PHYSICAL THERAPY

I got day one down. I go back on Friday.

He said all my occipital nerves are inflamed. (I forgot what he said I have... some long word for pain that starts in my neck & follows up the nerve pathways. that's what gives me the headaches)

They massaged out my back/neck/shoulders. Paul (my PT) did this thing where he loosens up my shoulder, then lifts up my shoulder blade! It felt sooo weird! I had to try to keep my back muscles all relaxed.

When he was trying to stretch my neck and work that out, it hurt so bad!

After the...torture...they gave me my exercises to do at home. And the snazy "achy-breaky" which is basically two ice packs that are hooked together and can strap to my head (or anywhere else) or I can just lay down with it under my neck. Woot!

Paul said that I have bad posture and much work on that. More homework! I have to practice rolling my shoulders back and holding my head straight upright (my shoulders are rolling forward & my head is too far forward, so my vertebrae aren't lined up like they should be).

He did this thing to see if my neck was lined up right. He had me stand straight up like I normally do. Then he used his pen as a straight edge...he placed one end on the knob of the collar bone (the bump of the end and the base of your neck in the front) and had it stick up so he could see where my neck was lining up.

The other end of the pen was hitting right in front of my ear. It's SUPPOSED to be hitting my cheek bone! Talk about being off my like 3 inches!

That's part of why my neck hurts. They muscles are trying to hold my head up & the bones aren't taking as much of the support as they should.

He used an analogy. He took my arm and put my elbow in his palm (so my forearm was vertical) and had me imagine his other hand was a bowling ball (which he held my hand and put some pressure). He said if my arm is straight up and down the long bones will take most of the weight and support it. You could hold it that way for a long time.

Then he moved my hand forward and put pressure saying that if my arm weren't vertical, but at a bit more of an angle, then the muscles have to do more work to hold the "bowling ball" up. This creates more stress on the muscles and you couldn't hold the "ball" as long.

(He said the average female's head weights between 10-12 pounds, and the average male's is about 13-14 pounds...and that's why the bowling ball thing. Interesting!)

Oh, the things you can learn when you have to go to physical therapy!

Pooh! It makes sense, but I wish I could learn this easy WITHOUT the pain! Maybe I'd be doing better in anatomy! Lol... :P


He also said that with PURSES that most women will hold the bag on the one shoulder and elevate that shoulder a little so that the bag won't fall off. This creates an imbalance... throws you off. It's bad for posture! (and your neck/back/shoulders)

If I'm going to use those bags, then I have to either carry it on my elbow or with my hands. He recommended getting one with a longer strap (like those messenger bags) so I could have it cross over and those don't have as much stress and stuff from trying to keep it from falling off your shoulder!(He said girls like that part, because he's giving them permission to go shopping! LOL)

So I went and got myself a messenger bag that is light weight. I don't like the big, bulky ones so much. This one has a skinny strap. I think I'm going to have to get one with a wider strap for then I have to tote around more than just my keys & wallet... I wanna get one from the SF. They always have really cute ones with Celtic knots all over on them!!! ^_^ Yay!

~Tootles~