Monday, February 27, 2012

Cautiously optimistic

Just over two weeks into the chiropractor treatment plan and I'm starting to feel some changes. I am hesitant, given my 7-year history of failed "solutions", to say that I am "getting better" but I would be amiss not to recognize some improvement.

First, I have started to experience some relief in my shoulders and neck. Given that they have basically been held together by piano wires since September of last year, this is a HUGE relief. I hadn't realized how much the tension prevented me from breathing. I notice myself wanting to take deeper breaths now. When the pain returns, which it still does, intermittently, I notice that I lock back up again and often catch myself "holding" my breath. Part of it is due to the fact that the part of my spine that is affected actually goes to the third rib, which makes it uncomfortable to take deep breaths sometimes. Being away from the computer for extended periods of time and being more generally active/mobile, helps tremendously too. I notice my shoulder and neck pain return after extended computer use, no matter how I sit. Being in one position for too long is just not for me. Otherwise, mostly I am just really sore from the constant adjustments and deep-tissue massage.

My knee pain has all-but gone again. Phew. I asked my chiro if he thought my knee issues were structural or if they were a result of tendons and muscles being tight. How he answered was that he thought my knee problems were "functional" not "structural" which, yes, means tendons and ligaments and muscles vs. skeleton. This makes sense because my knee pain comes and goes, which it would not do it was a structural issue. That's at least a relief because I was really starting to fret that I would need knee surgery in year from now.

S.I. joint pain is back, however. It's manageable and not surprising, given that this would be the first time anyone has really even attempted to shift my sacrum and pelvis. I was pretty much told to leave it alone because messing it was making it worse, so I did. Now we're doing the complete opposite of that - cracking it three times a week. Soreness is to be expected. Of course, it didn't help that I decided to get all ambitious and bike an 8 mile round trip from our house to Old Town Folsom on Sunday. I was proud I made it and that a sore S.I. was the extent of my issues. I guess keeping even the light workout I have managed to maintain, actually paid off.

Biking by the river. Awesome.

The next step in treatment is the first stage of my detox. I got an overview of the diet plan this evening. Here it is. Gulp. No coffee. No wine. This could get desperate.

The diet

Despite the limitations, I'm kind of looking forward to cleansing my system. This part of the detox is only 3 weeks (timed to end before my Disneyland vacation in April) and I think I can endure for that long. I'm certainly interested to see how it makes me feel, once I get over the shock of having to exist without caffeine and alcohol. (Hubby is already threatening to put a plane ticket on reserve.) After Disneyland, however, will be the liver detox, which I hear is a real bear. Not looking forward to that one little bit.

In other news, I deposited my, er, specimen in the plastic cup and it is currently in my freezer, awaiting me to find 30 minutes in my day to take it to the UPS store.

1 comment:

Mala said...

You can actually eat a lot of Indian Veggie stuff. Remember the green beans with coconut I had once made that you LOVED?

Related Posts with Thumbnails