Category Archives: Related

Thoughts In Traction without typing

by

Thought In Traction has had a busy week. I’ve been doing traction just haven’t had anything much to say, not that I ever have startling things to say. I’ve been thinking but haven’t felt anything worthy of posting. Thanks for reading no matter what rambles I type, you are the reason I’m able to stick with this thing called traction. I’m starting not to hate it and I think that’s in part due to this place I can come and say whatever is on my mind at that moment. I try not to hate anything but I have definitely hated traction and now I’ve moved into a new phase of quiet discontent.

You’ll hear from me again, next week.

Itchy Voting

by

I’ve heard of fishy voting results but never itchy voting. Today when I went to my polling place I was just coming off a doctor’s visit where I received a shot to try to ease the itchest skin of my life. I know “itchest” isn’t a word but it is today in my world. (Update, apparently itchy skin causes other conditions, itchiest is a word, but misspelled “itchest” is not) Some weird allergy attack, yeah, I needed something else to do with my time. Anyway, for my entire voting career my polling places have always been electronic, but today mine was paper. So Miss Numb Fingers did her best to thoroughly fill in the little rectangle shaped boxes but I must confess, at one point I used the eraser end of my pencil to itch between my shoulder blades. I did successfully cast my ballot and then came home to sit in traction. It’s been a banner day! I’m very excited I have a week’s worth of drugs to help stop this itch and hopefully by then not only will this allergy attack be gone but so will all the election talk.

Three cheers for traction, who knew there’d be something to so easily beat it on the stinko meter today, any thing feels better than scratching myself to death.

Travel Traction

by

I was out-of-town for a couple of days recently and in the past I’ve always taken my traction gizmo with me. Its been hung on some pretty nice doors in Santa Monica, The Biltmore Inn, Sea Island, DC, it’s willing to go just as long as it’s packed like a Faberge egg. For whatever reason this time I thought I’d be ok to leave it at home, I didn’t take it to Massachusetts and that wasn’t the best idea. I had so much numbness in my arms and hands it was nuts. It’s weird because traction on the road is usually a nice break in the traction routine and even though it’s just as much of an inconvenience as ever you tell yourself life could be worse. When I sit in traction at home I don’t hear the ocean or have access to room service, it gives me a new door to stare at, maybe sometimes they are extra jazzy and have slates for my entertainment. What was I thinking?! The traction missed out on fall in New England!

So the moral of this story is, have traction will travel, always, never again will it be left behind!

Subtraction traction

by

That’s my goal, always, to do less traction. I’m still at my schedule of three times a week and I’m sitting here wondering how to get it to two times a week. Not sure how to make that happen but I can wish. If I don’t do this I’m a bull in a fine china shop. You need it dropped and in a million pieces on the floor, I’m your girl! Ok, slow day, just hanging, wanted you to know I’m still here.

Thanks for reading.

Cool sip in, laser beam it out…..in honor of Elissa

by

Yep, I forgot to do this. When my niece was a child she had a dance teacher that used to tell her students to take “a cool sip in and laser beam it out.” I thought it was one of the funniest things I’d ever heard and have shared it often with others. Nobody quite ever knows what it means but it always creates a laugh. I even suggested it at a work meeting once when things were getting out of hand. Ok everybody, lets take a cool sip in and laser beam it out for a second…..and yes, I got some crazy looks but it achieved it’s purpose of cutting the tension and getting some folks to “cool it” as my Mom used to say.

So I’ve forgotten to do this lately, to just take a moment, hence my melt down on my last post. I’m doing better today, maybe it’s narcotics or maybe it’s when I saw a bus of children with severe disabilities getting unloaded to go into PT that I was reminded how I have nothing, nothing at all to be complaining about.

So, when in doubt I’m taking a cool sip in and laser beaming it out and just trying to be grateful for all that I do have that works and dealing with stuff that doesn’t.

The definition of traction

by

So which do you prefer? “The action of drawing a body, vehicle, train or the like, along a surface, as a road, track, railroad or waterway” or how about, “the act of drawing or pulling” but let’s not leave out “the deliberate and prolonged pulling of a muscle, organ, or the like, as by weights, to correct dislocation, relieve pressure, etc.”

BINGO, I think we have a winner!

It made me feel better to read the definition and cringe a little. When you read something that has the power to make you wince you figure it must be creepy for real and yeah, it is. I’m moaning and complaining, I’ve been trying not to do either but have I mentioned lately I’M SO SICK AND TIRED OF TRACTION and if I don’t do it I can’t feel my hands and I’m sick of that too!

Ok, moving on.

“It’s a good thing”

by

Nope, I haven’t been sniffing the Martha Stewart glue stick, nothing like that, rather I almost fell asleep in traction today! This is a first and I think “a good thing.” It means I was relaxed and yes, comfortable enough and obviously tired enough to fall asleep. I caught myself just as my head was about to fall off my neck, rather the sling around my head caught me and suddenly I’m back sitting as I should be, but it was a thrill while it lasted. Not to whine, but I can’t describe the discomfort I have felt while sitting here most of the time and to know that I actually was ok enough with sitting here today that I could fall asleep, this is HUGE.

Yeah, I think I’m kind of exhausted with my sleep issues to allow it to more easily happen but I’m focusing on the being comfortable enough to let it happen part.

Gotta find some nugget of good here cause I’ve been losing my psych of late. I mean if it wasn’t for this crazy blog I’d be really struggling with motivation. It’s just hard to find a way to make your self sit in traction when your damaged spinal column hates you for it. If you know of a way to make that a happy place, please share. But for today I’m hanging and almost falling asleep and taking it a day at a time.

More patience please!

by

A woman came up to a clerk that had just waited on me and asked for someone by name. The clerk responded, “I’m sorry, she’s off today.” Then the woman said, “I know, I talked to her yesterday and she said she was going to be off today.” The clerk looked puzzled but she was polite as can be and went on to offer her assistance. When I walked away I thought about how some folks seem to have more patience than humanly possible while I on the other hand could use a little more.

I try to practice patience while I sit here. I try to put it all in perspective. This certainly isn’t the worse thing ever, not even the worst thing I’ve done but it does require some more patience than I feel I have. If I can just get myself in a good place while I sit here I have more patience, better attitude about everything, it’s all a mind game. Just like when I’m in traffic, if I think I will be late for an appointment then I’m stressed and then I lose patience. That’s when I really need to give myself a pep talk and try to disarm myself, talk myself off any cliff I’ve created in my head that the world will somehow end if I don’t make it someplace exactly when I agreed to be there. I mostly get up tight if I think I’m careless with someone else’s time. That really bugs me, if feels beyond rude, it’s either a serious case of cluelessness or arrogance, I hope I’m neither but I have been both. I find I can’t look my doctor in the eye if I’ve kept them waiting and goodness knows they’ve kept me waiting but it’s not right if I do.

It’s amazing how much of life is in our head. If I make an adjustment in my head I can usually make myself feel better about whatever it is. I wonder since I can’t count on my body, it’s just not dependable, I can’t predict one day to the next how I will feel, so maybe I’m working on having more control over something else and that pretty much leaves my mind. I can’t control anything else, don’t want to, the beauty of getting older, control just doesn’t have the same appeal, just doesn’t seem that important anymore. So if I give up control I have more patience, maybe, not sure. Yet, if I adjust my attitude I know I can sit here more patiently than if I don’t, so,…………….. here’s to mind control.

TGIM

by

Yeah, TGIM, Thank God it’s Monday……last week was a bad week, a lost week, I’m happy to be starting a new one! Let’s hear it for Mondays, the start of the work week, a start over, last week is one to forget.

Some back story, I was born with a flawed spinal cord that basically has some non fixable issues, I’ve been told I need a new one. Yeah, really want to line up to be the first spinal cord recipient. Anyhoo, I have a neck that sits on top of a structurally damaged column so when it’s pulled in traction it’s not happy.

Enough of this filling in the blanks, my spine hurts, most of the time, sometimes a lot, but last week, yikes. Take a knife and poke me I think it would have been a nice diversion.

Point is, it’s MONDAY, a NEW day! Time to get on with it, pain is pain, you have to know it can change you, it really can, yet you fight it, sometimes you lose but you don’t give up. So TGIM!! I’m not saying next year at this time you’re going to be sipping margaritas and dipping your cheese sticks in marinara sauce on the patio at the corner TGIM’s, but come on, there’s worse names for stuff. I was standing in line at the pharmacy the other day and I saw a “Lance Your Boil Kit”……. so yeah, there are plenty far more offensive words and images out there. I mean the first time I heard my sciatic nerve was “damaged at the root” I was a little creeped out, but you deal, you move on and you learn that after a bad time you embrace and freakin celebrate the ordinary, therefore, Happy Monday……….TGIM!!

20 Minutes

by

It can be the worst 20 minutes or just 20 minutes. Every time I sit here I have a choice, I can make it more miserable than it sometimes feels or I can use my mind to psych myself up to push thru it. Today is hard, everything hurts more, my back, my neck, even my ear. I can’t seem to find a good rhythm to move the time. I usually have a routine, I initially sit here and just adjust to it, then I either pray or listen to music or read or just sit and think, hence……Thoughts in Traction……when I listen to music, I remember how long each song will last so I know how much time is left, some days the time passes faster, but today, right now 3:37 ticks away before my eyes and I want to scream but at the end I’ll hit replay and just hang on a bit longer.

Right now I’m reminded how much this sucks and how I wonder sometimes if I can keep doing traction. Then I realize I’m fooling myself to think I have a choice, yes, technically I have a choice but the results would be worse than the pain and discomfort of doing traction. I’m just feeling sorry for myself today, I just need to be able to hate this in this moment, it gives me a sense of control I really don’t have. I wish I never had to do this again but come two days from now, I’ll be back here again.