Day Fifty (Wed., Apr 22nd) – Is That a HICKEY?

APOLOGIES FOR BEING LATE....MY SHOULDER "INJURY" HAS PREVENTED ME FROM WRITING FOR A FEW DAYS. I MIGHT HAVE FORGOTTEN SOME DETAILS

Wednesday’s Workouts:
• Yoga (1 hr)
• Bike Ride (2 hrs – 12 miles)
• Amy – Hike; Donna – Acupuncture!
• Gym Boot Camp (1 hr)

I was absolutely exhausted this morning since I didn’t sleep well, mostly due to shoulder pain. I was looking forward to yoga to hopefully stretch out my shoulders and work out some kinks. I was also excited for everyone to meet Amy and for Amy to see what a typical day for us was like. We had breakfast at the gym and then headed back to the apartments for yoga. As Amy is eleven years younger than I, she had no problems doing the yoga. I didn’t have a LOT of trouble, but it did start to hurt my shoulder whenever some weight was put on it. We headed back to the gym to start the bike ride. Amy was joining us! It was nice weather that day and not too windy, so it was going to be good for everyone – EXCEPT ME, it turned out. Marco wanted me to get started right away so that I could try to make it to the end and perhaps head up the hill that I’ve not done yet. Amy hung back with Marco and a couple of other campers who had not done the bike ride yet. Oh man…how I managed to do 12 miles at all I do not know. I don’t have one of those bikes on which you have to bend over to hold the handlebars. That hurts my back, so I bought a Raleigh women’s bike that has raised handlebars so that I can sit up straight with my arms forward. This time, however, this was not a good position. Holding the left handlebar made my whole arm tingle and caused the knot in my back to now feel like a knife in my back! Ooooowwww! Oh man, it made for a miserable ride for me…and I couldn’t get a good pace going. I had left long before Marco, Amy, and the others, but Amy caught up with me about 5 miles into the ride. I had to keep my left arm by my side most of the time. It’s not easy to go fast and around the curves of the bike path when you’re a one-armed cyclist for a day! I pushed ahead until I had gone 6 miles, then turned. I couldn’t get back fast enough.

When I arrived at the gym, I couldn’t do anything. My left shoulder blade was on fire with pain. I decided that it was time for acupuncture! I had never tried acupuncture but always wanted to. There is an acupuncture university just a few blocks away, as was an acupuncturist’s office, however the university was able to see me right away, with a little bit of help from Stephanie who drove me there. One of the doctors, not interns or students saw me. I was still in most of my cycling gear when she took me to the room. I explained the pains I was having and gave a brief history of what I had been doing for the previous seven weeks. Dr. Chen had me lie face down on the table (just like a massage table with the cushioned with my top (bras and all) and socks off. As I had never had acupuncture before, I was expecting to at least feel slight pin pricks each time she inserted a needle. In actuality I hardly felt them at all. There were needles in the left side of my neck, around my left shoulder blade, and down my left arm. Dr. Chen then advised that I needed to rest there for 30 minutes and she put heat lamps over me (LOVED that!). I think I dozed off a little bit (which she wanted me to do); I have a terrible time shutting off my brain and thus it took me a little while to relax my mind. Dr. Chen felt that cupping would be necessary, too, after the acupuncture treatment. When she returned to the room, she removed the needles and then rubbed baby oil over the areas which were sore. There are a few different methods of cupping. The most commonly known method is when a small, clear glass “cup” is heated with flame and then immediately placed on the skin. The heat causes a vacuum in the cup and it sucks up some skin into the cup. This treatment is meant to remove toxins from the skin. It also creates giant “hickeys”! I’ve attached a photo of what cupping looks like (that’s not I in the photo) and what the “hickeys” on my back look like. (it was kind of funny for Amy to take the photos of my back; my camera didn't want to focus on anything!) It didn’t hurt me. It felt more like someone grabbing a lot of skin and then pulling. I have to admit….I LIKED it. Hmmmm, is there a sadomasochist lurking inside me? Uh oh! Anyway, I found that after the treatment, some of the tingling diminished and the pain was more localized instead of widespread, so I guess it worked. Dr. Chen did feel that I should return so I scheduled an appointment for Thursday.

While I was doing this, regrettably I had to abandon Amy on the hike. It was a group hike and it would have been my first hike here, so I was disappointed to miss it, but I knew that the pain would have made me miserable the entire time. Amy returned saying the hike was a good workout and fun. She and a few others encountered a skunk! And even worse, Vernon and others encountered some rattlesnakes which coiled up and rattled. Yikes! I don’t want to do that hike if I have to experience that kind of wildlife! I’m glad Amy went with them and enjoyed it. (I’m hoping Amy will do a guest blog to document her thoughts and experiences!) By the time the hike group returned, I had already started the gym boot camp instead of doing the later boot camp ‘cause I was tired and wanted to finish at 5 instead of 7pm. Amy rested until I finished, then we headed to my place for our meals and to watch a movie (“21” – about the MIT students that counted cards at Blackjack tables in Vegas and made loads of money – well done; worth watching). It’s a good thing we didn’t do the later boot camp ‘cause everyone who did it the next day was moaning about how tough it was and how tired they were. Whew!

I’m making up for 5 non-blogging days….2 down, 3 to go, plus today’s blog! Keep reading…