Friday, January 16, 2009

Car Talk & Jeans, the New Memory Foam

So Wednesday....

Of course I woke up with absolutely NO pain in my hip just hours before my Dr's appt.  I joked in an email before taking off to Lake Forest Park that yeah, I may as well be my old '89 Toyota Camry...every time I took her to see the mechanic?  What ping? What squeak?  What grinding sound?  

To keep the analogy going, when I met with the doctor he started to explain the human skeletal system as an engine.  Really.  So the shocks and pistons and gears and such?  Yep all gone wrong in my hip area.  And him?  The equivalent of my dad tightening the timing belt vs. Mike the Mechanic with all his bells and whistles and shiny compressors that tighten the bolts too much.

Okay in English?  He said he'd try a "manipulation" with just his hands (and the muscles behind those hands, mind) and if that didn't work, we'd cross that MRI/physical therapy bridge when we came to it.

Yeah, kinda scary to me too.

I have to say that it didn't actually hurt until the very last "pop and pull."  And that one happened so fast that I don't think my body knew it was supposed to be outraged at the dis/re-location of various joints all at the same time.  

However, about 20 minutes later?  When I got out of my car to get to work?  Imagine everyone else walking/talking/being/revving at 55 miles an hour in the office and I'm barely making it to 3...

I'd kept a very straight face when he said, "Take it easy today.  The nicer you are to yourself, the less it will hurt."  See below post re: closing the month.  

So I was slow and careful, but worked the whole day and even ended up at L&L's house that night for dinner.  

I am nothing if not a masochist, it would seem.  But there was a home-cooked meal and a baby to play with and a doggie to keep my feet warm...What can I say, I'm a sucker for these kinds of things especially when I'm feeling not-so-well.  It was an early night, promptly falling asleep about 8:30 and that was me just barely making it home.  My knees felt like jell-o and my hip was still not sure what had happened it it.  Poor thing.  

Basically I've be mis-aligned for over 3 months and if all works well, my body will correct itself after the adjustment.  But 3 months is also a long time to be out of whack so the muscles, having memory and all, may want to stay (jump back?) into the bad place/misaligned state.  (My follow-up in February will confirm/deny this.)  Keep your fingers crossed that I have lazy muscles and tendons who are happy to be put into new configurations and STAY there, yes?

But speaking about memory...

You know how denim, um, shrinks to fit?  Yeah, well, it being Friday/casual day/bust out the jeans day...I pulled mine on and ran out the door as is my rush-rush Friday routine...and it wasn't until I got to the car that I noticed that my right side was having issues with the jeans. (As in the waist was actually riding up, but only on that side.)  Apparently my jeans have also spent three months "molding" themselves to my damaged hip configuration and are not playing well with my "new" old hip.  I feel like I'm wearing someone else's pants.

Happy Friday!

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