Zodiac My Back!

Okay, first a bit of background: About two years ago, I started getting these nagging pains from inside my left shoulder blade, running down the back of my left arm. Tingling in the fingers. I went to the doctor, and he determined it was nerve-related, and sent me for some physiotherapy. First they hooked my arm up to a TENS machine (electrodes placed on the arm, which sends little electric pulses through the nerves), then they put me in traction for a series of half-hour sessions. That helped somewhat, but I was still in some discomfort. X-rays proved inconclusive, so they scheduled me for an MRI. They put me on the "express" schedule, which meant that if I sheduled it for a 3 a.m. session, I only had to wait three months to get in.

By that time, the pain had mostly subsided, but the MRI did reveal that I had a compressed disc just below my neck. The disc was bulging slightly into the spinal column, causing the pain. The specialist at Sunnybrook told me that surgery was an option, but that if it's not hindering my life--and at that point it wasn't--then I may as well just leave it alone. Fine by me. Back surgey not something I'm excited about venturing into unless absolutely necessary.

So, fast forward to about six weeks ago, and I'm starting to get the pain again. Again to the doctor, again with the physiotherapy, again with the scheduled MRI in the fairly distant future. Only this time the physio involves neck/back exercises, ultrasound, TENS and back massage. Had my first massage session on Monday. The therapist is very cool, quite funny and seems to have a very intuitive sense with muscles. Spoke about "listening" to what the muscles had to tell her. Her hands are good ears. But she's kind of whacky, too. Breaks into fake Russian accents now and then. "Ees good, yah?" It was great though. I had no idea my muscles were so tight and knotted.

Add to this, the fact that I also hurt my knee last week while playing ball hockey. Almost hyper-extended it, but not as bad as that. I was turning to run up "ice" (read: floor) and my foot just landed weird, my leg was straight when my weight came on it, and I kind of jammed my knee. Crumpled to the floor in pain, and limped off. Had to sit out a few shifts, but I was able to walk it off and get back in the game. It's still a bit tender, but I can walk on it okay.

So, that leads us to today's horoscope in the Metro transit newspaper. I've written here before about the strange horoscopes this paper offers. Ones that advise me to buy new footwear (I did) and look under the bases of trees for things I've lost (I did. Nothing there).

So, keeping in mind that yesterday was my first back massage therapy session, here's the last sentence from my horoscope today:

"Knees and back must be catered to for pain relief."

I kid you not! Is that freaky, or what?