Found the Solution

I believe I have found a solution to a lot of my problems. Obviously cerebral palsy cannot be cured, however, the problems that go along with them can be somewhat fixed. How? Well, for me, it’s going to the chiropractor. My appointment was on Thursday, but I wanted to wait a few days just be sure. I believe the “jerk move” problem is now gone. Whatever is left over is just some confidence issues, and I’m working on that.

I’ll describe it this way. Have you ever been watching television for a while, and when you turn it off, you think to yourself “wow, that was really loud.”? You don’t realize the TV was too loud until it’s not on any more. That was how my back was. I didn’t realize how uncomfortable I had been for a very long time. I just figured it was normal to be that achy and uncomfortable with cerebral palsy. I ached doing every little thing (even putting my hair into a pony tail was painful). I just didn’t really realize it until I saw the chiropractor.

                      

Let me just say, my back was a wreck. I always knew my neck was a mess, but my lower back was tilted and cock-eyed also. The doctor said I had some scoliosis, but it wasn’t anything to be worried about. I was also very tight and had a lot of muscle knots. Now I didn’t see myself, but my husband was in the room with me. While I was face down on the table, my right hip was a lot higher off the table than my left. As soon as he did a few pops, I was even. I immediately felt my lower back relax, and it felt good.

The middle of my back is fine, but it was out of alignment also. Few pops there, and it was straight. My shoulders and neck were the culprits of most of my discomfort. He adjusted my upper back while I was still face down on the table, and again it felt great. I think that was when he really got an idea of how tight I was up through the shoulders. He gave my husband a look of surprise apparently because I was so tight. Turned over on my back and that’s when the magic happened.

My neck is curved to my left and because of that, I get shooting aches (not really painful) down my arms every now and then. I get the same thing down my legs because of my lower back issue. Due to my cerebral palsy, it’s difficult for me to relax. Muscles and tendons were tight, and the doctor did a great job of loosening it all up. Then, kerpop! My neck got adjusted, and I just melted. All I good do was squeak out a “thank you” and then relaxed. He did the other side, and got another loud kerpop. My husband heard that one from where he was sitting. It was loud.

He also put “stims” on my upper back. It’s basically a tens unit and had me lay back down for a few minutes to let that do some work. Felt like a lot of needles massaging my shoulders and neck. After that, he brought me out for an ultra sonic treatment, which is basically heat therapy. That felt really good too.

And then it was over. He said to come in whenever I felt I needed to. Which is good. The chiropractor we saw near Seattle always told me to come in a certain amount of days in a week (at least in the beginning). So, my plan is to go once a month. In Seattle I think I went about once every three weeks. I may have to go back in sooner, at least in the beginning, but my goal is to get in there once a month. And whenever we go on vacation I’ll go in a few days before we leave.

I’m now able to sit up straight without any pain in my lower back. I can put my hair up with no pain in my neck and shoulders. I can bend over without groaning. I can stand up from the couch without groaning. I have to keep telling myself to stand up straight. That doesn’t hurt any more. I was constantly bent at the waist when I was standing.

So yes, big improvements. I do feel a bit achy in my upper back and shoulders, but heat should help that. I’m going to try to make it another week, and then go in I think. The chiropractor I saw was very nice. He is helpful and knows what he’s doing. He doesn’t try to up-sell you at all which I appreciate.

I keep laughing at myself throughout the day when I can do things that normally cause me discomfort. I can now sit cross legged without my left hip aching. My left hip has been giving me problems for a while now, and it’s fixed. It might not be for everyone, whether you have cerebral palsy or not, but for me the chiropractor is a huge deal. Yeah!

If you happen to live in the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, Indio areas) and you have a back issue, check out The Spine and Sport Clinic. I saw Dr. Patrick Van Loon. I highly recommend it and him.

March Vacation Activities

At the end of March, my husband and I went on vacation for about five days. My parents came out from Florida, and we spent about three days in Monterey, CA with them. We left for the trip a day early, and drove up to the Sequoia National Park.

We left the Coachella Valley of CA Saturday morning around 5:30 AM and got to our hotel in Three Rivers around 11:30 AM. Not too bad. We couldn't check into the hotel until 4:00 PM, so we went ahead and drove over to the redwoods. I've never seen the redwoods in person, so I didn't really grasp how large they were until I actually saw them up close and personal. I'd seen pictures, but you can't really get the scale until you go see them.

There was a lot of snow on the ground, about 18 inches I'd guess. It was packed down along the trails, but I kept sliding on it, so I made my own path and smooshed more snow down. I love the snow, but I've always said, I would never like to live in a place that got a lot of snow. Walking my own path didn't really work well. As I was walking through it, I stepped wrong a few times, slid, and wrenched my left knee pretty good. It still aches, and it's been about three weeks since I did it. Every time I packed snow down when I stepped, my feet would turn in (particularly my left) and put pressure on my knees weird. Give me flat ground any day, and I'm happy. Just a little snow is good.

This picture kind of gives you a perspective of how big the General Sherman tree is. It's huge, and I can't even guess as to how wide it is.

(Ignore the date on the picture. Didn’t realize the clock was set correctly.)

The bummer of the Sequoia trip was that a few of the areas we wanted to check out were not open yet. The crystal caves are closed until early May, and the large tree you can drive through wasn't open until sometime in the summer. That just means we'll have to go back one day.

Sunday morning, it was time to move on and continue our journey. We drove over to Monterey and it only took about three hours. We drove around the area a little, and picked a spot called the Black Bear Diner for lunch. More on that in the next post. We wandered around some more, until my parents showed up later that night, and then checked into the hotel. Took it easy that night, with a good dinner and drinks.

Monday, we decided was a good day to experience the 17 mile drive. It starts out in Pacific Grove and ends at Pebble Beach. Lovely views along the way, with a lot of places to turn out and take some pictures. Or video. Here's a video of some seals “barking”. Forgive the wind noise. We had lunch in the Tap Room at Pebble Beach, and then wandered around the golf pro shop.

Next up, we walked around the city of Carmel. Great little town, but my goodness, the hills killed me. I am so glad that I've been exercising as much as I have been, because if I hadn't, there would be no way I would have survived that city. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of the city. But, trust me, those hills were steep.

Tuesday, we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Since I've gotten into shape, I try my best to avoid wheel chairs. I did try at the aquarium, but for a few reasons I decided to grab a chair. One, the place was packed with tons of people. Two, my left foot was developing a “spot” that was hurting. Wasn't sure what it was. And three, my walking hadn't been the best so far. Slow walking with stops and starts are annoying for me, so I gave in a got the chair. Sort of bummed about it, but all it all, it was a good choice.

The aquarium was OK. To be honest though, it was a bit of a let down compared to the aquarium in Atlanta. It was still a great aquarium though, don't get me wrong. Definitely check it out if you're in the area. No Beluga whales, but they had sea dragons and penguins. And puffins!

Wednesday was the last day we were in town, and we all went over to the wharf and wandered around. We were planning on taking a tour boat out to see seals and otters, but the boat only ran on weekends. The whale watching tour was later in the morning, and lasted a few hours. It also wasn't certain that tour would run because it was supposed to rain that day. So we just wandered around and looked at the boats and all the shops and restaurants.

Sadly, it was then time to start the drive back to the valley. We had originally planned to stop off and take a look at Hearst Castle. However, that “spot” I mentioned on my foot turned out to be a blister. That blister sort of ripped as we were walking around the wharf. So we decided to skip the castle this time around (another excuse for a second trip), and drive on back.

That was an experience by itself. We intended to drive down Highway 1 along the coast. Which we did, however just about 50 or 60 miles into the drive, 5 miles or so where we would have turned off for Hearst Castle, the road was closed. We think it may have been due to a rock slide, but we're not sure. We had to turn around, and drive all the back to Monterey. There were no exits or off-shoots in between. So we drove about 100 miles extra that we needed. We at least got some good pictures of some of the Pacific Coast Highway.

Ended up getting back to the house at 12:30 AM, and falling into bed. And that's the first entry for this vacation recap. Next up...food.

Summer Vacation 2011: Atlanta Outings

For the first post of the vacation series, I'll be talking about our outings while in Atlanta.

We had two meals out during our visit this time around. For our first dinner, we went to our favorite place the second night we were in town. Ted's Montana Grill is the best place to get bison. I always get some kind of bison burger when I eat there. They serve normal ground beef, but bison is healthier, and it's hard to find in restaurants here in the Coachella Valley. So Ted's Montana Grill is always a must when we go to Atlanta.

The second dinner out that we had in Atlanta was to a restaurant I have never been to before, Social Vinings. This restaurant has a variety of food, from seafood and sushi to chicken and pasta. I had the Pan Seared Trout Filet which came with a sweet pea risotto, crispy capers and a lemon butter sauce. It was fantastic. I'm not a real big fan of risotto, but this sweet pea risotto was pretty good. For dessert, my husband and I split an Irish Coffee and Deep Fried Oreos (I think that's what they were called, I can't find it on the menu online). Unfortunately, the Irish Coffee wasn't a real Irish Coffee as they were out of Baileys, so they substituted it with something else. It definitely did not taste like an Irish Coffee to me, but it was still good. The Deep Fried Oreos were excellent. I don't even want to think about the calorie count on those suckers. I definitely want to go back to Social Vinings sometime in the future.

Our daytime fun activities in Atlanta consisted of the movie Mr. Popper’s Penguins and the Georgia Sequarium. Mr. Popper’s Penguins was a fun movie to see. It is a bit slow in the beginning, but I would say it’s a good movie to see. I doubt it’s in theaters anymore, but there’s always Netflix or other DVD rental places you can rent it from eventually.

The Georgia Sequarium is always a fun place to go. We've been there about three or four times now, and it never gets old. My favorites are the otters. I thought I wasn't going to see them this time around, because the first walk-through we did they were all sleeping. We decided to make one more pass through before we left, and they were wide awake and active. I also love to see the beluga whales. Huge, massive white whales gliding through the water. The tank they swim in is huge. One wall of the exhibit is glass, from floor to ceiling, so it's massive. And my third favorite is probably the penguins. You can never go wrong seeing those black and white tuxedo birds playing around.

That pretty much wraps up our outings in Atlanta. We basically just hung around my sister’s house for the rest of the time, getting caught up with family. reading, playing Angry Birds and playing with the kids.

The second part in this vacation series will cover our journey to Reynolds Plantation.

Read the third post of the vacation series here.