Thursday, April 30, 2015

A Needle Here and There and Dr. Crackback

I've been dealing with back pain ever since I awkwardly hoisted my one year old granddaughter out of the big girl bath tub. That was almost 13 years ago.  Since then the back pain has worsened, eyesight and hearing are beginning to dim, I can't really straighten out my right arm and my left foot cramps up when I walk even a very short distance.  I could tell lots more about the alarming changes in my aging body ; for instance, certain areas of my skin have taken on odd colored markings in various neutral shades and so on but I'll leave these details to your own future imagination.  I'll just give you a little hint:  The act of sitting down on the toilet will some day be nothing you will ever again take for granted.

It was fairly easy to deal with the back pain for many years.  A little while on the heating pad and maybe a Tylenol or two and I would be good to go.  That is no longer the case.  And you  might recall that I got up every morning at 5:00 am and quick-walked two miles before school if I wasn't at the pool swimming laps for 30 minutes.  Those activities are in the distant past.

Now I am in the middle of what I'm choosing to call "functional exercising" which means I move around in ways that will keep me simply mobile for the longest possible time left to me.  I go to my personal trainer once a week, work out on my own once a week and attend a flex class every Saturday morning.  Now that my heart has been tuned up again, I'm gradually incorporating some cardio work back into my routine.

In the last year, I have visited my general practitioner, a neurologist, a podiatrist and a physical therapist.  I have chosen to work on my back pain and foot cramping but have experienced little to no relief.  So I decided to try alternative medicine. I've also proclaimed April and May to be months of  alternative wellness.  April was devoted to the chiropractor. I had several sessions and have had my back manipulated many times.  One of those times I was able to cruise the mall right after the appointment with no foot cramping or back pain.  The rest of the time I figured out how really smart Dr. Brad is and grew familiar with his patient table that can SNAP my pelvis back into alignment.  I also downed a whole bottle of his special elixir of fish oil.  

This week I received my first treatment of acupuncture and had the second of two sessions with my hypnotherapist.  I had the needles stuck into lots of places on the left side of my body and a few on the right side.  I reclined peacefully for an hour in a darkened room listening to white noise while the needles did their thing.  I felt an occasional warm swirl of some kind of energy here and there in the approximate places of the needles. I left refreshed and I can just say " reactivated" as I left what I can only describe as a place from my past somewhere in the 1960's.

Hypnotherapy caused mild yet positive shocks to my thinking skills.  I uncovered and verbalized some surprises from my past, was "under" for 40 minutes, and brought home a CD of my session so that I can go to my happy place any time I want to.  I know it all sounds pretty iffy, but I have to say that I am getting some benefit from these centuries old ways of caring for the body. When I get weirded out by anything in these treatments, I just let myself be amused and try to keep an open mind.  May will consist of more acupuncture and at least two visits to my massage therapist.  Go ahead and be skeptical, I'm only just saying. (And I will continue to try to get that last phrase out of my vocabulary since we have no way of knowing what it really means.)

2 comments:

  1. Hello: I have a signed copy of Owl Grove that I purchased at a Penny's Hallmark in Oregon City. I have sense bought Picka's and A walk in the Trees. I work at the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. We are developing new activities for the summer. I am hoping you would be able to sell us bundles of your books and come do a book signing. I would like to highlight the Walk in the trees so we could refer to your book as we walk them through our location. We would love to be able to promote you and your books in our publications. Please contact me at missy@historicaloregoncity.org. The sooner that better! And if you have a phone number we can contact you at please include in your email response. I worked at the Oregon City Library where I conducted story times and used your books often. Please come be apart of our story that will become a part of our history through stories. Thank you in advance! Missy Lipe.

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    1. We'd love to share our books with you! I'm out of town until June 7. Contact me at irishocor@gmail.com. Sorry to be so long getting back to you. Hope it's not too late.

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