Anna Levesque (00:01.272)
Hi there, welcome back to the show. I am 10 weeks into my healing journey for my herniated disc. And in today’s episode, I want to give an update and share what I wish I had known or what I wish I had been told or if I was told it, then I wish I had listened.

before I got hurt or before I pushed myself over the edge in the hopes that maybe it will help you or someone you know. So I am feeling so much better. I’m so grateful. The sciatic pain has subsided a lot. I’m actually sitting to record this podcast, which is a big deal because for the first, definitely for the first four weeks, I could

not sit like hardly at all and now I can sit somewhat comfortably, carefully but comfortably and this past weekend I actually went up to Roanoke from Asheville and my amazing supportive husband Andrew drove me there because driving is still, I’m driving with more comfort but it’s still not the best.

And so it’s helpful to be able to sit in the passenger seat and recline change, you know, be able to change position. And I taught or led, should say an ACA instructor development workshop, a whitewater kayak, actually L3, L4, whitewater kayak instructor development workshop from my standup paddleboard, which I’ve never done before. And it actually worked out great.

And the reason I wanted to be on my stand-up board, obviously sitting is still touch and go. Sitting in a kayak, I haven’t even tried to sit in a kayak now in over in 10 weeks. I’m hoping within the next month, perhaps I’ll be able to explore that. But when I’m on my stand-up board, I can kneel and then I can step off my board easily if I need to change position.

Anna Levesque (02:25.024)
And it was fine going down some rapids and I can really control not twisting on when I’m paddling the board. And I could even stand up and paddle in flat water, know, in mellow stuff, which was, which felt nice. Again, very carefully. So the, this injury is challenging me to think outside the box. I have actually.

rescheduled most of my programming, particular, my instructor courses, I’ve been able to, as long as I have someone to help drive me, they’ve been okay to lead. anyway, that was a good challenge and I felt like it had a positive outcome. And in fact,

I feel my back has felt better and I haven’t been on pain meds since I was on my standup board all weekend. And it just goes to show for me more this I’m at a point where more movement like incorporating a little bit more movement and activity is really helpful. I’ve been walking a lot and just walking a lot, embracing walking, PT.

And I’m just really grateful for my pelvic floor, PT, my chiropractor, and my roll for, roll thing is also called structural integration. It’s a form of, a form of body work that has been really helpful. So I’ve had so much support and, and yeah, so I’m grateful for all that. What I wish I had paid more attention to, one is my ego. So I was definitely cocky.

I’ve had, I’ve been having sciatic pain and like some back soreness for over a year or not quite a year. Sorry, not quite a year. And it did get better when I took some time off paddling last fall. And I didn’t think that I could get a herniated disc because I took such good care of myself and practiced yoga and did all the things. And so

Anna Levesque (04:43.318)
I wish I had let go of my ego and when Andrew had been encouraging me to go to the doctor earlier that I had listened. So I wish I’d checked my ego at the door and understood that even though I take really good care of myself, I can still get injured and seriously. So that’s one. And by the way, thank you to all of you who sent in resources.

when I asked for them and have shared your stories and especially those of you who sent in the recommendation for the book Back Mechanic by Stuart McGill, that was super helpful. So again, the support has been amazing.

Another thing I wish I had understood, which now I do, is that kayaking, and I sort of understood this, but kayaking is hard on the low back. Like, sitting and twisting puts a lot of torque on the low back. And deadlifting puts a lot of pressure, I don’t know the exact terms, but is hard on the low back.

And there’s so many trainers, doctors, menopause specialists who are encouraging women, I’m 51, women in their 50s and perimenopause and menopause to lift heavy. And I don’t doubt the science. And I was, I’m all about it. you know, yes, I’m currently healing an injury, but otherwise I feel very strong and active and thriving.

at this stage of life. And so I jumped on that train and I wanted to get back to lifting heavy stuff. And I worked with a trainer. And when I was working with the trainer, I could regulate myself. When I wasn’t with the trainer was when my ego would take kind of like, I wanted to do like harder stuff. And sometimes I didn’t totally understand the workouts and I did too much. And, and I was doing a lot of

Anna Levesque (06:55.672)
deadlifts and there was also, because sciatica, because I’d been having sciatic pain, I was recommended to strengthen my glutes, which fair enough, because especially kayaking does, people who kayak a lot tend to have

Sleepy glutes, think people in general tend to have sleepy glutes and deadlifts are really good for sleepy glutes. I do remember saying to my PT at the time, deadlifts actually aggravate my sciatic pain. And at the time they all they, it was just surprised like, huh, that’s weird. And everyone does

you know, everyone is doing their best with the level of awareness they have. What I wish I had known was that if I’m trying to strengthen my glutes and I’m doing dead lifts and that worsens the sciatic pain, I need to go see someone about my back. It could be pointing to a disc issue in my back. And…

putting to being extra careful with deadlifts. So this is that, and this is for me, I’m just sharing my process, what happened with me, right? This is not like medical advice or anything. And I wish I had gone to get imaging way sooner and gone to the doctor, like I mentioned, I wish I had listened to Andrew sooner and people had also…

I was in conversations where people would say, well, getting imaging doesn’t, it won’t really make a difference. It doesn’t really show anything. My chiropractor was encouraging me to get imaging, which I’m grateful for. And I got the MRI. I mean, sorry, I had an X-ray and at first we thought it was L3, L4, cause that’s what the X-ray showed. And then when I got my MRI, there was so much more detail and it was so worth it.

Anna Levesque (09:17.294)
to get the correct information and to get a baseline and to know what was going on. Totally worth the investment of getting the MRI. so I would just, if I were to do it all over again, one, I would stop deadlifting. I would recognize that there was probably something going on with my back earlier. I would have gone to the doctor and gotten imaging.

And to be fair to Helene, really like my chiropractor’s office flooded during Helene, so she wasn’t practicing for several months. So I typically would see her once a month and I didn’t see her for months after Helene. that’s, know, life happens, stuff happens. And so those are the things I wish I had known. And I’m grateful for my education, even though it’s been a lot

Anna Levesque (10:40.702)
I just really enjoy being in nature, honestly, and connecting with nature, whether it’s connecting with the river, connecting with the woods, walking out into my backyard, which I started doing barefoot, has been really healing through this process. so giving up kayaking, yes, I wish I could be kayaking, and at the same time, I want to heal this well.

because the pain was so excruciating. I do not want to go through that again. It is worth it to give something up for three to four months and heal than to be stubborn about trying to get back in my boat. So walking from the mindset, walking in PT, PT has been super helpful. And I do it because I had a yoga practice before. I think I’ve already mentioned this.

It was easy to integrate that. Walking outside barefoot connecting with the earth has been super helpful. From a mindset perspective, doing yoga nidra, which is yoga sleep, or it’s also called non-sleep deep rest. I was doing it daily for a while. I like actually doing yoga nidra because it has the spiritual aspect and the…

setting an intention aspect, which I think is very suggestive for healing. When in yoga nidra, you relax your body so much that it’s like your body’s asleep, but your mind is active, not overactive, but attentive and focusing on different things as you’re guided through. And that helps you be very suggestible. And it helps to be, you know, have the

subconscious mind focusing also on your intention. And my intention was freedom in my body, freedom in my mind and complete healing of my back and my leg. And then also I really appreciate Joe Dispenza’s changing boxes meditations and guided meditations on generating the feelings of how you want to feel at the end of the healing process. So again,

Anna Levesque (13:03.864)
focusing on freedom in my body, freedom in my mind. So those are things that have been super helpful for me in addition to training myself to sleep on my back with the towel rolled under and heating pad. so that’s been a process and grateful that I believe that I can do that.

I’ve been sleeping through the night the last several nights. So that’s been super helpful because sleep is such an important aspect of healing.

So that’s that’s what I that’s how I’m doing and how a little update on yeah how I’m let’s just redo that so that’s an update on how I’m doing what I wish I had known maybe this could be helpful for you or someone you know and I’m very grateful again for all of the support

and resources. you for listening and I will see you or.

We’ll have another episode next week.