Pain, Pain, Go Away!

Shoulders are more delicate than they seem. There's a joint that is easily injured (don't ask me its name) and muscle/tendon structure called the rotator cuff. Rotator cuff injuries can be treated or repaired if they aren't left to deteriorate. Untreated, they can become irrepairable and leave you in constant pain. My mother suffers this pain every day. A few days ago, I went to the doctor because I had shoulder pain and worried that I might have a damaged rotator cuff. It turns out that I just had shoulder strain. However, when I looked at my chart, I noticed that I had gained 20 pounds since 2005. I knew I had gained weight, but 20 pounds! I admire the attitude of loving your body no matter what your weight, but I intend to get back to my 2005 weight. Those 20 extra pounds aren't causing me any pain at this time, but I have 20 pounds of fat that my heart has to pump blood to and my knees have to carry. Besides, my dance partners are starting to lose their balance when

Normally, four nights of lindy hopping, two lower-body strength workouts and three cardio dance workouts in the course of a week would make my knees sore. But they felt better near the end of the week, after three hours of enthusiastic dancing, than they did at the beginning. Here's an example of lindy (the dance I did for four nights), demonstrated by two of my teachers, Tiff and Kenny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF98_Fru90I&feature=related Tiff and Kenny did a show-stopping dance on Thursday that inspired me to dance better on Friday. Instead of doing the same few styling moves (foot and leg movements in this case), I pulled out all the stops and did every one I could think of--and I think that doing several movements instead of repeating a few movements dozens of times was what kept my knees from hurting. My partners enjoyed the variety, too! Another dancer and I were talking about workouts. I mentioned I had stopped doing squats a few years ago, and she said she didn

Years ago, a classmate who was taking antibiotics told me she could make $100 by participating in a study on yeast infections. She always got a yeast infection, she said, when taking antibiotics. I told her she might avoid a yeast infection by taking Lactinex (lactobacillus), a probiotic that replenishes the good bacteria that antibiotics kill. She reported later that the Lactinex worked--and that it wasn't worth $100 to get a yeast infecton. A few weeks ago, I had stomach aches and motion sickness while I was taking cleocin (another antibiotic). Normally, I can spin and spin without getting dizzy, let alone seasick. But I was suddenly unable to even read on the bus. Taking probiotics (Udo's Choice Super 5 Lozenge Probiotic) made me feel better. Super 5 contains lactobacillis acidophilus, bifidobacterium bificum, streptococcus thermophillus, l. bulgaricus and l. salivarius. Some of these are in various brands of yogurt, but you'd have to eat a lot of yogurt to get as much f

Monday, I was back in the dentist's chair to get a permanent filling. I told the dentist about the muscle relaxant (Cyclobenzaprine) that my TMJ doctor prescribed. It had stopped the pain in its tracks. The most helpful things I found for my tooth infection and root canal pain: Hot water bottle for pain. Cyclobenzaprine for muscle spasms and intense pain. Ibuprofin for three or four hours' moderate relief from intense pain. Probiotics (Udo's Choice Super 5 Lozenge Probiotic) for my stomach while I took cleocin (an antibiotic). The cleocin must have killed some of the good bio in my digestive system, which the probiotics helped restore.

Four days later, I got back in the dentist's chair. My gums, lymph glands and chin were swollen, even though I was taking antibiotics. "What happens if the tooth is still infected?" I asked with a pineapple-flavored swab in my mouth. "We'd do a temporary filling and let it drain, let it heal, then do a permanent filling." The dentist looked in my mouth and seemed surprised. "Amoxicillin kills 99.9% of infections." He said I needed broader spectrum antibiotic. He gave me a shot that made me numb from my front teeth to my inner ear. A few minutes later, he and his assistant started work and I squealed. "Cold," I explained. The assistant put something fibrous behind my lip and started again. It felt like they were removing tartar from the tooth next to the infected one. Awhile later, the dentist said he was done. That was it? I didn't know they'd started drilling. The assistant spent the next few minutes getting all the fiber out of

"Root canal" used to be a metaphor for pain. When the dentist told me last week that I had to have one (or else have the tooth pulled), I didn't know what a root canal was. I only knew that it couldn't be worse than the tooth infection that brought me to the dentist. The day before, after going to bed feeling fine, I work up with what felt like a recurrence of my TMJ problems. By mid-afternoon, I couldn't bite a sandwich without intense pain. I tried cloves, vanilla extract, ibuprofin, and acupressure, some of which brought mild relief. The next day, after examining me, the dentist pulled out his I-phone and played a computer generated video of a root canal. A tiny, flexible drill removed the affected nerve and the space left by it was filled. It seemed simple enough, but I had a few questions: ME: Can't the infection be cured with antibiotics? DR: No, the infection will go away and you'll feel better for about a month. Then it'll come back. The nerve

Put the medicine on the back of your tongue. There are fewer taste buds there. Have some chocolate after you take it--the chocolate cuts the taste.