Self-Care

I woke up at 5 in a lot of pain. I realized that to learn to be vulnerable I needed to learn to stop masking my physical pain.

I started writing out my pain stories. I started to get sleepy which usually happens when I’m REALLY trying to avoid something. My rib was really painful though and heat wasn’t helping. I was able to play some YouTube videos that gave me some instant pain relief.

Next step, how do I make sure I actually do exercises regularly?

I need to work dance/song into it. Probably sing the instructions while doing the exercises to turn them into dance moves. Also get out the foam roller.

And I need to set up a music playlist to move me through the day.

I can do the wall arm one while I supervise my geriatric cat eating. And the shoulder squeeze I can do anytime and helps with the pain right away.

Tongue-Tie

Great Blog post so I don’t have to reinvent the wheel:

This is the document I put together to convince my spouse to go along with the release – after I had already had mine done. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Zk2vooxxK_8Zqszn64r0F5Y9qw8Pzq4Ye4IjSwy3Mr0/edit?usp=sharing

The Kathy from the Breathe Institute (SO GOOD with kids!) spent five minutes at the start of zoom checking out the kiddo’s function/status, then spent the rest of the time working with me to teach or develop new activities to achieve the goal for the coming week. Then it was on me to do the activities (Kathy also sent documents I could use to track) – rinse and repeat until ready for the surgery.

Kiddo has had multiple fillings and other than the burny stink from the laser and the nasty tasting topical anesthetic, it was way easier than any filling. The kiddo definitely either had more pain or lower tolerance for the exercises after. The first few days were spent just holding the boundary of not doing anything else until exercises were done. By the end kiddo was doing some of them with just supervision. The worst was the one where my nails kept poking, so I’d suggest two of those fingertip baby/pet toothbrushes.

UARS or Sleep Disordered Breathing & bed wetting: Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome (UARS) (lucohybridosa.com)

Breathe Institute: Lecture Files from The Breathe Institute (Dr. Zaghi)

Log March 11, 2022:

I found out in January 2021 that I had a posterior tongue tie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VilJPFTwNyk

I had it revised April 2021. It was life transforming.

Quick metrics:

  • Before – 15 minutes of household tasks meant stabbing back pain forced me to stop (some level of pain was there from the start)
  • After – 4 hours before the pain started
  • Before – required chiropractor every 2 weeks minimum for maintenance (Ehlers-Danlos)
  • After – 4 to 6 weeks between chiropractic adjustments
  • Before – wore multiple braces daily, all day
  • After – wear braces occasionally as needed for recovery or for prevention for specific tasks
  • Before – my zero on the pain scale was probably actually at 1 or 2, and usually I had hot spots that were 3 to 8

Update 10/28/2022

Since this came up at one of our discussion groups, I thought I’d fill in the curious.
While researching tongue tie stuff for the kiddo, I found out that I might have tongue tie. We were referred to the Breathe Institute. https://www.thebreatheinstitute.com/

I did a consult and it turned out that I had more severe of a tongue tie than I realized – the floor of my mouth was stretching up to allow more movement. I think this link skips to the part of the video he addresses that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9GrUw7YJD0&t=2106s

I also found info on the fascia system and Tim King was able to tell me just from talking on the phone that my “migraines” were actually cervicogenic headaches. Once I dug more into the fascia stuff I decided I needed to try the release to see if it helped with those and my rib pain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3SPxFR7wcA

I did a month of exercises and stretches to prep for surgery – mostly practice for after surgery and isolation/awareness/control exercises for my tongue. Surgery itself was super easy and fast, I think applying lidocaine (I need more than most due to the Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome) took as long as the surgery. I parked at 10:37 in Walnut Creek (he comes up regularly) and was back in the car at 11:07.

We did laser and glue due to my concerns about scissors and sutures with the EDS and the only bad part was the burning smell. I only did one day of ibuprofen and then ice pack under the chin the second day.

As soon as I stood up out of the chair my posture was drastically improved and my ability to tip my head back with chin up and to twist as well. I haven’t had rib pain since the surgery even with only having one adjustment a month (instead of at least 2) and my cervicogenic headaches went from 3 solid days at least twice a month to a few hours in the evening and the next morning prior to my period (when I usually get one).