Entries tagged with back

Current Location: The Big Gay Hill

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I understand now why Madonna is so sinewy and muscular. It's Pilates. I did my first class last night. I was invited by my Physical Therapist to come to her class at the clinic. She's teaching free classes while she becomes a Pilates instructor. I really couldn't ask for a better teacher than someone who knows exactly where I'm injured. The hour went by really quickly but Pilates is a very different workout than I expected. I can't believe anyone compares it to yoga at all. It's nowhere near like yoga. I like both a lot but for very different reasons. I liked that Pilates was less serious and I could actually laugh at myself when I wasn't able to roll up on my upper back. My own personal definition of Pilates would be: effective strength training using yourself as the weights.

The Pilates class last night combined with Monday's spinning class has me feeling like today needs to be a rest day. Although not really since I'll be walking to work and back. I'm feeling more hopeful this week that by the time March rolls around I will be ready for triathlon training again.

I slept so hard last night. My head hit the pillow at 9:45 and I didn't open my eyes again until 6 when I had to pee. I cannot remember the last time I had a night like that. I feel rested but I'd really like to stay home this morning and lie around.

Current Location: the big gay hill

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Ugh. and double ugh.

While parking my car this evening I accidentally scraped the car in front of me on the bumper. Normally, if it's just a bumper and there's no damage, I'd just drive away; but it looked like there was a good scrape on one of the more plasticy parts of the bumper. The parking space was obviously far too small for even my little car to fit into. I started searching around for a pen and could not find one anywhere. Not in my bag, not in the glovebox, nowhere. I was feeling kind of stressed and this GIANT child molester van pulled up behind me. I was on a street I'm not particularly fond of due to it's narrow width. I had to move so the creepy van could get by. I went and found another parking space then ran home to get a pen and paper. I went back to leave a note on the car and either they already moved it, there was no scratch and I'm just seeing things, or they're out hunting for red cars and revenge. Either way I feel bad. Good reason to keep a pen in your car. Sigh.

I saw a naturopathic doctor who specializes in physical medicine yesterday. Basically a ND/physical therapist. I feel like I'm finally taking good steps towards healing my back, or at least making it feel better. He did a full and thorough assessment and found it alarming that it's been hurting for 5 years and no one has yet taken an x-ray or MRI. I think part of it is that I hurt it when I was 25. I never sought proper medical care back then because I was young and dumb and when I finally did, I didn't see the right person. I'm getting x-rays next week and possibly more tests depending on what the x-rays show. He also did some manipulation during the appointment, including my neck and chest which was fairly terrifying. You know how on TV and in movies they show someone getting their neck adjusted and it's this rapid jerk of the neck to one side, followed by a loud CRACK? That's exactly how it was. Except I was positioned on a long table and I had my eyes closed. It took a lot of concentration for me to just take a deep breath and trust that this man was not going to make me a quadriplegic. He managed to do both sides of my neck successfully and it actually felt kind of good once the terror wore off. He also cracked my chest which was also unnerving. He had me sit up, legs forward, and arms across my chest. Then I gently laid back down on the table with my chin tucked in. He then did some kind of ninja PT move and thrust a ton of weight on my chest. It popped all of of ribs back into place. At least that's how it felt. It felt really good after that. I was glad it didn't knock the wind out of me or make my heart feel funny. Obviously he's an expert. He seems to be very enthusiastic about helping me. I think he could tell, based on the 10 million other appointments I've had, the number of people I've seen, and the frustration in my voice; that I'm ready to get better.

My boss is off all of next week and I'm a bit nervous. She has me on her voice mail and email as the "go-to" person which is fine and flattering, but I'm sooo scared. I've only been there a month! The only person I can go to during this time with questions is the big scientist leading the study and he's hardly ever in his office and I feel funny bothering him with anything. Hopefully all will go smoothly. I'm a good troubleshooter and I think I can handle it. If not I'm just going to shut my office door and hide under my desk.

Current Mood: lethargic
Current Location: The big gay hill

Entry tags:

back,
vacation

I want to bring my sexy back back

I am so sick of having back pain. It has been hurting non-stop since I went to Japan 16 months ago. Initially I hurt my back lifting a 70 pound cooler with a giant jug of ultra-clean water in it while I was working in the lab years ago. I'm pretty sure, based on numerous tests, that it's a herniated disc. I have yet to have the MRI because I hate MRI's and CT's and any of those expensive diagnostic tests that Americans overuse, but I think it might be time to properly diagnose it so I can get proper treatment. One of the problems is that the type of treatment I need requires 2 visits to the doctor every week and I can't afford it. It's a $20 copay every time I go and I just can't pay for that right now. It's getting to the point where I'm considering coughing up the money anyway so that I can have some relief.

I went to the gym tonight and I did a nice long workout including weights. At first I felt good and then by the time I got home my back was in full-on spasm mode. I took an Epsom salt bath and a muscle relaxant. I hate taking drugs for it, but it's at a 7 out of 10 on the pain scale. I think the Epsom salt bath helped a lot. If anything, it will keep me from hurting so much in my legs tomorrow from lifting weights. I would like to say a special thank you to Cutie for introducing me to Epsom salt baths. You would think with all of these years of athletics in my life that I would have learned about how delicious an Epsom salt bath was years ago. I guess I've spent most of my training swimming and taking a bath to recover from swimming never really sounded appealing.

I'm sure that camping this weekend was probably what set my back off into it's recent angry tirade, but it was soooooo worth it. I had a lovely (if slightly mosquitoy and rainy) trip to B.C. with Cutie. I feel really relaxed and ready to dig into my new job. I can't believe I went so long without a vacation. Not doing that again.

Current Location: The Big Gay Hill
Current Music: The Flaming Lips - Vein of Stars

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I've come to a few conclusions on my 2nd official day of vacation and 4th day off in a row.

1. I like Cutie a lot. Really, that's putting it mildly.

2. I need to drink less coffee, but it's unlikely I will.

3. The Flaming Lips are the bestest band ever and when I think about seeing them in Sept. I feel almost as squishy as I do when I think about Cutie.

4. I'm tired of my back hurting. It has been hurting continuously for the last year with a one-month break where I went to acupuncture twice a week. It is time for me to fix it. I'm tired of wincing every time I stand up or sit down or get out of bed. I'm 30 for christsakes. Not 75.

5. I miss the following: Elizabeth, Steph, printmaking, triathaleteing. I plan to see all of these things before the year is over.

6. I need to put more money into my "Japan" savings account and I need to figure out what's happening with my retirement account.

7. There is no effective way to clean up a lot of spilled sugar.

8. It's important to never stop visualizing the future.

9. I may not be totally convinced that I don't want babies.