Month: September 2018

9/26/18: The Hamstring That Was Patched Up With Polyester Tape

The Daily Mail article, The torn hamstring that was patched up with polyester tape!

Love this so much. Christina’s a friend I made on the Facebook group mentioned in the article. My hamstring tendons were only retracted 3cm – vs. her 10 cm – so they didn’t need the reinforcement tape described here, but what a great educational piece about the rare injury she and I share – some folks who sustain this injury take months or even years to find the correct diagnosis, proper care, and surgeon who knows how to perform the surgery. H/T to Victoria Valentine for starting the group, which has provided valuable information & saved my heart these past 9 months.

9/25/18: Glennon Doyle Melton

Den of Positivity, 9.5 mo PO:

When I first heard Glennon Doyle Melton speak a few years ago, I couldn’t believe her tiny voice was the same one that boomed out of the narratives I’d been reading in her blog, Momastery. Don’t let the little voice fool you – this one’s a powerhouse of transformation & wisdom. And such a good writer.

Glennon’s words here echo many of the same truths about rising strong from failure that Brené Brown’s research & data do in her book, Rising Strong.

Again and again, I get the same message in my recovery from this injury and what has at times felt like a botched career change from public school teacher to personal trainer – “It’s really all we have to do. We have to sit through those uncomfortable feelings and let God work, and not numb or run. …If we can just let life be hard, and not numb it, and not run from it, and not deflect our pain onto somebody else… if we can just be still with it – we are transformed. Be still.”

9/25/18: Girls Gone Strong

I love this article from Girls Gone Strong as it reminds us that hamstring “tightness” can result from a number of imbalances & weaknesses in the abdomen, lower back, & pelvic floor. Most of us are not women who‘ve just given birth, but those of us who’ve born children may have instabilities that were never properly healed/addressed, and men can have similar pelvic dysfunction from postural distortions. Might be a good article to pass on to your PT.

9/20/18: ADHD & Chronic Pain

One of the remarkable things about the stimulant medication I take for my ADHD is that **it almost always lessened my post surgical pain**. This podcast offers a golden nugget about the association between chronic pain, fibromyalgia, and ADHD in women. It starts at 46 minutes in. (If you decide to watch the whole thing, start at 13 minutes in. The intro will kill you with boredom – especially if you have ADHD.)

“…If you have undiagnosed ADHD, you’re living in a state of chronic stress. We find that women end up with chronic stress disorders, fibromyalgia being the most common one. So, many women with ADHD have fibromyalgia, chronic pain syndrome, chronic fatigue… as a result of living in a chronically stressed state. So we see an association. Treatment – stimulant [medicine] treatment – of ADHD not only treats their ADHD symptoms, they also treat the fibromyalgia pain, and many women tell me that they can tell when their stimulant is wearing off because their pain returns.”

-Part 1: ADHD in Girls and Women with Dr. Patricia Quinn