For documentation sake, the following are Allie and my speeches from Life as a Zebra Foundation’s third annual, “An Evening With Tony Lucca and Chris Trapper to Benefit Invisible Illness Awareness & Research” held at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center on April 12, 2014.

1. Medical Stuff:

• 2 Days of Home Rehab. No PT this week.
• I had OMM on Thursday for my neck and upper back. My ribs are definitely being stubborn lately about staying put, but my doctor was able to work them back into place. Now, if I could just figure out how to keep them there! (I know, I know. More strengthening).
• I got a wiggle seat! My physical therapist recommended it; especially for long car rides. It keeps me moving, so my joints don’t stiffen up as much, and it helps with posture, while making me use my core more.

What a crazy, busy week. I am laying here typing, looking like a zombie, and feeling very thankful to have my feet up right now on this sunny Saturday…

1. Medical Stuff:

• 1 Day of PT. We are trying to do more of alternating muscle groups when I come in. Since I worked my upper body so much last week, I did tons of core, glute, leg, and hip work. Holy burnnnnn.
• 2 Days of Home Rehab. Treadmill; still trying to increase my incline slowly, light weights, scap exercises, toe rises, lunges, proprioception work, and light stretching.
• I saw Larry for my monthly appointment on Tuesday. My first six ribs were subluxed so he focused on my upper back to get everything to calm down and move back into place.

I always said I wanted a tattoo. I just didn’t know what I wanted forever. It was that word, “forever” that got me every time I thought about it. What could I put on my body that would still mean something to me when I was 70? 100?

I liked the way a simple word looked. If you go to my Pinterest page, you will find that over the year, I had pinned a few word tattoos. Faith. Courage. Love.

But again, the “forever” was the thing that got me.

1. Medical Stuff:

• Snowmageddon and the Polar Vortex cancelled PT.
• I got in 3 days of Home Rehab.
• I had prolotherapy Friday morning. (Post to come).
• I saw the gyno Friday afternoon and scared the nurses because my heart rate was over 200 sitting. I am wondering if it was a response to being in pain from the prolo? Right now, I still have quite a bit of pain, but my heart rate is 70. Having POTS is so strange. You never know what your body is going to do. SIDENOTE: Remind me not to schedule other appointments on prolo days. Not sure what I was thinking on that one…