I can’t tell you how happy I am right now. The joy of being (almost) back to full health after over a year of pain and suffering is indescribable. As the daffodils push through the earth, the sun shines a little brighter, and the birds sing ever louder, I feel as though I, too, am defrosting—coming back to life. I’ve never felt so grateful, even for the tiniest things…

For the last thirteen months, I’ve been recovering from a pretty nasty back injury—an L4/L5 disc herniation pressing on my L5 nerve, causing relentless foot and leg pain on my left side. No back pain, just sciatica. At its worst, it gave me foot drop and numbness. I couldn’t even roll my left foot properly when walking.