A Lesson Learned PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 27 September 2005 16:00
Today much of our day was spent shuffling me to treatment appointments at two different practitioners. In July of 2004, I flew by myself to Ontario to visit and in the process lugged one large suitcase, my purse and my very heavy laptop computer through Toronto Pearson Airport. I remember that the weight of my computer on my shoulder was giving me a lot of pain and even days later my shoulder was still very sore, but life has a way of getting in the way of looking after problems and I ignored it. Last winter, to keep fit, I swam everyday in the pool, doing "the crawl" thinking that even though my shoulder hurt, I was preventing it from "freezing up". Wrong. Evidently, I have tendonitis in that shoulder (it was diagnosed in May while I was in Ontario) and the swimming actually aggravated it. I did take some steps to have it treated while there, however I also did the whole "ignoring" thing again and now I am paying dearly for it. I can't swim, it hurts me to lift my arm and bit-by-bit my arm is becoming less useful.

Since arriving here, I have been doing some research into different treatment options and I have finally settled on two practitioners, an osteopath, Caroline Abrams and Dr. Peter Zhou, who practices Chinese medicine along with acupuncture. I didn't plan to see them both on the same day, however today was the first appointment each of them had available so I thought I might as well give it a go.

Both modalities are completely different and therefore shouldn't counteract each other and hopefully with their help, my shoulder will improve greatly by the time I leave here in mid-October. Dr. Zhou uses Chinese massage, acupuncture and cupping while Caroline Abrams uses gentle manipulation on my neck and shoulders. Between both of them at days end, though my shoulder was a little sore from all the prodding and poking, it had more mobility than it has for a long time. I also have been made aware of what has happened, how to prevent a reoccurrence and what exercises and self-treatments I can do to help it. Needless to say, carrying anything heavy on my shoulders is no longer an option and I will be more careful with them in the future. I have also learned that I should no longer ignore my body when it is telling me (with pain) that it needs attention. Funny how Makai makes the shoulder pain a little less of a problem.Smile