Good stuff

[jennyaxe]

A few weeks back, ailbhe asked for an update on how the relaxation techniques work for handling pain.

The answer is: I've kept trying to keep my muscles relaxed, especially the ones in my abdomen, as that's where the cronic pain monster lives. Last week, on my Thursday night horseriding class, I noticed a huge difference!

• I managed to actually sit down in the saddle in trot. This is generally both difficult and painful for me - you need to be relaxed to be able to sit down and not bounce around, and the bouncing hurts which makes me tense which makes the bouncing worse... Still, I did it - a bit bouncy, but I did it! I did need to pause for a few minutes afterwards, but hey, I did it!
• I've also had problems with galloping - I tend to fall forward a bit and lose control. This worked a lot better, too.
• During the dressage exercise the instructor said "look at Jenny on Corana there, they've got it right!" to the class. I tried not to smirk, but I don't know if I succeeded...

The most important part is that I've not been taking as many painkillers as I usually do. I've gone from 250-300 mg of Tramadol on an ordinary day, 350-400 on a bad day, to 200 on an ordinary day and 250-300 on a bad day. This really means a lot!

And yesterday I got a letter from my gynaecologist. She moved to another hospital a while ago, due to the head of the women's clinic where she worked being a jackass - result being that there's now only one endometriosis specialist at the clinic, and she's doing research and doesn't take any patients. So I wrote to my doctor at the new hospital a couple of weeks ago, and now I've got an appointment in two weeks. Considering that she's one of the two or three top endometriosis specialists in Sweden, I'm very glad that she managed to make time for me so quickly. And while the relaxation stuff has helped me limit the pain caused by muscle tension and muscle cramps, I still have the occasional twinge of "real" endometriosis pain, and I really want it looked at by an expert.

In all, things are looking up on the health front!

Comments

[ailbhe]

Hurray! And thanks for remembering to update.

[jennyaxe.livejournal.com]

Thanks for caring!

BTW, when unpacking the boxes that have been in storage for the past four years, I found some photos of you and Rob at a barbequeue in Stockholm...

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Excellent news!

Gina

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

Gladdened to hear this.

I had a shiatsu massage on Sunday, and the therapist recommended relaxation techniques - the one where you tighten and relax each set of muscles in turn. I've done this in yoga classes but am terrible at remembering to do these by myself.

[jennyaxe.livejournal.com]

That's the one I do. It works quite well. The idea is that once I've learned it thoroughly, I won't actually need to go through the entire process of tightening and relaxing muscles; I'll be able to do it at will. But that requires practice...