Hi there folks. I've been off for the entire summer. So many things got me so distracted and I'll admit, somewhat depressed, and I needed to heal my head before I tried to express myself.
I think it may have begun with the death of my beautiful dog Delilah in March. In May I was rear-ended by another motorist which caused me some pain in my back. It took a little time for it to take ahold of me as I was able to jump outa my truck immediately to check on the people in the other car. By the way they never asked about me. Ooooh, bitter pill still I guess.
Well, it took this accident, a blessing in disguise you could say, to discover that I have a bone spur in my neck around C 3 or 4 on the front of the cervical spine, some constriction on the right side of my cervical spine and scoliosis in my low spine also on the right side which caused pain on my left side.
My chiropractor had me get a full spectrum of spinal x-rays before doing anything on me. When he saw my x-rays he asked me how many accidents I'd been in. Actually including this particular accident the answer is 2. The 1st one was when I was 16 years old. He told me that my bone spur in my neck is an old injury. That if another Dr. saw these x-rays of my neck they'd think I was 70-80 years old. The good news, my neck has never bothered me and still doesn't. My scoliosis, in my opinion, stems from my 10 year battle with my right knee before finally getting it replaced.
The changing of my body mechanics to alleviate the pain in every step I took is what many of us do. These compensations change muscle activation. What the heck does that mean? Well, muscles that are supposed to be active or the "prime mover" instead neutralize and other muscles take over and cause changes in the body's structure.
In my case, I was walking like a weeble. I would swing my right leg around instead of lifting it to step forward. Therefore, my back muscles were getting misused. I did noticed that I carried 1 side of my hips higher than the other.
After having my knee replaced, I started paying attention to my stride and felt muscle pain in my low back. My quadratus lumboram muscles were having to do their job again and my hips were moving side to side again as they should. These muscles are responsible for hiking the hip up.
Anyways, all of those compensations forced the development of scoliosis. Bummer, but totally makes sense. I had to take care of myself and wasn't allowed to dance or participate in any exercise except walk or swim for just over a month per my chiropractor. Another tumble. I was just starting to get back into everything again. Ergggghhhhh!
Then I found out some horrific news concerning an old, dear friend and took a mental tumble on that. I also had a client having some difficult times and it all just seemed to steamroll over me.
Well, not being 17 anymore, knowing I don't heal as fast as I used to, I complied. I'm happy to tell you all that I got the go ahead to begin dancing again in July. First just 1 class/week at a moderate level. So I took an int. Belly dance class. It felt so good to move again. Even my foot survived.
Then my chiro said ok to going crazy and so I took a high-energy cardio dance class and survived. He said no holds barred after that and I began taking a couple of West African dance workshops (I did have to modify with all of my issues, knee, foot and back but I did it) and another Belly dance workout class. I have taped up my knee and foot but who cares.
Next I flew out of town for my friend whose daughter had passed away, only to come back to find out that 1 of my clients was in the hospital for something completely different. Good grief! Come on universe, give us a break, please. She was there for 2 weeks. They finally went in and checked out her colon and found the issue. Finally! Apparently the surgery went well and they were going to go back in and replace what they removed but then she suddenly dropped. She ended up passing away on Labor Day. I guess she just couldn't fight any more.
I hadn't had a chance to dance those weeks cuz I'd been going to the hospital to visit my client. I still haven't been back. I did go to see Steve Martin and Martin Short, and boy did I need that. I had tix for the night after her passing to finally get to see Les Miserables live. I was so excited but really had a hard time going. It helped knowing that she loved and supported the arts in Tucson so much. It also helped me celebrate her.
So, I'm back now. I hope I haven't left you all hangin' too much. Just remember, you can't take good care of others if you don't take good care of yourself. Don't give all of yourself away all of the time. You need to replenish your stores and thats what I had to do, myself. I hope you all had a pleasant, wonderful summer and be good to yourself.
I leave tomorrow for my trip of a lifetime, Spain & Portugal, 2 weeks, including a week long river cruise. I need this now and am so excited it's finally here. When I get back look out world I'm gonna dance my brains, butt and feet off.
Peace and keep dancing
I think it may have begun with the death of my beautiful dog Delilah in March. In May I was rear-ended by another motorist which caused me some pain in my back. It took a little time for it to take ahold of me as I was able to jump outa my truck immediately to check on the people in the other car. By the way they never asked about me. Ooooh, bitter pill still I guess.
Well, it took this accident, a blessing in disguise you could say, to discover that I have a bone spur in my neck around C 3 or 4 on the front of the cervical spine, some constriction on the right side of my cervical spine and scoliosis in my low spine also on the right side which caused pain on my left side.
My chiropractor had me get a full spectrum of spinal x-rays before doing anything on me. When he saw my x-rays he asked me how many accidents I'd been in. Actually including this particular accident the answer is 2. The 1st one was when I was 16 years old. He told me that my bone spur in my neck is an old injury. That if another Dr. saw these x-rays of my neck they'd think I was 70-80 years old. The good news, my neck has never bothered me and still doesn't. My scoliosis, in my opinion, stems from my 10 year battle with my right knee before finally getting it replaced.
The changing of my body mechanics to alleviate the pain in every step I took is what many of us do. These compensations change muscle activation. What the heck does that mean? Well, muscles that are supposed to be active or the "prime mover" instead neutralize and other muscles take over and cause changes in the body's structure.
In my case, I was walking like a weeble. I would swing my right leg around instead of lifting it to step forward. Therefore, my back muscles were getting misused. I did noticed that I carried 1 side of my hips higher than the other.
After having my knee replaced, I started paying attention to my stride and felt muscle pain in my low back. My quadratus lumboram muscles were having to do their job again and my hips were moving side to side again as they should. These muscles are responsible for hiking the hip up.
Anyways, all of those compensations forced the development of scoliosis. Bummer, but totally makes sense. I had to take care of myself and wasn't allowed to dance or participate in any exercise except walk or swim for just over a month per my chiropractor. Another tumble. I was just starting to get back into everything again. Ergggghhhhh!
Then I found out some horrific news concerning an old, dear friend and took a mental tumble on that. I also had a client having some difficult times and it all just seemed to steamroll over me.
Well, not being 17 anymore, knowing I don't heal as fast as I used to, I complied. I'm happy to tell you all that I got the go ahead to begin dancing again in July. First just 1 class/week at a moderate level. So I took an int. Belly dance class. It felt so good to move again. Even my foot survived.
Then my chiro said ok to going crazy and so I took a high-energy cardio dance class and survived. He said no holds barred after that and I began taking a couple of West African dance workshops (I did have to modify with all of my issues, knee, foot and back but I did it) and another Belly dance workout class. I have taped up my knee and foot but who cares.
Next I flew out of town for my friend whose daughter had passed away, only to come back to find out that 1 of my clients was in the hospital for something completely different. Good grief! Come on universe, give us a break, please. She was there for 2 weeks. They finally went in and checked out her colon and found the issue. Finally! Apparently the surgery went well and they were going to go back in and replace what they removed but then she suddenly dropped. She ended up passing away on Labor Day. I guess she just couldn't fight any more.
I hadn't had a chance to dance those weeks cuz I'd been going to the hospital to visit my client. I still haven't been back. I did go to see Steve Martin and Martin Short, and boy did I need that. I had tix for the night after her passing to finally get to see Les Miserables live. I was so excited but really had a hard time going. It helped knowing that she loved and supported the arts in Tucson so much. It also helped me celebrate her.
So, I'm back now. I hope I haven't left you all hangin' too much. Just remember, you can't take good care of others if you don't take good care of yourself. Don't give all of yourself away all of the time. You need to replenish your stores and thats what I had to do, myself. I hope you all had a pleasant, wonderful summer and be good to yourself.
I leave tomorrow for my trip of a lifetime, Spain & Portugal, 2 weeks, including a week long river cruise. I need this now and am so excited it's finally here. When I get back look out world I'm gonna dance my brains, butt and feet off.
Peace and keep dancing
RSS Feed