Yes, I will try anything!!!

So, three acupuncture sessions in, and I have to say I really like it. I also think that my shoulder pain is starting to ease up - just a little. I can't tell if that is because 1) I want it to 2) my pilates instructor is also working on my shoulder or 3) it's the needles and this super awesome device called the percussor! Whatever it is, I like it.

This is a percussor. It beats the crap out of your muscles - in a good way.

Today - I had the added treatment of cupping. The idea is that it these cups suction onto your skin and can pull toxins up and out, or away from your muscles. I know - I'm sooo Gwyneth Paltrow right now.... but if it works I don't care if you make fun of me.

This is what cupping looks like. It feels pretty good - but yes, it's a little weird.

But, just in case it all doesn't work, I have a back-up plan and an appointment with a physical therapist in a couple of weeks. No matter how it happens, I'm getting this shoulder thing taken care of. I'm just trying the natural way first.

The whole thing makes me feel like an old lady, and just about everything I've read somehow manages to work in "frozen shoulder" as a potential problem. What? No? That seems like such a "fake" thing to have, but turns out it's real and really really painful I think. So, I keep on moving it and doing crazy exercises and hoping for the best. I can't keep doing everything one-handed. It's ridiculous!

Look what I'm doing now!

Did I mention that my shoulder is killing me? For a while now (2 months), my right shoulder is a mess. I didn't hurt it, I think it's from the leftover chemo - which can cause some lingering joint and muscle pain, or maybe it's something else but it hurts like a mother all the time.

So, I'm trying this! Acupuncture. My first appointment was last night after work. Obviously, things probably will not be back to normal for a while, but I'm willing to see if this works for me. 

I got a recommendation to see a woman that my hairdresser sees - and I really like her so far. She has a very nice calm and comforting vibe - so from the get go I like her. She interviewed me for quite a while, and once she understood my "issues" - she has a pretty nice plan to get me back on track. She also told me quite a bit about how it all works, but I'm not sure I absorbed enough to tell you all that, you'll have to google it. Ha.

The action: I layed down on a massage table, face up, and she began to insert needles down around my feet, ankles, and up my calves a tiny bit. Then she worked up to my hands, inside the crook of my arm, and then my forehead, ears and between my eyebrows. Many of the needles go in with no feeling, a few make sort of a tiny electric shock feeling, and some cause a little shiver. But none of them hurt, it's pretty cool. Once she had some in, she asked me to move my shoulder and I have to say that some range of motion came back immediately and the pain settled down quite a bit. She said not to expect it to last because it's a cumulative process, but that immediate help indicates that she is on the right track.

Once the needles were in, she turned down the lights and put an eye mask on me, and turned the heat up. Apparently you want a warm room for acupuncture. She left me there for about 25 minutes - so of course I fell asleep and when I woke up I couldn't remember where I was - that freaked me out a little - but still, pretty great. When she came back, she pulled out all the needles, and then used a hand held massage/pummeling type of tool to work on my shoulder to break up whatever it is that is wrecking my life. Then, I got up, made my next appointment (for Tuesday) and went home. I have to say that things felt better for a while but now today - I'm back to feeling bad again. But not exactly in the same place. It feels like what happened yesterday has released some of the tension in one part, and hopefully as we progress things will loosen up all over my shoulder. Can't wait to find out. I am looking forward to the experience. Some of her upcoming treatment will include Chinese herbs to pull out toxins and then cupping - which I've heard of but haven't tried, so that will be really interesting.

I hope the whole thing works - wouldn't it be so nice to solve this problem without using drugs? And wouldn't it be nice to cap off an entire year using Western medicine for solving the big problem, and Eastern medicine for getting rid of the leftover effects of the Western medicine. I think this is going to be good. And it makes me want to go drink some green tea!

Have you tried acupuncture? Did it work for you? I'm curious!!!!

Sometimes you need to call in a Professional

Remember last year (well, actually, over a year ago) when we bought that beautiful slab of maple and we had BIG BIG plans about refinishing it ourselves and using it as the top of our island at the condo? Well, here's how that all went down.

We got the wood, which we were told was sufficiently dry and we would be able to work with it. Well.....as we began the sanding process we noticed that the wood was bowing a little on the sides. It really needed to stay flat. But it wouldn't. So we sort of kept looking at it and wondering what to do and hoping that maybe it would miraculously fix itself. Strangely, it didn't fix itself. So for another long while, we didn't do anything....

Then I had a busy year curing cancer... so nothing happened for another long while.

Then, we gave ourselves a talking to, and made a few phone calls, and we are now having an actual professional finish the job! YES!!!

Coyote Woodshop on Bainbridge Island is going to take our large chunk of wood, replane it, and sand it to perfection and sooner (not later) we will have the thing we wanted from the beginning, only it will be way better than we could have done, and will actually finally get finished. If you live around here, go check these guys out. We met Drew there, and he gave us a tour around their place. It's full of awesome slabs of wood (all kinds), definitely worth the trip plus it will give you all sorts of inspiration. And in our case, relief!!! 

Sometimes you have to just call it! We weren't going to get this thing done. Now we are! Woop woop.

Will report back as soon as it's finished.

Here is a reminder of what we had (before it got all 'cuppy'!) I'm super excited to get it done and installed.

Things that Take a Really Long Time

Oh, just sitting here waiting for my hair to GROW. OUT. FROM. SCRATCH.

I thought maybe every other week or so I would post a couple of photos of my hair, while it 

s l o w l y  grows from nothing back to something. I'll start with the before pic. This was my hair the day before I met with my doctors - about 2 weeks before it fell out.

This is where it is now - I've had it cut twice as it's come in, just to try to give the sides and back a shape while it grows and so that it doesn't look like a mullet. 

Sorry it's blurry, I had to take my glasses off for the photo, and I couldn't see what I was doing.

This photo illustrates exactly how I feel about it. It's getting quite puffy on the top, because the hair that I have now is a lot curlier than my own hair was, so it's got a little 'whiz bang' going on, and some sections are pretty coarse - they say that will grow itself out and that at some point in the future I might get my own hair back. 

On the bright side, better than no hair at all, right?  Product suggestion welcomed as this thing grows.....

It's Raining in Seattle

And here is why:

We are all crying over the Superbowl loss of our beloved SEAHAWKS. But, we shall pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and start all over again! 

And to you Seahawks - thanks for everything! I'm so sorry you couldn't get the 2-fer, but you were so much fun to watch, so entertaining, and what a great season it was. 

Now, heal up, have some nice down time and we'll see you next year. 

GO HAWKS

Big big day coming up. SUPERBOWL. Oh the excitement. Oh the nerves. Good luck to our hometown team!!! We support!

Look at the Bright Side

If you are 50 you might have already done this, but on Monday I had the "pleasure" of my first colonoscopy. I'm not going to tell you anything about how much I really wasn't in the mood for such an event, so instead I'm going to tell you all the good parts (or as many as I can come up with!)

All docs are different and have different protocol for how to prep. Some use a certain kind of "mix", my doctors gave me a prescription for polyethylene glycol, or PEG bowel prep. Not terrible, not great. But the good the comes along with it all is this:

Three days before event you have to not each veggies or fruit or high fiber - so as long as I avoided those, I got to have an excellent dinner of anything I wanted knowing that I wasn't going to be eating for quite a while. I had a chicken quesadilla - yes!!!

Two days before you are on liquids but they don't have to be clear liquids yet. And the directions say right out loud that you can have a milkshake!!! And I did and I didn't even feel bad about it at all. That was probably because it was the only thing with any calories at all that I could think of to eat drink! I think I got some juice and maybe some clear soup later.

One day before, it's all clear liquids. Broth, juice, pop, that kind of thing. I ate Miso soup with the good stuff strained out. There is really no good part of the one day before.

Day of dreaded event. The good news is that by now you are practically one-sided because you haven't eaten for a while, so you get to show up for your appointment feeling really skinny.

And finally... the best part.... the drugs they give you are awesome and you're pretty much out of it for the whole appointment. In fact, it's like you weren't even there.

And that's it. Over and done. Not bad. You don't need to know anything else - done and done.