VENTING SOME MORE AND THE MEDICINE THAT TASTES THE WORST IS THE BEST FOR US

A big thank you to Kek, Kristy and Gillian who commented on my last post and who echoed some of my feelings on this matter.

If there is one thing I absolutely admire, its the more mature woman who does not accept that aging means "oh I must take it easy now." This, in my opinion, is utter and total crap. Its an easy cop out if you want to justify laziness and apathy. Sure there are times when your body will tell you to ease off (temporarily) and you should listen to it but giving up on exercise all together is just WRONG. I do concede that as we get older, the bits we use more wear out faster but that just means we need to be smarter about what we do and how we do it.

But back to the age thing..... Kek, I'll be right behind you ready to give that dumbass their second slap if indeed they try on those pathetic lines.

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” George Bernard Shaw

I know deep down that my current condition has been partly caused by my own actions. A lack of taking proper care of myself and my body sends me loud and clear messages that what I've done just wont cut it and now I'm paying for those mistakes. Whether you believe whats written here or here I know from personal experience that when I eat the junk foods described in those articles I usually end up suffering in a number of different ways. Its just taken me a while to make the connection and acknowledge the significance of it.

Gillian in answer to your question: I have a really good chiro who practices pain management and treatment and he is bloody good at it. He does not want to see you 3 times a week for the first 4 weeks, then down to twice a week for the next 6 weeks and then .... you get my drift. (Chiros that base their practice on those principles are a rip off, IMO.) If I have a problem I want it fixed and I dont want it to take 20 visits. Fortunately my chiro can do that.

So when I was in really bad pain in late June, I decided in my (lack of) wisdom that this wasnt a matter for my chiro and I saw a sports doctor instead. I was diagnosed with an inflamed sacro iliac (which was probabaly correct). I wasnt treated in any way other than to be given anti inflammatories and told to rest for 2 weeks. Needless to say, yesterday my chiro suggested to me that was a cop out diagnosis and asked what was done to fix the problem. Well nothing actually so he scored a point right there.

He then treated my back thru an adjustment (not the most pleasant sensation but I'm learning to work with him to make it all less painful) and he spent several minutes releasing over tight muscles in my hips, outer thighs and inner thighs. OMG I dropped the "F Bomb" a number of times and he reminded me that muscles should not feel like rocks (like mine did.).

It was one of the most painful treatments I've had but today the pain is easing slowly and I know that I'll be ok. So I've been reminded that when something has proven to work effectively before (my chioro's ability to fix my back pain) then I should trust him when pain rears its ugly head in future. The sports doctor cost me a small fortune and did virtually nothing to fix the problem (anti inflams and rest will always help but they are not a long term fix).

I still want to have a postural assessment and be given specific exercises to address my SIJ problem but his advice was get into yoga (or Pilates) and stretch, stretch, stretch. Oh and dont wait 8 months between chiro treatments if I have back (or related) pain.

These last few days have really made an impression on me and driven home some tough lessons that are like a bitter pill to swallow. But then we all know that its the medicine that tastes the worst thats the best for us.

:-) (almost) Magda