Bikini Envy

My company sent me on a business trip last week to Grapevine, Texas, to manage one of our larger conference booths. The trip was nice, although I didn’t get to see much of Texas. It was more like I had been placed inside a bio-dome in Disneyland or something. It was over a hundred degrees outside, but the resort I was in was a perfect 72 degrees, day and night. The atrium was huge with a glass dome ceiling, a cobblestone pathway, and coy ponds and waterfalls. In addition, the place had been decked out for the Summer with an Alice in Wonderland theme, so everywhere you went you could find a character from the movie; or something else related to the theme. It was wild!

Anyway, while I was there, I had virtually no major pain. It was almost unbelievable. I was so terrified that I would be struggling to get through the long event days, but the truth is that I was more comfortable than I had been in a long time. My sinuses cleared up, my skin looked great. It was wonderful! Then I realized… at home in Seattle I am pretty cold much of the time, which probably causes my body to tense up more than it needs to. Also, when I’m on site at an event, I’m up and moving all the time, so I’m not doing the things that cause the most pain – like typing for long periods of time or driving. I knew that it was inflammation that had to be to blame and boy was I right…

Right before my trip I went in and had an XRay and an MRI done of my neck. I believe the purpose of the testing was to see if there was any degeneration of the bones or soft tissues that could be causing my pain. Sure enough, I have a minor bulging of the disk between C5 & C6, along with arthritis – I would have bet my life that I had arthritis, but the bulging disk was a bit of a surprise.

Thankfully, these problems are not of much concern to my doctor. After all, ten years ago the doctors said that they were surprised that I didn’t have arthritis already. I feel so fortunate that it has waited until now to rear it’s ugly head! But, at the same time, I don’t want to sit on this and wait for it to get worse. So, I’m going to see a sports medicine specialist who can give me guidance on the best exercises and lifestyle changes to keep me up and moving for a very long time. It might take a couple weeks to get in to see him, but that’s ok. I’m eager to see what he prescribes!