I've been wanting to write this blog post for quite awhile now. What's been holding me back, you might ask? Well, I really think it is a state of mind for me. Let me start from the beginning....
Saturday, May 24th I was re-potting some flowers. I was on a knee pad on the ground bending over just going about my business. After about an hour I felt a 'pull' in my back. I knew I was done for the day. I proceeded to get the ice pack and just be still for the rest of the day. The next day, Sunday arrives and I'm still hurting. More ice pack ona nd off all day. Monday arrives and I call the chiropractor. There aren't any openings until Wednesday and it isn't with the doctor I saw once before for a shoulder issue, it's with a new doctor, so I take the appointment.
I am thrilled to finally get in to see the chiropractor. She is young; fresh out of college.
She can tell I am not walking properly. She checks my legs and sees that one leg is 2" shorter than the other. She informs me that my hip is out of places, has dropped. This is news to me, as I hadn't had any pain in my hip, just the bottom right of my back. She checks my back and tells me I have nodules (scar tissue) there probably from my hip being out of place. She adjusts my hip she then goes on to do some pressure point/resistance therapy on my back. I am in bad shape and she is amazed that I'm not in more pain than I'm stating I'm in! This begins the weekly visits to the chiropractor. Twice a week that first week, three times the following week, twice the third week, twice the fourth week, once the fith week, once the sixth week and next week will be the seventh week. She also noted to me about the thrid week into treatment that my right butt cheek has mor emuscle tone than the left and I need to start doing the clam shell exercises to try to build up muscle again. She also wants me to stretch the right side of my back out while lying on my side on the bed.
She's been doing something called the graston technique ( www.grastontechnique.com/ ) on my back where the nodules are.
Graston helps to break up the scar tissue; even deeper than a deep massage could even get. All the videos I've found on YouTube show the chiroprator or physical therapist grazing the back up and down with the metal graston tool. Let me tell you, I would love it if that was how gentle she used the tool on me. But no, she takes that tool over each nodule like she's trying to erase something really hard on a piece of paper! And my skin is sensitive so that rubbing makes it fell like my skin is burning; like an Indian brush burn! NOT FUN!!!!
Yesterday she did a bit more graston on me and the nodules, to my surprise, have actually moved higher up my back than they were. They are breaking up and are much better than they were, but I fear this is something I may have to keep an eye possibly for the rest of my life.
Two Saturdays ago my daughter's Girl Scout troop had a Bike & Boat excursion planned and I was okay-ed to go by my doctor. I had an appointment two days before the trip so that I wouldn't be sore before the trip. The doctor told me the biking would be good for me, but the canoeing might be a problem. About half way through the canoe part of the trip my back really started to feel it. I had a lot of fun on the trip, I just wish I felt like I were in better shape. I went to the chiropractor the Monday after the trip and I really needed to be adjusted and have the nodules worked, since I was in moderate pain after the trip.
I was given the okay to start back on my elliptical, just not a high resistance level or any inclines. So this morning I took my 14.5 year old dog for a 2 block leasurely walk and then came home and did 15 minutes in the elliptical. The elliptical should be good for building muscle where I need it as well. It is a bit sore, but nothing terrible. My next appointment is next Friday.
So I guess mentally, I wasn't ready until today to type this all out and re-live it. It's been painful and a learning experience. I've had a lot of time to think about goals, where I want to be physically and how I'm going to go about getting there. I'm aging and I truly need to start protecting my body better. The many days where I couldn't do much because I was in pain really held me back from so many things. I don't want to live my life like this. I have to try to prevent anything like this from happening again in the future by being a better caretaker of my body.
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