healthy living – We Only Get One Chance

COVID CHAOS

I am writing this from inside some massive COVID chaos! I don’t even know exactly what to call it anymore except for that. (And when I refer to it this way, I am not talking lightly about it. This has been and is very serious as many have been very sick and even lost their lives. This is written from a safe place at home in good health with deep respect for the severity of it all.)

COVID chaos is one of the reasons that this blog has been on delayed because I didn’t know the best way to go about getting a new laptop anyway. I know I could have just ordered one and had it shipped to me but I am such a “hands on” (pun intended from this chiropractor) person and I like to touch and feel things prior to purchasing.

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Dr Erica Peabody - COVID chaos

So as I mentioned in the previous blog post, I got a great recommendation from a very knowledgeable person and just pulled the trigger. The experience with Best Buy was seamless and here we are.

So one week later I was noticing that my phone battery would hold a charge for a few hours and then I would have to plug it back in, I would be charging it 2-3 times per day. THEN, last Sunday morning I went on a kayak tour with my niece and nephew and put my cell phone in the “dry” compartment of my kayak…quotes intended. Well turns out it wasn’t dry and it sat in there while I did a few more errands in a bit of water unknown to me.

I put it in a bag of rice and later that day I accidentally dropped it and smashed the screen. On the computer with Verizon for 2 hours on Monday morning through their live chat section…they would say “Well just call us and we can handle it over the phone.” “Call you? With WHAT?!?!?!” Two hours later I have a new phone to be picked up at the local store, or so I thought, until I got an email with shipping information and tracking…now they decide they will ship to me.

Of course they try to deliver to my office during my lunch hour yesterday and missed us so they were going to try again today…Friday, when nobody is there. SO, now they will hold it where it is this morning and I will attempt to go and pick it up at the UPS location…except for I have done this before and they ask for an ID. Which is fine but they usually need the ID address to match the shipping address, except for it doesn’t match because the address on my driver’s license is my home, and this was headed to the office. This should be interesting.

I have seen many patients this past week and it seems this kind of chaos is happening all over. We are all ready to be released to a life of a bit more freedom and some familiar places and processes. The frustrations are high and the quarantine has gotten the best of many.

We are almost there. When things do open up, many will return to some old patterns and routines, and some have taken on an entirely new existence where the radius for desire for daily travel is reduced a lot and each of those is perfectly fine and well.

I have been in solitude for a good portion of the quarantine when I am not at my work. I enjoy the quiet of life, I always have, but I will also enjoy the more “hands on” experience of some of the things we took for granted prior to all of this.

We have all become a little more innovative with our personal and professional lives through this incredible time. The important things have bubbled up to the surface of our awareness and the people that are the most important inside of our lives are front and center. When it all boils down, a laptop and a cell phone are truly “first-world” problems and I realize these are insignificant problems compared to what others around the globe are dealing with and these are not real problems in the grand scheme of things, just using them for examples.

The COVID chaos has been eye-opening, everyone taking a “time out” from their normal lives has been challenging but good. It is going to be nice to get back to SOME of the things we enjoyed about the conveniences of life prior to all of this and NEVER taking any of it for granted again. Our freedoms are broad and wide in this time and place. I hope you and yours are safe and well and I will continue to pray for those who are sick and suffering.

NEW

WOW!! Is life crazy or what? It feels all brand new. But not like the super great brand new that we have been wanting and looking forward to, more like a new that hit us smack in the face, shoved our noses into it and said “Here!!! FIGURE IT OUT!!!”

I know we are all in this same kind of boat although we are not navigating the exact same waves, I know that for sure. Some are working from home while also learning to teach school. Some are displaced from life or work or family or whatever it is…but we are all out here doing our very best with the unknows. It literally feels like most of life is filled full of unknowns.

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan Dr Erica Peabody - New

You haven’t heard from me through this format in a long time as navigating it all has pushed blogging to the back burner. One other stumbling block is my laptop was on its last leg for a few months. I would begin writing here or inside of an office newsletter and in the middle, prior to be able to save it, it would kick me all the way back off and discard all that I had written. Life has taken a lot of extra energy lately and so trying to deal with that as well was just plain frustration.

So I ordered a new laptop and braved the curbside pick-up they had set up and honestly it was seamless and rather delightful!! So I now have a brand new machine to communicate with you better. I am excited to move forward with this blog and creating other content as we all learn to navigate this brand new life.

I take solace in writing and sharing in this manner and hopefully it remains interesting and entertaining as I share tips and trick, but probably more brutal honesty as we move through the stories of life: mine, my practice, friends, colleagues, being a dog mom, my family….on and on we will go. Check back here regularly and of course all of these posts will be shared on my social media platforms.

Years ago, I named this blog “We Only Get One Chance” and I still live and eat and breathe by that tagline in my day to day. Maybe now, more than ever before, others have really increased their awareness around that as well, that we really do get only one chance. It is time to make the very best of it!!

New computer, new life, many unknows and a new commitment to sharing and helping in any way I can. Stay tuned!!

GROUCHY

She is grouchy…or finicky. Yeah, finicky is probably a better way to describe her.

The old girl, Big Blue as we have so adoringly named her, has been good to us so far.

We are working on week number 3 here and we are enjoying our time and our transition. It is different than just closing one door and opening another one in a different office space and getting to business.

It is time well spent feeling her out and figuring out how to manage all of the intricacies and quirks that make her so dang lovable.

She is warmer than would be expected on cold days and colder than expected on warm days except some areas are colder than others and warmer than others. Ugh.

The original builder, AJ Phillips, put the walls together by stacking two by fours on top of one another and then plaster and lath over that, not normal stud distance, like literally one on top of another. It is pretty astounding actually. We have a couple HUGE pocket doors and if you look inside the pockets, you can see the construction pattern…and to think those were put in place, by hand, one by one, 130 years ago. WOW that is some serious labor!!!

AND!!!! Not to mention the woodwork that adorns the entire space on all three floors The first floor is our Cafe of LIFE Chiropractic Center and has so many special things about it…but the second and third floors are absolutely spectacular as well. We are so excited to be able to open that second story to all of you and be able to rent the third story, one bedroom and one bath apartment. All in due time.

We love how much you all have loved her so far and we invite those that haven’t had a chance to swing by and experience the space to swing in! We hold open adjusting hours one Saturday per month and although we will have patients here getting adjusted, if you happen to be out and about around town this coming Saturday, October 6th, stop by and swing in! We will be here 9a-11a.

My staff comes to me with things they have noticed or things they need in this new space. It seems as though my

lunchtimes have been converted to “repair time” and grabbing lunch while working on a project! But that is okay, as we know that she will always be a work in progress but we will become a little more familiar with her needs and quirks as the time goes by.

When life took a turn and I needed to move to a different spot to be able to get one of my rentals leased out, I decided I would stay here and get to know her. My conversation with my mom that evening went “I am just going to triple-dog-dare myself to stay for the night and just see what happens. If you don’t mind, just please do not lock your door in case I get spooked and end up having to come out there.” I did fine from the first night but definitely wasn’t such a huge fan of having to go into the basement after dark. Now my attitude is like “sure girl! Whatever you need right now is good with me. Oh you need me to tend to something in the basement at midnight? Absolutely!! I will be right there!”

It is the strangest thing that I feel like I should leave a babysitter for her when Mike and I head out of town! I have never had the feeling but Mike thinks it is ridiculous!!! I just laugh at myself that the thought even crosses my mind at all. The great thing is that she sits right in the middle of a town that is so connected and wonderful and I am certain that if there was something going on, 30-50 people would be on the phone texting and calling me right away and so I thank you!!!

Please watch out for her. Mike and I have most of it handled but we need eyes and ears around for this grouchy old gal!!! …I mean finicky.

She is a gem and I think it has taken a bit for her to get used to all of us!!! There is a lot of new and fun energy inside of this space during our days and we have already had a HUGE engagement celebration!! …in fact that party is what gives me so much certainty that 30-50 of you would call and text if something goes bad because of the amount of people that made remarks about that party a couple Friday’s ago, “my kids pointed to that place and said, ‘Hey Mom! Can we go there?’ since it looked like something fun was going on when we drove by” are the kind of messages we got that following week.

We love her. We are so excited to plan our wedding to be hosted within these beautiful walls in early March, just 5 months away.

A phrase we hear over and over again around here, from me, my team and all those that visit, “if only these walls could talk!”

We are continuing to create a story here at Big Blue, stories of healing and health and wellness and life and living and family and the amazing power of the chiropractic adjustment that would make the forefathers of this great profession proud. There are pictures in the infancy phases of chiropractic that were taken in places just like this. Big Blue was born in 1889-91 time frame (seems the history was maybe she took 2 solid years to build) and chiropractic was born in 1895. It feels so, so very right to be here doing what we are doing.

Although she is grouchy, or I mean finicky (just looked that word up in the dictionary: fussy about one’s needs and desires <—sounds about RIGHT!) I think we have an incredible thing started that these walls will want to tell stories about for years to come!!! Stop in and join us this Saturday 9-11am!!!

RUNNING AGAIN

I am beyond excited to be running again!

I completed my first 5K over this past weekend.

5K may not seem like anything to write home about (blog about) however it is a really big deal.

If you have been reading right along with my shares, you know I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in March of last year. It was an incredible experience (CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO LOG OF THE TREK) and landed me shortly thereafter in an immobilization walking boot. I lived in that boot for 6 months.

I haven’t told you this yet but many many people, after seeing me hobble around in the boot for months, ask me “Well was it worth it?”

HECK TO THE YES IT WAS WORTH IT!!! There is no question about that.

I learned some incredible lessons while in that boot and the most important has been patience.

I am a chiropractor at Cafe of LIFE Chiropractic in downtown Fenton, Michigan. Being a chiropractor is one of my most favorite roles in my life and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Being an integral part of people’s healthcare team is amazing and fun and rewarding. I help people that are striving to get back to health, as well as, those that want to be and stay healthy. Chiropractic care is for just about everyone!

Those that visit me in serious acute pain often have this dreaded feeling of “life is always going to be this hard and painful.” I don’t know why but humans are hard-wired to think “worst case scenario” and think that whatever is going on will always be going on. It comes out of fear and frustration and it is warranted AND in a short time are feeling better.

I have a lot of those times of thinking “life will always be this way.” My thoughts went there as I was approaching 4 and 5 months in that boot. I finally got to a place where I fully accepted that if I was going to have to wear that boot for the rest of my life, I would be alright with it. It would shift a lot of my hopes and dreams for what I want to do physically with the remainder of my years but if that was how it was going to be, may as well not fight it.

In my mind I succumbed to the idea of not being able to walk around my neighborhood comfortably again. Maybe I would never snowboard again. Maybe I will never run again.

That is sad. It is still sad looking back on those feeling and just how real and raw they were. This “boot camp” was not a couple week thing, this went on for MONTHS!!!

For the holidays, I went away to the beach for a week with Mike and great friends. I decided I would walk the beach barefoot and build some strength and mobility in my foot. I did that. It still hurt but I was alright with that.

When the New Year rolled around and I still had the pain, I decided I would stop remaining in limbo and I would get back to my weekly step aerobics class at Genesys Athletic Club and begin to run. If I jarred the foot enough, it would move past this nagging injury and maybe I would end up in surgery or something, but at least I wouldn’t be in limbo. I decided I would break it or fix it but I was going to start really using it again.

The first step class was January 2nd. I was going. Even if I didn’t use any risers underneath my step, I was going to go, make deliberate movements in class and have some fun again. WOW!!! SO MUCH PAIN that afternoon. Maybe that was not a good idea???

But the next day it was better, I returned to my usual workouts…and the day after that was even better.

My next test…what if I start running on it? I did 1/4 mile. That HURT!!! But it was better the next day. I did 1/2 mile and that was painful…but it was even better the next day. On and on with step and running over a few weeks time until I built my distance back up to complete a 5K this past weekend.

I was nervous to start that race. I was nervous to even drive up to the venue. “What if I cannot make the 5K happen?” “What if I stress it on the snow and ice covered trail and I set myself backwards again?”

Then I remember my plan of pushing it to the point it either breaks or fixes and I settled into the idea.

The drive took almost 2 hours and I had waves of ideas back and forth between this is a great decision and this is a bad decision. I have a bit of PTSD after being in that much pain for that long.

Then I remember looking back over some of the “boot camp” time and realizing how devastated I was to think I would never run again and here I was going to be able to at least try and I got choked up in tears of gratitude to just be that far started to fall.

Mike was there. He has a race management company as a side business called TRI To Finish. Their company was hosting the run and honestly I am always stronger and more confident with that kind of cheering squad!!

I did it. I ran the entire 5K on uneven snow/ice covered trail. I will never be setting records with my paces and I will never ever make it on a podium but I won in my mind. It wasn’t a battle against my foot, it was more a battle for feeling whole again, feeling capable again. That medal means more to me than most of my long distance medals I hang in the lobby of my office.

That medal symbolizes healing, patience, support, gratitude and persistence and the fact that I am so happy to be running again.