Triumph

In 2015, I hurt my back and my knee. I had been diagnosed with disk protrusion on my L5 ( spinal cord) with Sciatica pain on both sides of my leg running down from my lower back until my toes.  I have undergone all kinds of treatment, I got myself  a cortisone injection on my knee and on my L5 spinal cord in order to help with pain management. I have undergone physiotherapy for at least 6 months, in order to start walking without any pain. When pain was intense, I would not be able to get up to do anything, so I would be lying down all the time. I could not do normal activities like walk, or stand for long time together.

Until I decided no matter what medication I was given, my pain did not get reduced at all. I took it upon my self in 2016, that I cannot be in one place and I have to start moving. So I started going for walks, and found that the only way to manage my pain was to keep myself walking and standing more than sitting in a place.

My husband used to accompany me for these walks and started noticing that I could walk long distances like 3 miles in an hour, without any complain or request to sit down. I gradually increased the distance to 5 miles and some times I could do even 8 miles during the day. Last May 2016, for mother’s day my son got me  an Apple watch, which further motivated me to take even longer walks and also stand for longer time. Which was very amazing.

I love my Apple watch, it has been my personal mentor at times, I would not have done anything. It helped me monitor my daily steps and the amount of calorie, I burn on a daily basis to push me to do more on a regular basis.

During 2015 summer vacation, I would sit in my family couch and not participate with any activities my family would do. But May 2017, was very different when I went to Sri Lanka, we decided to visit Dambulla caves. This is a Buddhist temple, and in order to go up we have to climb 364 steps up or 150 meter up. 2016 summer I would not have done this.

This photo is while climbing Dambulla Cave, I took about 20 to 25 minutes climbing up the hill and taking frequent stops to rest while going up. You can see the steepness of the steps going up.

 

These are some photos, I took when I stopped to take rest with my iPhone 7plus.

This is the picture of me, after I reached the caves and completed my tour of the 5 caves. There are 153 Buddha statues in the cave. There are several painting of Lord Buddha on the cave walls through out the cave.

It was a triumph moment for me after what I had gone through. I did not connect this moment when I had completed the climb, but today I was thinking what should I write for today’s daily prompt: Triumph and that is when I started connecting the dots about myself. We had plan’s to climb Sigirya, this another historical site in Sri Lanka which has 1200 steps to climb up and they say the view is phenomenal with a fort to see on top. One step at a time, I will keep this place in my goal to achieve for the future.

 

Daily Prompt – Triumph.