Thursday, May 20, 2010

Massage Therapy

Recently, I came across an article in Natural Health magazine explaining a few different types of massage. I had no idea what I was missing! So I did some research and found there are over 160 different types of massage… http://www.massage-therapy-benefits.net/types-of-massage-therapy.html

What if massage therapy was considered as normal, routine care paid for by insurance like a chiropractor or family doctor well check visit? I would be first in line to pay my co-pay! Massage is deeply healing for depression, pain, immunity problems, diabetes, cancer, and the obvious = stress. When your body is in Dis-Ease it harbors disease. Your circulation slows and your body shuts down. Massage keeps your body flowing.

Here are a few different types of massage you should try out soon…
1. Swedish – moderate pressure and long strokes that run along the grain of the muscle; good for beginners and relaxation
2. Deep Tissue – penetrating kneading, cross grain strokes and trigger points; can be painful during the process but worth it afterwards; for chronic tension and muscular injuries. Hot stones are sometimes used to pre-treat an area first.
3. Shiatsu – you may have a hand-held massager at home but therapists apply acupressure and gentle stretching to work with your body’s meridian system (organ system); good for stomach issues, PMS, insomnia, headaches
4. Thai or Breema – you keep your clothes on and the therapist works your body through a series of stretches, “passive yoga”
5. Abhyanga – using herb-infused oils and stroking to address imbalances in the doshas (energies that govern life); good if you need a balance in your life
6. Lomi Lomi – Hawaiian massage; long flowing rhythmic strokes and forearm pressure; releases emotional tension stored in the musculature
7. Craniosacral therapy – ultra-light touch to balance pressure in the spine between your cranium and sacrum; helps muscle release by working with the nervous system; good for headaches, allergies, sinusitis, or mental freak outs
8. Reflexology – each of the body’s organs are connected to an area on the bottom on the foot so applying pressure can change the body functions

I think we need to demand massage becomes part of routine maintenance care! Though, if you were getting massages on a regular basis you probably wouldn’t need as many pharmacy visits or joint replacement surgeries or depression drugs and I don’t know how those people would make a living. If you were healthy, the CEO’s of our insurance companies wouldn’t be able to get their millions of dollars of bonuses each year. How sad.

Heather

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Just Do It

Today’s blog is sort-of stolen from Nike, “Just Do It”. There are so many times when we talk and talk so much about things – dreams, passions, giving, adventures – that little action is ever actually attached. Which I guess you could say that no action is an action, and the deed you say you wanted to do is not really big enough in your heart to begin with to start you moving.

I wonder sometimes if the words, “Let me know if there is anything I can do” are said because the person really wants to help you and has no clue how to do it, if they are afraid of offending you by volunteering something specific, or if they are just said to be nice but secretly hoping you never ask for anything difficult. Many times I have found people off-guard when I respond, “Great, can you ______?” There is always this silence, then slowly “Ummm, well, sure” or “Oh, sorry, we are totally booked up this weekend.” Which both responses may be okay, but counter to the “anything” that was offered. So the person needing help now feels rejected, as well as overwhelmed, and guilty for asking for anything in the first place because they just now put their friend out….and the friend is uncomfortable for being put on the spot and feeling guilty for not wanting to, or being able to, help.

And in the end, no action is taken. Really? Nothing? Why?

What if we volunteered, and did, exactly what we could give? What if we were specific in our actions and not general in our talk? Remember when babies were born and everyone brought over dinners? Or when a husband died, someone sent over their oldest son to take care of the yard? There was no asking, help just arrived and everyone in the community felt good about it. Those who received felt blessed with kindness and friendship. Those giving were honored to share their wealth with others, whether it was food, physical labor, or laughing company. Each day brought a new surprise from people who cared.

So if you keep saying, “I want to make a difference” then Just Do It. Plain and simple, put some actions behind your words. Stop asking (and making excuses) and put your body to work. Whether it’s for your dreams and passions or giving to another person, nothing will ever happen unless you take a step forward. It’s not always the thought that counts if there’s nothing to pair it with. No one will complain to come home from work to a yard that is mowed or flowers planted. No one will say no to a home cooked meal or basket of groceries. No one will reject a funny card or movie. No one will give up a free babysitter. And if they do, then you know in their hearts they really need a lot more loving attention from you, because their soul has hardened over time.

Your actions really can make all the difference in someone’s life. For those who have helped me, I thank you with all my heart!

Heather

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Wishbone and Mother's Day

In honor of Wishbone Day, here’s Sami story….
The morning of September 24, 2003 was so full of opposing emotions that my heart still races and my chest feels like it’s full of lead almost five years later. I was sending my daughter to death, on purpose.

It started in May with a routine ultrasound. I was so excited, since I didn’t have an ultrasound with my son. It was like being pregnant for the first time all over again. Afterwards, the nurse was quiet and left the room. A long while passed before a doctor came in. As he viewed the screen in the darken room, moving the wand over my belly, he too was quiet and I knew something was wrong.

“Her arms and legs are too short, and they are very bowed. You’ll need to see a specialist.”
What? But I’m a healthy mom! Maybe it’s just dwarfism. Okay, we can adapt to that.
But the specialist didn’t have better news. I had to undergo a very painful amino to run the 5 tests our insurance would pay for. We discovered there are 200 different types of dwarfism, and we weren’t lucky enough to get a “run of the mill” variety. The high tech ultrasound machines they had showed much more detail than the clinic’s that was used previously…more details like fractures and deformities.
“She either has campomelia or osteogenesis imperfecta type II. Either way, she will only live 24 hours.”
24 hours. One whole day. Will she suffer those 24 hours? Do I end the pregnancy now so she won’t suffer? Why do I have to make that decision? How horrible for a mother to decide that! Which is better – to die now or to keep breaking and die later? Am I being selfish by procrastinating the decision?
At 7 months pregnant we made her funeral plans. A friend of ours, who operates a funeral home, took care of all the details. All the while I could feel her kicking my belly in protest. I cried for hours in my three year old son’s room that night, trying to hold on to his precious life while mourning the loss of the other still inside me.
Do I finish the nursery? Can I stand to walk by it everyday if she’s not there? Will that torture me everyday? Am I giving up on her if I don’t finish it? Each time I picked up my son, or bumped my belly on a chair or the steering wheel, she would break, and I would see it on the ultrasound that week.

D-Day. Delivery Day. The last day of my old life. The c-section was scheduled for 9am on the 24th of September. How could I willingly take her from her safe haven inside me and watch her die? I could feel her alive and moving and it would soon stop. Why couldn’t I have just one more day with her? Because if I went into labor I’d kill her right away – contractions puncturing lungs with cracked ribs, brain damage with a cracked skull – and that would lose the last bit of hope I was holding on to. It was so hard to be the rock for everyone else while I carried the emotional and physical, but delicate, burden each day. I knew that if I crumbled, the rest of my family would as well. And I had a small fairy of hope that she would live. I was practical enough to brace myself for the worse, but faithful enough to know that hope wasn’t completely lost. I also had a son to care for, so I wasn’t allowed to rest, I had to push forward.
By 9:30am she was out and the count down was on. I still had a lot of sewing up to do, as they had to cut me from top to bottom to get her out as best as possible, and I hated every minute of being on the table when my daughter’s minutes were passing in the NICU. Didn’t they understand we only had 24 hours together?
As soon as they would allow me to fall into a wheelchair, I was in the NICU with her. She was hooked up to every imaginable device and I didn’t think there was any more room on her body to attach anything else to. The nurses let me hold her on a pillow until I started to get too pale. I had to leave. I had to leave my baby alone. What if she died while I slept? What kind of a mother leaves her child for sleep? But I had another child to think about as well. I wouldn’t let her be alone, so I told every member of my family to rotate turns staying with her. I was in the NICU as much as I was allowed. Back and forth, back and forth. Which child do I choose?
And then, without any fan fare, the 24 hour mark passed. We watched the clock and we made it! Could life be a second chance? Or would it come crashing down now? The weight started to lift from my chest and I could breathe again little by little.
48 hours, 72 hours. Could we make it a week?

She was finally transferred to the Children’s Mercy Hospital so a plan could be made. I could go home. My husband and I traded off days and nights spent at the hospital and home with our son for a week. My incision wasn’t healing, probably because I was standing next to her crib, driving to and from home, and tending to my son, but I didn’t care. We passed the day of emotional hell and we were all alive! Our whole future lay ahead of us with prospects. We were sent home with a “good luck” and I know the luck has stuck with us.

The saying “life is too short” has been ingrained into my heart since that day and I now live each day to the fullest; no matter how tired I am. In no way do I pamper either of my children (we later discovered that our son has Aspergers, a high functioning autism). I believe in Dorothy Canfield Fisher’s thought that “a mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary”. Disabilities aside, I require politeness and clean rooms just like all other moms. Everyday brings a new challenge (could be a bone break, or a field trip at school, or hurt feelings from another child who doesn’t understand autism or brittle bones) so our family has to stretch ourselves, learn on the fly, and be five times more prepared for the unknown. Some people are overly generous, some ignorant, and some just plain stupid – c’est la vie!
From that first 24 hours of hell, Sami is now in Kindergarten, taking the school district by storm, and opening all new buckets of wrenches. She’s been in ads for the Children’s Hospital of Omaha (the little ballerina on the huge billboard) and was given the wonderful gift of a Disney vacation by the Dream Factory of Kansas City.

For mother’s day I have to reflect that I’m a different kind of Mom. I’ve learned to take care of myself first or I’m a horrible mother. Being a martyr didn’t get me anywhere but tired, depressed and resentful. The fear of a small bump doing major damage to Samantha is always there and some days I still cry in the closet because life is overwhelming. Most days, though, I see my kids doing extraordinary things (Sami crawling up on the tub ledge or Carter remembering how to interact with a friend that isn’t off-putting) and smile with gratitude for each emotion, good and bad, I was allowed to experience on September 24, 2003, and every day since. I am the Diamond, strong and beautiful, because of the pressure I’ve been put under.