Health Program

Each year when summer rolls around I like to try something new in an attempt to improve my health, reduce pain, and enrich sleep. I primarily try new things during the summer when I have time to adapt to them and keep the school year (my work season) for things that I already know work. Last spring I stopped seeing my chiropractor. So, during the summer last year I tried a new chiropractor who, in my opinion, was a bit of a quack. Through him and my massage therapist, I tried two "health juices" based on the açai berry and similar fruits, which were supposed to help reduce joint pain and increase energy, but had no verifiable effect on me other than an unpleasant aftertaste. I also tried a new type of massage which, while it seemed somewhat promising, was too painful to endure. Some of these things may sound pretty sketchy (I won't even go into the stuff the wacko chiro. suggested), but I got to the point a while ago where I'm willing to try just about anything for a reasonable period of time in hopes that something works.

This year I've been particularly slow in getting started because I've had so little energy this summer, but I've finally started. I started seeing a new chiropractor (let's call her Dr. J.) this week whose practice is oriented more toward sports medicine and physical therapy. She primarily works with exercise and a technique called Active Release (ART) which involves working with the soft tissue to correct problems; she uses the cracking and popping side of chiropractic as a last resort.

Part of the reason I'm seeing Dr. J. in particular is because I've been wanting to try something like Active Release or the Alexander Technique and it's partly because she had some excellent review on Yelp (I don't know how it is for other areas of the country, but around here yelp seems like a pretty good way to find reliable, quality services) which implied that she might help me get into an exercise routine...a little scary for me since I haven't really exercised in the past 8 or 9 yrs.

On my first visit, after the mandatory questionnaire, she tested my range-of-motion, flexibility and stability. She commented that, I am a little too flexible and have good range-of-motion, but the stability aspect is not so good. She gave me some particular exercises to do (which I hope will help my stability and posture) and requested that I start swimming for aerobic exercise. Dr. J. also did a little of the ART on my back which basically consisted of applying deep pressure to some of the tender points on my muscles and resulted in a sort of weird feeling the rest of the day as if something had shifted or was shifting. I don't really know how to describe it...it didn't hurt or feel uncomfortable...in fact, for the first few hours there was no pain at all in that area of my back--pretty rare, but it did feel different.

Today I had my first little swimming adventure. Dr. J. recommended a local community pool, which I think I will try tomorrow (if I overcome my fear of cold water), but tonight I decided to go to a nearby warm pool. This warm pool is located at the high school of our neighboring city (with the big university) and only offers public swimming (for those who are not seniors or disabled) for an hour on Wed. nights. In terms of the exercise and not experiencing the horrible shock of cold water that always sends me running from swimming pools, it was great. I've always done better with warm water than cold or cool or what most people consider normal for swimming. I often attribute this to the fact that I spent my formative years swimming in ocean water that was often over 80 degrees and rarely below 78. The fibromyalgia has only exacerbated that, but the warm water of this pool was pleasant to swim in.

The facilities at the pool, on the other hand: wow. Rarely have I been in such a grubby place as this high school campus (and I think I seen some yucky places). I walked into the women's restroom and quickly noticed that There are NO Doors on the Toilet Stalls. The whole campus was filthy. The ceiling in the room with the warm pool (which, being warmed, resulted a very humid, dank room) was raw plywood...incidentally in the process of turning black...with mold? Warnings were stuck all over the lockers in the locker room that students should provide their own locks in addition to the combination locks. I am shocked that kids are sent there every day and expected to learn and grow and thrive. Honestly, I've seen prisons in Russia where I'd rather spend time day-in and day-out than this campus. I was actually reminded of having a similar feeling when I visited a zoo in Russia. I felt so sad for the animals which had to endure such horrible living conditions that even though I knew most of them would take the first opportunity to make dinner out of me (they weren't well fed), I still wanted to let them all out of their cages. I felt this way again tonight when I was walking through this high school campus...just wanted to rescue the little creatures from their zoo. I came home and the first thing I said to 'Chung was that under no circumstances would I send a child to a public school in that city. I know I shouldn't complain, the pool is providing such a great service, and at an extremely low cost which I applaud them for, to the disabled community in the area.

Well, this has turned into quite the rambling post, sorry for those who wanted to read something interesting. Today you get more of my meandering search for health....which, believe it or not, is actually more interesting than our we-almost-bought-a-house-to-remodel-and-sell-but-probably-won't-anymore saga. What can I say, life's kinda boring right now.