Healing Injury through Time Part I

Love heals.  Here's the beginning of the story of my injury and coming back to be fully mobile.

It was June 7, 2018.  I'd gotten  a new road bike a couple months earlier and just purchased clip-less shoes and peddles.  I'd been practicing clipping out and back in again when I needed to stop.  Clip-less shoes and peddles are the kind that literally clip you onto the peddle.  It increases speed.  Veteran bicyclists would not bike without this great invention.  I'd been a bit unsure. After talking with the woman at our local bike shop, I decided to go for it! I was up for the challenge and excited about a full summer ahead for riding, paddling, walking, dancing and making art.

Bob, my husband and I were heading across the new bridge in Winona on our way to Fountain City, Wisconsin.  I don't have any pictures of how cool all of this looked.  It was a hot day, still early enough in the day to enjoy.  The breeze from the bike was great! Bob and I are both teachers and having a bit of freedom from our busy teaching responsibilities was a great feeling.

We were almost to the signal light.  We were going to get to the left to make a left turn to Hwy 35.  The road shoulder had a soft down hill curve from the road.  I needed to bump over to get to the road.  Instead of hitting that bump at a 45 degree angle, I hit it parallel.  My skinny road bike tires reacted to this dilemma by throwing me and the bike over to the right.  I hit my elbow and came crashing to a stop.

Everyone asks, "Were you wearing a helmet?"  Yes, I was.  Or another question, "How was the bike?"  Bike was fine.  I was not so fine.  My elbow hurt so bad and I was bleeding from a small rock that entered my arm.  I began crying, wailing actually as I sat on the edge of the road.  I called to Bob who was riding ahead of me.  I told him that I didn't think that I could go all the way.  He said no.  He got me off the road and to the edge.  He washed my bleeding arm and we rested there for a bit.

A very kind person in a white car stopped and asked if we needed help or a ride to the emergency room.  We said no.  I didn't think that I needed to go and I didn't want to bleed all over her nice white car.

We got up and began walking back. I was still crying and quite a mess.  Bob offered to walk both of our bikes.  At that point, I thought that I'd calm down and get on my bike and ride home.  But in my mind and heart, I was hoping for a ride.

And then along came a Fish and Wildlife Ranger from the Trempealeau Wildlife Refuge.  He asked if I needed to go to the hospital.  I said no thanks.  He didn't have enough room for both of us and our bikes in his truck.  Bob said he could stash the bikes in the weeds along the side of the road.  I was so scared that someone would steal our bikes.  Bob said no, they'd be ok.  The wildlife guy told us to wait here a bit and he'd be right back.

What he did was radio another ranger fellow to give us a ride.  And within about 10 minutes, another truck came that could haul two humans and two bikes.  He gave us a ride home.  What a relief.

When we got home, Bob helped me clean us my injury.  He asked again, if we should go to the doctor.  I decided that we should go.  We went to Urgent Care.  They took an X-ray and found that I'd broken my elbow in three places.  I'd need a surgery to repair the broken bone.

More to come; stay tuned.

Bringing Peace to Healing Pain

Mind Fog, and Growing Stronger No Matter What

 Brown eyed Susans

Today, I’m awakening with numbness is my right forearm and an ache through my body.  Lots of mornings lately, I’ve been moving slowly with some sort of pain.  At times the pain was so debilitating that I just wanted to lie down and try to escape.  At other times, I learned that when I got moving, the pain would reduce. Some of the huge challenge with the pain is the mind fog that comes with it.  When the body is screaming about pain, it is very challenging to focus on other topics.  

Here are a few things that I’ve been working with to manage pain this summer.  I’ve used soothing music to listen to in the night when I would awaken and could not sleep due to pain.  The music softly and gently floated me back into sleep.  I would plug in my ear buds to keep the music helping me and let my sweetheart still have his sweet repose.

Last night, I felt a deep numbness and pain in my upper arm nerves.  I would have reacted to this in the past with anger and a feeling of “Why do I have so much pain all the time?”  Last night instead, I was able to image being wrapped up tight in a blanket—and the blanket was physical and had the energy of love.  Those thoughts soothed me back into sleep.

I have used healing meditations from Kris Carr.  Her positive voice and energy along with being calm and reassuring that my body was healing and taking care of me was very affirming. 

I have used positive self-talk.  When I would find myself saying disparaging words to myself, I would say, “Cancel, clear,” and then say two positive things that were true such as “My cats love me,” and “The sun is shining in my heart.” That one came a lot when the sun was not shining.

I have a movement practice called Nia that I use to help manage pain and anything that comes up in my body.  This practice also uses music to move in ways to pleasure changing the movement, if it causes pain. Another practice in Nia is 5 Stages of Healing. 

 The 1^st Stage involves rolling and moving lying on the ground or carpet softly moving your arms and legs like you are a swimming embryo. Moving on your side, belly, back are all stage one.  

Stage two is creeping—move to the belly and the elbow bends to the knee on one side of the body as the other side is long. Then the long side becomes short with elbow to knee and the other side becomes lengthened.  One alternates this move.

Stage three is crawling on hands and knees.

Stage four is turning the toes under then lifting the torso to a squat.

Stage five is walking

At any point, one may go back to the previous stage or earlier stage.The stages are done for as short or long a time as desired.  One may do them with in silence or with quiet music.

Nia is a somatic practice to use the mind to direct the movements for the greatest ease, alignment, and pleasure.  Injury is a great teacher about how alignment works and how to use the mind to ease the healing. Nia is a pleasure based practice.

I teach Classic Nia and Nia Moving to Heal at the Winona Friendship Center.

Classic Nia Wednesdays 4:00- 5:00pm
                    Thursdays 5:10-6:00pm

Moving to Heal Nia  Thurdays 4:30-5:05pm

Mind and body are so connected.  Let them share the love to help heal and feel better.


[This pain and mind fog was the result of an accident on a bicycle that I had earlier in the summer 2018, when I was thrown off the bike and broke my elbow.  Read here to learn more details about the healing through injury, part I, if interested. The body has an amazing capacity for healing.  Sometimes it seems a slow process.  Easy and gentle works well and compassion for ourselves can work miracles.]