has been a little… eventful.

Someone once told me, “You may have several problems until you have a health problem. Then you only have one problem.” I now understand exactly what that means.

Looking back, the clues were there all along.

It started with taking a spectacular tumble during the Race to Robie in April. Then came my IT band issues while walking the Camino in Spain in May. Add in a foot drop, a leg that had apparently forgotten how to be strong, and nearly a year of sciatica that insisted on making every night’s sleep an adventure.

For months, I chased every possible solution. Physical therapy? Check. Three steroid injections? Check. Exercises, stretches, and enough appointments to qualify for frequent flyer miles at the medical office? Check.

Unfortunately, the pinched nerve had other plans.

The MRI finally told the whole story, and after meeting with my neurosurgeon, the verdict was clear: this wasn’t something that was going to fix itself. Surgery was my next stop.

Now, here’s my favorite part of the story.

The neurosurgeon walked into the exam room, looked at me, stopped in his tracks, and said,

“Wow… after looking at your MRI, I thought I’d be walking into a room with a decrepit little old lady.”

I just smiled.

Little did he know, I had come straight from working out with my trainer and was still wearing my gym clothes.

Apparently MRIs make me look much older than I feel.

One week later, I was in surgery.

After I woke up, the nurse informed me that it was time to get up and walk.

She helped me around one loop of the hospital floor. When we got back, I asked, “Can we go down that hallway too?”

Why stop now?

About thirty minutes later, my surgeon came in to check on me.

He laughed and said, “I hear you’re an overachiever… keep it up!”

I considered that high praise.

The surprising part has been how good I’ve felt since surgery.

Don’t get me wrong—I know I’m only at the beginning of recovery, and nerves heal on their own timetable. My foot and leg still have some catching up to do, and I’m trying to be patient with the process.

But overall? I’ve felt remarkably good.

I can’t help but think that going into surgery as healthy and as strong as I possibly could made a tremendous difference.

All those workouts. All the protein. All the healthy meals. They weren’t wasted just because I ended up needing surgery. If anything, they became my recovery insurance policy.

These days I’m focusing on exactly what my body needs: plenty of protein, vitamin C, walking, and following my surgeon’s instructions—even when I’d really like to convince him that I’m ready for a few more exercises.

In fact, I’ve already made it back to the gym.

Don’t get too excited. My “workout” currently consists of doctor-approved exercises that barely qualify as a warm-up in my world. I spend most of my time reminding myself that healing isn’t a competition.

Although… I may be calling my surgeon next week to negotiate for a few more exercises.

We’ll see how that goes.

If this whole experience has taught me anything, it’s this:

Being healthy before surgery isn’t just about preventing problems. Sometimes it doesn’t prevent surgery at all.

But it absolutely helps you recover from it.

So if you’re putting off taking care of yourself because you’re waiting for “someday,” don’t.

Build strength now.

Eat the protein.

Take the walk.

Lift the weights.

Because someday, your future self might be lying in a hospital bed, asking the nurse if there’s another hallway to walk down.

And your doctor might just call you an overachiever.

I’ll wear that title proudly.