Starting Over, or Drinking Arsenic

Starting over in two respects I suppose. I'd like to start blogging again; I miss it terribly. I quit blogging because I started working so much on the computer that blogging was just that much more time on the computer, but I think, I hope, I have adjusted.

The other thing that I would like to start doing again is yoga; it was such a part of me for so long. I was a daily Ashtanga practitioner, but two years ago I suddenly had to quit. I started getting wicked headaches and neck aches. I'd stop yoga for a week, and they'd abate; I'd start the yoga again, but within a week or two the headaches would be back, and the cycle continued. Finally a year ago, I gave up the yoga altogether and went to the doctor. He diagnosed me with transformed migraines. We've been playing the hormones, inadequate sleep, overactive brain cells (like I needed him to tell me that), and stiff neck game ever since.

Well, I had the grandfather of all migraines two weeks ago. It lasted all week (yes, I went to school anyway and inflicted it upon my poor students), and my doc was unavailable, so I went to a substitute doctor. Sometimes new eyes see something, well new, and he sent me in for neck x-rays, and set me up for physical therapy.

I went to my first physical therapy appointment today, and wow, I had no idea that something that was supposed to be good for you could actually be bad for you. Turns out that I have degenerative disc disease. I asked Dave, my physical therapist (I'm telling you his name so I never have to type physical therapist again), told me it was probably YOGA. What? Apparently the very poses that saved my life when I had RA (rheumatoid arthritis--I am never typing that again) probably caused my migraine suffering. I was in shock. I feel like have been drinking arsenic. How could I have done this to myself?

I tearfully told my husband this, and it took him a while to understand why I was so upset. He laughed and said it was only my fault if I hit myself on the head with a hammer while doing yoga. He was also thrilled with the diagnosis. He said finally I have something (unlike RA, an autoimmune disease--all better now :)) structural--something Western medicine is actually good at! And it's true. We have a plan, with photocopied handouts, appointments, medicine, and a possible end to the pain. It also means that everything that I do, or have done, is totally wrong, from the yoga, to how I sit, how I work at the computer, how I drive, is wrong, wrong, wrong.

So, starting over.

Dave said I could do yoga as long as I do no backward bends--so no Ashtanga, and modified everything else. Sniff. So, I bought two new yoga books today. One has a sexy skinny girl on the front filled with lots of fun energetic poses that I'd love to do, so since I'm a sexy skinny girl I bought that one. Duh. The other one has dumpy people doing sensible forward bends that Dave would approve of, so I bought it. Boring. I will take them to my appointment next week for his feedback.

I also retrieved a straight backed chair from the land of Black Widows (the garage) and brought it into the living room. I went out to the garage to get the lint/pet hair removal brush, but before I could use it, one of my lint depositors had already found the chair.





He already knows I'm going to make him move. Sigh.

Well. It will take me a while to get back in the blogging groove. But, give me some time. It's been a while, and I've got all of that arsenic to work out of my system.