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Today I begin to integrate yoga into the workout regimen. It will go something like Tuesday - strength training routine, Wednesday - Yoga, Friday - cardio, Saturday - strength training, Sunday - yoga..etc.
The MS specialist mentioned that yoga is highly encouraged in all MS patients, especially in helping with muscle stiffness and spasticity. It's safe to say, the condition in my legs has worsened since my time in the hospital. It feels like the little things the physical therapist at the hospital showed me like squats and knee lifts were a presentiment of what was to come. Though, I have had sensation return to my abdomen and bottom, I still have a gradation of numbness in my thighs, and then of course from the knees down, it's a mess. And, these poor feet? Forget about it! lol
I thought having some sensation in the thighs might be a good thing until it suddenly dawned on me that now I can "feel" the muscle spasms. It's enough to say I preferred the numbness. Muscle weakness has incurred as a result of the muscle spasticity. You tax any muscle in the body for too long and it just plain goes weak, so unlike before when I was able to tell my legs to move and they moved pretty quick, even if I wasn't able to feel them. It's like moving through sludge sometimes. I find myself bumping into the walls often to keep balance and waking up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night now feels like trying to run with 10 lb weights on each leg.
Mom wondered if there were any exercises that might help, but the doctor informed us that this tightness and spasticity occurs because the signals are crossed between the brain and the spinal chord due to the damage by the lesion, and at this point there's nothing that can be done about those mis-crossed signals.
I suppose if there were, we might have a cure for Multiple Sclerosis.
It used to be so easy for me to do the knee lifts and the squats the physical therapist showed me in my hospital room that I almost rolled my eyes when she gave me these exercises. Did she know what was to come? I thought it was ridiculous to have to use a walker, but did so because I understood walking around downtown might be precarious regarding balance, especially if I'm attempting to walk fast. I never knew there were going to be days when having those extra wheels might feel like an absolute necessity to even walk or get my legs to move forward in some moments. Did they all know?
We upped the dosage yet again on the baclofen. I didn't want to but the Doctor couched it like this, "what we're trying to do here is get those muscles relaxed enough to do the physical therapy exercises that will help with your gait. Sometimes, that may mean taking the muscle relaxers before you even start the exercises."
I met her in the middle and we decided I will double up and take two before I go to bed "Post Exercise". In short, I'm going from 3 pills to 4 pills, but I get to double up on the last two. She said, I can increase the dosage all the way up to 90 mgs if I want. I'm at 40, and that's enough as far as I'm concerned.
As for the recommended yoga, this is where modern medicine and I will create a beautiful relationship.
This little half breed Indian girl (dot, not feather), has been doing Hatha Yoga off and on for over 20 years. It was Richard Hittleman's book that first caught my attention back when I was 22 years old and still in college. I went to UCSC, which some may know is a very hippy college. LOL. A sweet young freshmen gave me the book. She bought it at a used book store, it was written in the 1970's. But, as a half Indian woman with 7000 years of the Ganges river running through her veins in culture alone, I can tell you this book comes the closest to original yoga, ya know that activity that actually harkens from the motherland called "India".
It even has the sanskrit names for the different asanas in the back of the book. It's kinda funny because it's a bit sexist too. It might have been one of the first books to come out during that time when Americans attempted to integrate western and eastern philosophy. There are several sections that discuss how important it is the "housewife" to practice good posture. LOL. I suppose that is another reason why I love the book. It really is a bit of a time capsule, but any yogi or yoga teacher in america worth their salt knows Hittleman's book. It is absolute wonderful platform to begin any type of yoga.
I have a larger updated edition now and I ensured the larger room in the suite I live in was fashioned to allow for yoga in a comfortable and open space as it's the one exercise this body has done consistently.
Ironically, it was just within the last 2 years I really understood how to "do it". I realized after about 18 years, I had been doing yoga like a ballerina, having grown up in dance and gymnastics. One actually does not relax into a stretch in ballet. In many respects, these activities demand that one pushes the stretch so the muscles tear and repair. If one grows up in dance, the muscle automatically develop this type of flexibility. There is no "take a position as far as one can comfortably go, take a deep breath, and literally allow the muscles to relax into that position as if the body was about to fall asleep in that position". In ballet, being limber is important but there's tautness or tightness to each position. This is how I had been practicing for many years until I went through a series of tai massages with a massage therapist and enjoyed the absolute euphoric relaxation that comes with tai yoga. It was then I finally understood how to "assume an asana".
It goes something like this...
Ballet - is about flexibility
Yoga - is about relaxation and release, primarily through the use of one's breath when assuming the asanas. It is this continued practice of relaxation and release through the asanas that eventually gives way to flexibility.
For a while, just to impress this concept, I stopped counting when I held an asana and just focused on breath and relaxation of the muscle. This will still be the primary focus as I reintegrate yoga back into the exercise regimen, but I will also incorporate the counting back in. In addition, the Sensei's wife at our Buddhist temple is a yoga instructor. We will be working together around the first of the year to see what other asanas can be fit into the routine to help with the MS. So, we'll see what happens.
Current weight is still shifting between 186-188
Be blessed and have a wonderful day, everyone!
Diet Calendar Entries for 27 September 2017:
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1373 kcal
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Fat: 44.84g | Prot: 96.87g | Carb: 104.89g.
Breakfast: Coffee with Cream and Sugar, Luvo Red Curry Chicken. Lunch: Great Value Hard Boiled Eggs, Roly Poly Buffalo Chicken Salad. Dinner: GFS Deli Turkey Breast. Snacks/Other: Red Table Wine, Chobani Nonfat Blueberry Greek Yogurt (5.3 oz), Fiber One 90 Calorie Brownies - Chocolate Fudge. more...
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