labelleizzy: (help)
labelleizzy ([personal profile] labelleizzy) wrote2007-08-03 07:26 pm

Body update.

Saw my nurse practitioner on Wednesday. We'll have me set up with an OB-GYN soon, I hope. She burned off (froze off) some little warty things on my hands, I'll want to follow up on that.

I told her about the left ankle sprain at the beach in March (Delphinea) and the right knee twist? sprain? just prior to getting on the plane to come back from Japan in April. She tested my knee strength in a couple of directions and is recommending double x-rays for comparison... she thinks I either have a meniscus tear or possibly a tear in the ACL.

which makes me grumpy, but also makes sense as to why I've been having some difficulty walking truly straight lately, without paying super attention. I had been thinking that I was just THAT unfit. Nope. There's a good chance that something is sorta broken.

And then we discussed getting pregnant and whatnot (which reminds me I have to go take my prenatal vitamin) and she said that if the knee warrants surgery that I should wait till after having the baby since the process of pregnancy naturally loosens all the ligaments in your body naturally. Oh YAY. Something else to look forward to... (note to self about her "bisexuality" comments and "bisexuality" as it pertains to family stability...)

I guess it's time to invest in a really good knee brace and more appropriate shoes so I can keep dancing and not hurt myself. Not to mention the yoga I really want to be doing.

+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

I've got a second massage scheduled for this Wednesday upcoming. They have a subscription service, where you pay X for a month, and at least 1 massage is covered under that, then you get discounted massages if you engage for more than one per month. I like this place. The masseuse I got REALLY got some work done under my scapulas, around my rotator cuff, and around my hips, then spent the last 15 minutes drilling out some of the fossilized muscle in my neck and shoulders. I can move my arms better already, and it DOESN'T HURT to move my back in a variety of ways it has been hurting for a very, very, very long time. And I'm sitting up straighter in my computer chair, I just noticed.

I look forward to more of this crap getting dug out of my system. She understands about the "pain is necessary to get better" thing, and she really liked my tattoo (she's planning a back piece for herself) and she totally just GROUND into me. That sounds a little dirty, but it totally wasn't.

I want to get Jeff in there, and I want to get some work done on my feet and my forearms in addition to more of the same that I got yesterday. My right foot's been hurting, and I think it was all about tension from the back and hips, cos she didn't even touch it, and the foot has been relaxing and not hurting as much.


It's good to remember that often times you simply cannot do it by yourself, and that's OK. My arm flexibility has been crappy for years, and I remember a PT who seemed to be disdainful cos I couldn't put my palms together over my head. Well, now I know this too... I needed help to scrape this out from under my shoulders BEFORE I could do that.

Note to self: remember to find out when to ask for help and bloody well DO IT!

[identity profile] uncledark.livejournal.com 2007-08-04 03:09 am (UTC)(link)
Bisexuality comments? What?

[identity profile] labelleizzy.livejournal.com 2007-08-04 03:41 am (UTC)(link)
mmm. lemme grab you on IM and tell ya all about it.

[identity profile] aelfie.livejournal.com 2007-08-04 04:06 am (UTC)(link)
Hey, I wanna hear what she had to say about it and "family stability"

[identity profile] labelleizzy.livejournal.com 2007-08-07 05:56 am (UTC)(link)
see below answer to [livejournal.com profile] agengrgal...

[identity profile] jmkelly.livejournal.com 2007-08-04 06:48 am (UTC)(link)
"Bisexuality and family stability"? What, is she channeling Dr. Phil? Take it from someone who's been there: family stability -- and happiness -- depends on honesty, respect, and love (which really includes the other two). Hetero-, homo-, and bisexuality are part of the noise, not part of the signal.

Sorry if I'm picking a fight where there isn't any need for it. Good luck with the pregnancy thing, that's very exciting. (Thought you had kids, but I don't know why. If this is your first, hoo boy are you in for some surprises.)

Good luck with the warty things. I had those -- many years ago, thank God -- and it took several tries to get rid of them. The treatment that finally worked was soaking in warm water, followed by topical application of salicylic acid -- it hurt like hell, and I think that's what really did it. Sometimes the immune system has to have thngs brought to its attention in a less-than-subtle way.

[identity profile] temperance14.livejournal.com 2007-08-04 08:09 am (UTC)(link)
You thank the nurse for what help she offered---and then visualize hitting her with a wiffle bat for the stupid comments.

Mmmmm....visualization.

Poor sweetie. Thank goodness for sensitive massage therapists for theraputic touch and words.

[identity profile] inflectionpoint.livejournal.com 2007-08-04 03:45 pm (UTC)(link)
It's good to remember that often times you simply cannot do it by yourself, and that's OK.

Yes!!!!!

I've been receiving massage for about seven months now, plus being the yoga geek. What I'm noticing is that there are things massage loosens up that make me able to do more with the yoga. Yoga is maintainence and gives some progress, and the massage opens things up in ways that let me get even farther.

Without having both, I don't think it would work for where my body is right now.

And I so understand the shitty-range-of-motion thing. I have some of my own issues, and am working on them. It's weird to be in class and notice that the entire beginner class can do Activity X, and I just plain can't. The teachers at my school are good at finding mods and explaining the -why- and the how of how to get benefit from what I -can- do, which is still not as much as I want. I don't know if that's apparent from the way I write about body stuff on LJ - I tend to write about things from the positive viewpoint, but that's only part of the story. It's HARD. And it's slow progress, and much of my progress is repairing damage and working on increasing limits.

I get frustrated some days, because I'm in remedial Body, it seems, but that's where I am, that's what I've got, and that's what I have to work with. Teachers and such are a great help when they are understanding and encouraging. I'm sorry you've had some bad experiences.

I'm so happy to hear you taking good care of your body and trying to get it to be where you want. What awesome news!

[identity profile] inflectionpoint.livejournal.com 2007-08-04 04:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, you may want to talk to tenacious snail about Knee Stuff.

Seems that girlbodies end up being prone to Weird Knee Stuff of different kinds, because of us having slightly wider pelvises, how we tend to turn out our feet, and also how our muscles develop with the exercise we usually do. It makes it hard to ramp up activity without hitting injury city.

She's had knee issues and works with them and still has a lotta fun. I don't know the whole story (I'm not a PT.... yet, mwahahaha) but there are things to do, and might be good to talk to another woman who's done PT just to get an idea what to look for in a PT, and how to gauge their performance as a PT.

[identity profile] labelleizzy.livejournal.com 2007-08-04 07:06 pm (UTC)(link)
that's a good point. I was thinking of her when I learned about my knee, and I don't want to STOP being active, gods know... I wanna keep dancing and yoga-ing and hopefully bicycling...

thanks for the reminder, and for the encouragement!

[identity profile] blacksheep-lj.livejournal.com 2007-08-05 05:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Your NP needs a clue-by-four. She clearly doesn't know much about orthopedics, and an x-ray will tell you jack diddly about the condition of your meniscus vs. ACL, unless your meniscus is so degenerated that you have an obvious bone on bone situation, which I'd find hard to believe. Further, yes, pregnancy loosens ligaments, but not in a way that would preclude repairing a knee prior to pregnancy, not to mention the fact that recovering from an ACL repair with a baby to chase is probably not a great scenario either. So I'd get someone else's opinion on the whole thing, and make sure that opinion includes and MRI. What kind of insurance do you have? I could potentially point you in the direction of some great orthopedic surgeons and a family practice doc who also specializes in sports medicine (thus is good and ortho knowledgable). All this assuming you DON'T have Kaiser. If you have Kaiser, you're hosed. :)

[identity profile] labelleizzy.livejournal.com 2007-08-07 05:54 am (UTC)(link)
since I do have Kaiser, does that mean I'm just hosed?

[identity profile] blacksheep-lj.livejournal.com 2007-08-07 04:23 pm (UTC)(link)
WEllllll.....sort of. It does mean you have to be a bit more proactive, jump up and down, and make them refer you to the appropriate specialists for the appropriate test. Otherwise they putz around trying to hand you a prescription for some aspirin and telling you to come back in six months if it still bothers you.

I hate Kaiser for orthopedics when you are a lay person coming in off the street. The only way I ever got things accomplished for my athletes was to call the specialists DIRECTLY to let them know the kid needed to be seen. And we had inside connections of people who could facilitate this happening. IF they went in on their own it could take MONTHS, by which time the injury, if left unattended would just be badly healed, and probably become chronic.

[identity profile] labelleizzy.livejournal.com 2007-08-07 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)
it's been 4 months since the last time the knee went "doiiiiing - pop"... I hope by ... yes, AVOIDING thinking about this, that I haven't hosed mySELF.

thanks for providing information and poking me. I'll be calling them today to see about an appointment asafp.

love ya, lady!

[identity profile] agengrgal.livejournal.com 2007-08-06 11:48 pm (UTC)(link)
"her "bisexuality" comments and "bisexuality" as it pertains to family stability" - I'm curious what she had to say as well.

[identity profile] labelleizzy.livejournal.com 2007-08-07 05:53 am (UTC)(link)
she and I had talked during my previous appointment about polyamory. I figured my primary care provider should know about something like that.

Seems she made a note in my file that both Jeff _and_ I were bisexual. Not polyamorous... not that _that_'s likely to have a code or anything... but I definitely got a read off her that to her, homosexual or heterosexual was fine to be stable and raise a family but bisexual? (here she related a story about a someone-she-knew whose kid was "really confused" because mom had so many lovers and of both genders... *shrug* whatever. she's very knowledgeable in some other areas and open to being corrected when she is incorrect, I just have to bear in mind that she has somewhat of a bias.

[identity profile] aelfie.livejournal.com 2007-08-09 04:49 am (UTC)(link)
sounds like the kid was confused 'cause his mom was sleeping around rather than WHO she was sleeping with....You know. If I ever have any time/energy to get involved with someone else, I'd try to make it not known to little kids...ya know? Teenagers...I'd talk to them about it. But the 3 I've got? ya right. Right now I'm spending more energy getting Joe into the sack with a certain man than working on NRE for myself. The man is a horn-dog and I need some help! =)