Elicit Substance

It seems like everyone I talk to these days has had to deal with more than their usual share of medical nastiness to the point where I started saying we're suffering from "Humpty Dumpty Syndrome."

First, let me give a shout out to my friend Roy from the Pedal Pushers. Roy landed hard after a nasty spill on a ride and is in for a winter of recovery and rehab. You can read more of his story here. Best wishes for a speedy and successful recovery!

Locally, Hurricane Sandy came and went and left some rain in my parking lot. There's a bit of survivor's guilt here knowing that the people in this immediate area were left with some debris to clean up while not 100 miles away, houses were literally swept into the sea. Here's hoping that most of the most pressing clean up can get done before the first snowfall of the season. My thoughts and prayers also going out today to those who lost loved ones because of that monster.

I'm about half-way through my dental drama with the messiest and most painful procedures now behind me. I have follow-up evaluations in about 3 weeks to determine if surgery will be necessary. Even if it is, it won't be that big of a concern as the procedure that has been discussed LANAP (Laser Assisted Near Attachment Procedure) while costly, has no "down time." Luckily, I have good dental insurance this year.

In other good news, the pain in my knee and ankle has subsided and I don't think a special trip to the doctor will be necessary now. That's a good thing since my doctor left her practice and I have to pick a new doctor. This may take awhile as I wasn't happy with the last one but the office is local and local is always good when you need a doctor. So now that my knee is functional, I can do a full fitness evaluation and develop a program that works for me and make a decision on a new primary care physician without being under duress.

I'm really fascinated with a book I purchased entitled, Anatomy for Yoga by Nicky Jenkins and Leigh Brandon It's in the same series that Professor Patti Mantea loved when we were in her class for personal training. While it doesn't delve into the more difficult yoga positions (which is a good thing since you can really hurt yourself by doing yoga incorrectly,) it separates moves into stretches and exercises that are effective for four different postural deviations; Kyphosis, Lordosis, Flat Back and Sway Back. The book tells you to get your posture checked by a professional to determine your deviations. During my class sessions for personal trainer certification, we used each other as guinea pigs models and one of our classes included how to check for postural deviations. I was the only person in the class without a categorized postural deviation. Go figure. Since each section in the book is a complete routine that starts with three to six rounds of a Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskar) and ends in Savasana, what I'll do is work through a different section each day. If I can make it to my friend's class at some point for a challenge and professional guidance, so much the better otherwise, I'm sticking to the easier stretches and exercises.

So now it's on to the business of getting stronger, faster, and, as they say in New England, whatevah.

This pose ain't evah gonna happen