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3 Months & Counting (Posted 8/8/2016)

Hello everyone. It's about time for another update! Many things have happened in the past three weeks, but I just find it weird that I'm a day away from my three month post-op mark. It feels like it was just yesterday that I was still a freshman at Cornish moving out and trying to prepare for the surgery itself!


July 24th-31st I was able to be in Huntington Beach, CA with my best friend Megan! It was such a perfect getaway, nice and relaxing. It was so great to see her and to be able to escape my reality, even if it was just for a week. I could write about that trip for hours, so I will just keep it at that so I don't begin to ramble.


When I got home, I didn't give myself a break. The next day, I took a contemporary class, taught a class, and went to physical therapy and I did pretty well I have to say! I've been working really hard in my rehabilitation process with physical therapy and massage therapy and it's been helping a lot. At my 6 week appointment, I was put on a nerve pain medication called Gabapentin and just today my doctor told me to up my dose, so I'm hoping that will help my pain management even more. I'm only expected to stay on this medication until the end of September so I'm happy about that since there are side effects that I don't fully appreciate. Safe to say my road to surgery recovery is going as well as it can be.


It is now August 8th, meaning there are only three weeks until I move back up to Seattle to begin my sophomore year at Cornish! I'm really happy that I am in good enough shape to return as that was one of my worst fears going into surgery. For the fall semester however, I am not fully enrolled in all of the dance classes that sophomore's usually take. I will only be enrolled in modern and composition but I am hopefully able to audit classes as the semester goes on and I continue my recovery process. I still am taking 16/18 credits for the semester, so in that case I'm getting ahead with my academic credits needed for my BFA with taking Lighting Design, Creative Writing, Anatomy, and Epidemiology. It was hard mentally to have to drop all of those dance classes knowing that I didn't meet my personal goal of being able to return back full time, but if I think about it, that was a bit unrealistic. I keep forgetting that I am only 3 months out from surgery, but for only being 3 months out, I'm doing really great. The thing that breaks my heart the most is that I do not get to perform in the fall semester show of Cornish Dance Theater. I was looking forward to that the most. I'm really trying not to think about it, especially thinking about show week. At the same time though, so many of my Cornish friends have reached out to me reminding me how much love surrounds me, and that's what is going to keep me going as I ease back into my dancing. In the grand scheme of things, I'm so blessed for the opportunity to still be in the amazing environment that Cornish is while I am continuing my recovery process and trying to figure out how to balance my passion of dancing with a serious chronic illness. I am beyond ready for the challenge of a lifetime.


Today I spent a good hour contacting five different medical places in Seattle for appointments for when I move back up at the end of this month. It was absolutely exhausting, and I realized that this is probably what I'll be doing for many many years to come. I look back and remember the times when the only appointments I had were check ups for my pediatrician, dentist, and eye doctor. I miss that a lot, and I won't ever take my health for granted. I'm so grateful for the huge team of medical personnel, family, friends, and mentors to get me through all of this. #CMstrong

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