I was surprised and shocked when I saw my diary of today of last year. I mentioned about jet lag and the nerve pain in my right hip all the way down to the right foot.

New month came in. I had slept in bed most of the time and days in last month. I want to make this month with full of improvements.

Since the injury date, I never walked outside. This month, I will make at least one new progress in my activity. And I will praise myself.

In the very early morning at 6:30 a,m., my husband and daughter went to the grocery store. They chose this early time to avoid lots of other customers in the store. The grocery store has the huge campaign on every Fridays and the whole bunch of customers come to the store, which makes the situation chaos with many mean customers and workers.

After they left, I got out from bed and did the laundry and cooked breakfast. Because the two doctors at the physical therapy office encouraged me to start getting up and try to get back to the normal life, even though I still have pains on my back and right leg, I decided to do house chores. It has been the first time that I could fully cook meal since the injury date.

When my family came back home and saw me in the kitchen, they were so happy for me.

Even though I still have pains and still shed tears about pains, thanks to the PT doctors, I have hope that I will be able to get back to the normal state again.

In the evening at 6 p.m., I watched the online homeopathy live cases, while my husband and daughter went to the local Halloween events. They enjoyed the light up decorations on cars and houses, and showed lots of pictures to me. I am glad they had good time on Halloween events.

I went to the physical therapy appointment at 1:30 p.m. A young female doctor was assigned to me. Since it was my very first appointment, both of the female doctor in charge of me and the owner/experienced male doctor checked my physical condition. The female doctor pressed my spine one by one by using her fingers carefully and slowly, and the male doctor rubbed the side of my right foot carefully and slowly. They both asked me questions if it hurts or not and how it hurts. Both of them did the treatment together for about 10 minutes or so. It hurts but at the same time, I could really feel their good intention that they are willing to help me and heal me.

After the treatment, the female doctor told me to stand up. I doubted my ears. I told her I cannot because I have been in bed for the past three weeks. The female doctor cheered me up that I can stand up. So, I slowly sat up on the massage table and put my legs on the floor, and tried to stand up. There, I could stand up by myself without anybody’s support. I could not believe that I could do so. I unintentionally made a voice, WOW!! The both doctors craped their hands and praised me. I shed tears of happiness.  

The male receptionist was surprised when I came out by walking. He was happy for me that I went in the room with a wheelchair, and after 45 minutes physical therapy session, I came out walking by myself. I appreciate these doctors and the receptionist for giving me hope. I was filled with hope that I will be able to walk normally with these doctors’ support.

After I came back, after about two hours passed, the nerve pain in the right foot and the intense pain in the right butt came back. But my feeling was totally different before and after the physical therapy. Now I am strong because I have hope to heal without a surgery.

In the middle of the night at 3 a.m., again I talked with my Japanese friend over the phone. I know she is very busy with her work and professional homeopath course study, but she shared her precious time with me, listening to me and cheering me up. I appreciate her kind support.

Yesterday my shingle was calmed down and I was happy about it. Today the shingle symptom came back and it has the intense pain with the burning hot sensation. The shingle adds up the pain and makes the situation worse.

Today I could go to the kitchen and cook the food for my family. I also washed dishes. I prepared for the bath and got in and out to the bath tub all by myself without my family’s support.

I guess I pushed myself so hard. At night the pain was so intense that I could not sleep even though I took the strong pain reliever medications. The most painful area was the back of the right calf.

I received an email that tells the recent ER visit bill of more than $4,000. It was shocking but at the same time, the good news is that I am still alive and have been improving the wellness situation. On that day the pain was intense that I had no option but to get the ER doctor’s support.

I had a bowel movement and the stool was healthy size and hardness. In a day time, I forced myself to move around with the support of a stool as a walker. I could cook some food in the kitchen, and it made me happy and relaxed. Cooking is one of my hobbies to soothe and relax.

My shingle has been calming down. The intense pain in the right butt has been calming down. The only place that has a constant intense pain is the nerve pain in the right foot, especially around the toe pinky and the side of the foot on the right foot.

Since I haven’t walked for three weeks, just a few steps with the support of something makes me dizzy and I need to lay down on the floor or the couch. Even a few steps walking triggers the pain in the butt area. I cannot keep standing more than three minutes.

I had a dream. I haven’t had any dream since the injury day. I was with my husband in our backyard. One snake came into our backyard. The snake got rid of a cockroach for us. We thanked the snake and the snake stayed with us since then. I woke up comfortably.

I know a snake in a dream means a good luck financially. I thought a cockroach represents my nuisance. I wish this dream will come true that something or somebody will get rid of my nuisance on behalf of me.

My husband and I left the house around 8 a.m. headed for a back doctor. Even though I arrived at their office before the appointment time, they had me to wait for a long time. I was irritated about the long waiting time. Finally, the back doctor came in the office. The back doctor was a young causation male in his late 20s or early 30s. At first glance, both of my husband and I knew he is eager to practice on surgery. I knew he would strongly suggest me to have a surgery. We were right. He strongly suggested to have a surgery. As a matter of fact, he said a surgery is the only option for me to be able to walk like before. I didn’t agree with him. I asked to refer a physical therapy instead. He was reluctant but wrote down a referral to a physical therapy.

At the parking lot, my husband called the physical therapy office. The female receptionist was thoughtful. She recommended us to stop by at the physical therapy office to see the facility and meet the staff members there. We followed her advice. At the physical therapy office, the young male receptionist warmly welcomed us and showed us around inside the facility. When I mentioned to the male receptionist what the back doctor told me that my only option was to have a surgery, he said that the physical therapy functions almost same as a surgery and the majority of their patients got better without having a surgery. I made an appointment with the physical therapy session after four days from today. I appreciate this opportunity came up to me.   

I am proud of myself to have made small improvements.

The first improvement was that I wen to the laundry room by crawling and stood up by supporting myself with holding onto the washing machine, and hang laundry to hangers and clips. I could not walk to the backyard with the clothes, so I asked my daughter to brought them to the backyard and hung them. But at least, I did some parts of the laundry procedure.

The second improvement was that I crawled to the kitchen and stood up by supporting myself with holding onto the kitchen counter. I took out several ingredients from the refrigerator and cut them. Since October 9^th, I haven’t cook anything by myself. Cutting vegetables with a kitchen knife was soothing for me. I love cooking and I was glad that I could cook.

The third improvement was that I could enter the bath tub and got out from the bath tub by myself. It was my very first time since the injury day to take a bath by myself. For these 18 days, I needed my family’s support for getting in and out from the bath tub. Now I can do so by crawling. It took longer time to do so, but I am so happy for taking care of myself.

I cannot stand up by myself without holding onto anything yet. But I am so happy for my small progresses.

At middle of the night at 3 a.m., I talked with my Japanese friend for one hour. I appreciate her support. After I talked about my small improvements to my friend, I felt good

In the middle of the night at 2 a.m., I again talked with my friend over the phone about the homeopathy counseling session.

After we finished our conversation, I tried to get some sleep, but couldn’t due to the intense pain of the right foot.

Around 3 a.m., I felt the sudden pain in my stomach. On the next moment, I felt the sudden sensation of the stool. Because I still had the intense pain in my right foot and back, unfortunately though, I couldn’t get out from bed and run to the bathroom. I hurried to the bathroom, but right before the bathroom door, the watery stool involuntarily released. I got shocked. At that time, I completely forgot about the stool softener pills that I have had taken. I took two of the pills one week ago or so. I continued taking the pills three days but didn’t happen anything. That was why I completely forgot about it.  

I went back to my bed and then, after 10 minutes or so, another strong tummy ache came. I again hurried to the bathroom, but couldn’t make it to the toilet and released on the floor. This pattern happened another couple of times. I ended up throwing three of my underwear due to the unexpected release.    

I will never take the stool softener anymore.

In the early morning at 3:30 a.m., I talked with my friend over the phone. I cannot sleep due to pain and stay awake in this time from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. every day. Luckily my 3:30 a.m. is 7:30 p.m. in Japan and it is good time for my Japanese friend. We were so delighted about the great news that I will be able to have a homeopathy counseling session from homeopathy teacher tomorrow. It is amazing.

In the morning before 8 a.m., my husband drove me to the clinic to take an X-ray. There, the technician escorted me in front of the X-ray equipment and told me to stand still by myself without supporting my body. I told him it was impossible that I could not support myself, but he was very old that probably he didn’t hear what I said. It was so painful but I forced myself to stand by myself holding my breath without supporting my body for some minutes. I hated the time.

In the evening at 5:00 p.m., I joined the zoom room for the homeopathy counseling.  From 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., for one hour, I had the homeopathy counseling session.

The pain was so intense that I had a tough time in releasing urine. The longest one was 9 hours that I could not release urine since 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.