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Feb. 18th, 2006 11:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikI feel like my posting is being particularly sporadic.
Physically things are still iffy, but livable. I'm generally feeling good in the mornings, though if I spend a lot of time in lectures or doing computer work I'm likely to develop enough of a headache to be a problem by one or two. It's pretty variable. I'm pretty sure I've figured out a large part of what triggered these problems this time around -- I started noticing that when I was having bad headaches I was often breathing in these short breaths high in the chest (aka, all wrong). If I paid attention not only to spinal alignment and dropping my shoulders, but also to dropping my chest and breathing better, that helped a bit. And doing so also drew my attention to how a lot of the muscles across my chest were quite tight. Paying a bit more attention to this, it started looking as if a lot of what was going on was that I've been having a bit of trouble with asthma since... why, yes, about the time my neck starting being problematic. Anyhow, when I push myself, say running, when I'm having trouble with asthma, it puts a lot of stress on a bunch of muscles associated with breathing, and some of the resulting tightness messes with the position of my shoulders and starts off the whole mess. There's something going on with the scalenes as well...
Anyhow, I talked this all over with Alexa, who agreed that this seemed very likely. (Especially after checking out my chest and shoulders.) So she helped me put together a few stretches, and I'm continuing to keep a close eye on my breathing (and being more aggressive about staying on top of the asthma) and this seems to be helping.
But let me restate this: I've been having increased problems with my (always problematic) spine because of my asthma. If my body were a car, I'd trade it in, even at a loss. If my body were a house I'd pull it down to the foundations and rebuild. Heck, I might put in new foundations. Occaisionally I will just look at the amount of time and effort I put into keeping it more or less running and I really wonder why I bother. But oh, yeah, it's my body -- can't trade it in, and if I don't keep up on maintenance, I'll only be able to do less. And despite everything, I mostly can do the things I want to do, and by my own standards I get to do more cool stuff than most people I know.
So yesterday started well, but descended into moderately awful by mid afternoon. (On the plus side, my box now runs again. But oh, I do get paranoid when I'm in lots of pain and don't take a break.) One of the things being hammered home this week is the side by side comparison between how well I can learn and think when I'm feeling good, and how bleary and stupid I am when I'm not. Gah. I hate that. And I tend to feel torn between not wanting to talk about just what a mess my body is, and not wanting people to think I'm just naturally stupid, either. Did I mention the paranoid part?
Today I had a lovely morning getting caught up with a friend, went to wushu, and then went to the REI sale with my sister. Sales are great -- I got three tops and some snacky things, and spent less than $35. Then Lauren made us all salmon burgers. (And then I went home and studied.) Tomorrow is Taiji, more studying, and then a Chinese New Years celebration with Shifu. And no classes on Monday, too...
Physically things are still iffy, but livable. I'm generally feeling good in the mornings, though if I spend a lot of time in lectures or doing computer work I'm likely to develop enough of a headache to be a problem by one or two. It's pretty variable. I'm pretty sure I've figured out a large part of what triggered these problems this time around -- I started noticing that when I was having bad headaches I was often breathing in these short breaths high in the chest (aka, all wrong). If I paid attention not only to spinal alignment and dropping my shoulders, but also to dropping my chest and breathing better, that helped a bit. And doing so also drew my attention to how a lot of the muscles across my chest were quite tight. Paying a bit more attention to this, it started looking as if a lot of what was going on was that I've been having a bit of trouble with asthma since... why, yes, about the time my neck starting being problematic. Anyhow, when I push myself, say running, when I'm having trouble with asthma, it puts a lot of stress on a bunch of muscles associated with breathing, and some of the resulting tightness messes with the position of my shoulders and starts off the whole mess. There's something going on with the scalenes as well...
Anyhow, I talked this all over with Alexa, who agreed that this seemed very likely. (Especially after checking out my chest and shoulders.) So she helped me put together a few stretches, and I'm continuing to keep a close eye on my breathing (and being more aggressive about staying on top of the asthma) and this seems to be helping.
But let me restate this: I've been having increased problems with my (always problematic) spine because of my asthma. If my body were a car, I'd trade it in, even at a loss. If my body were a house I'd pull it down to the foundations and rebuild. Heck, I might put in new foundations. Occaisionally I will just look at the amount of time and effort I put into keeping it more or less running and I really wonder why I bother. But oh, yeah, it's my body -- can't trade it in, and if I don't keep up on maintenance, I'll only be able to do less. And despite everything, I mostly can do the things I want to do, and by my own standards I get to do more cool stuff than most people I know.
So yesterday started well, but descended into moderately awful by mid afternoon. (On the plus side, my box now runs again. But oh, I do get paranoid when I'm in lots of pain and don't take a break.) One of the things being hammered home this week is the side by side comparison between how well I can learn and think when I'm feeling good, and how bleary and stupid I am when I'm not. Gah. I hate that. And I tend to feel torn between not wanting to talk about just what a mess my body is, and not wanting people to think I'm just naturally stupid, either. Did I mention the paranoid part?
Today I had a lovely morning getting caught up with a friend, went to wushu, and then went to the REI sale with my sister. Sales are great -- I got three tops and some snacky things, and spent less than $35. Then Lauren made us all salmon burgers. (And then I went home and studied.) Tomorrow is Taiji, more studying, and then a Chinese New Years celebration with Shifu. And no classes on Monday, too...
