Oh, My Achin' Back...
Unlock your door. Twist open a bottle of water. Pull a banana off a bunch. Do you ever think of these mundane maneavers as efforts involving back muscles?! I sure didn't used to but, having had some painful back issues this week, I do now! And as a physical educator I know this, but still take these activities for granted. Not so anymore.
How this happened I'm not sure but my theory is connected with my trip home. I had 2 backbacks and 2 large suitcases with me, and although I checked the suitcases, I had the backpacks with me on my Chicago-Warsaw-Vienna flight. I slept awkwardly on three seats on the main flight, and probably had some extra baggage in the form of stress to bring back with me as well. Some days later I woke up with a pain in the side of my back that felt like someone had punched me repeatedly in the right shoulder blade.
Knowing better about rest but having none of it, I couldn't resist an invitation from Erika to join her in going to Sopron, Hungary for our last Saturday before returning to classes. Christian had recommended rotating a tennis ball against my back on the wall to knead out the tightness so I put one in my backpack and used in during the train rides. We did some shopping, saw some sights, and back to BA for dinner with Chuck and Susan, Kathy and her daughter, Kate and husband Harsh, who were due to return to the states soon. By the time I got home I was sore and tired and thinking what I most needed was a good night's sleep, went to bed.
During the night I was awakened by incredible pain from muscle spasms in my back. I sleep in a loft, so I initiated what felt like about an hour effort to get out of bed and go down the stairs. I could barely move an inch and decided, this is it, I'll die up here and no one will know! I managed to get down and up, though, and fell back asleep. The next morning I had scheduled a Thai massage, recommended by Nora and Viera of the Fulbright office. Thai massage is dry (no oil), performed on a platform which is on the floor. My masseuse was very small and used her whole body as a lever. It included her stretching me and at one point she was crawling on my back on her hands and knees. I thought I felt better afterward but should have realized that was too extreme of a massage to have with a tight back.
That evening went from bad to worse, and again involved one of those middle of the night episodes. By now the pain had grown in intensity and seemed to cover the whole right side of my back. When I moved on the stairs I adjusted my body to accomodate the pain on the right side. So what worked "best" was to drop my right shoulder down and hang my arm, sort of lifeless and ape-like down to my knee. In this simean posture I went down to look for a banana in the kitchen. Just kidding about the banana, and kidding about kidding; there was really nothing funny about this.
So now after managing to NOT recover my back and in fact making things significantly worse, I tried to go to school on Monday. After having taught from a chair for one hour in the gym I recognized I really needed to go home. I was in touch with Fulbright-Nora again, who this time recommended THE PATCH, an amazing analgesic, anti-inflammatory adhesive gel-patch applied right to the back. The patch was easy, fast-working, and I'm quite certain unavailable over-the-counter in the states. I stayed home Tuesday and returned to school Wednesday, feeling comfortable and happy. No, more than happy. Buzzed! Sadly, I don't think anyone even noticed, but after that night I decided I better go PATCH-FREE! Yes, folks, I'm patchless now and proud of it, and have been given a wake-up call to take care of myself. (Later that week I tried to give Zuzka some aspirin tablets because she had supplied me with some earlier. She threw up her hands, palms facing me, "NO! It is bad luck to return medicine, then I'll get sick." She meant it, too.
Slovaks are a very nurturing society. It is not unusual for children to miss 3-5 days of schools due to illness, and then remain out of P.E. for another week because they had been sick the week before. I just counted my written excuses collected so far - over 70 not counting those I didn't save from the first 3 weeks of school. Also many of these notes are for one to two weeks out of activity. Most excuses come to me in Slovak; I now have the girls re-write them in English. many, however are written in English and I have included a few favorites:
Some are achingly polite: Please, take in your consideration that my daughter doesn't feel the best today and feels like not to practice today at your lesson.
or chipper: Hello Joan! I have an infection on my toe and I can't do anything.
formal: Dear Professor, Please excuse my daughter. She won't train. She catch a cold.
REALLY formal: Justification - I would like to excuse my daughter from today's gymnastic lesson because she still has difficulty breathing.
retroactive: Excuse me, my daughter didn't train on the last lesson beacuse she was sick.
accident victim: Please apologize my daughter in your lessons for this week in cause of striking her wrist. She's fallen from in-line skates. Thank you very much.
and the dental patient: Please excuse my daughter. She cannot exercise because of wound for yank tooth which is not closed.
(You will notice that parents write about training, exercising and gymnastics, which is how "participation" is translated over here. A CLASS is a group of students but a LESSON is the period of time they are in a certain subject, like the 4th lesson of the day. Teachers days are described by how many lessons they teach per week. Amounts vary; the more you teach the more money you get.)
Some of our teachers have also missed multiple days of work so it's not just an issue with the children. Health care is subsidized; people often visit doctors, who are actually poorly paid. Those returning to work can then subsantiate their absence with a doctor's note. Americans, on the other hand, often tough it out, bringing our contagions to both work and school; somewhere there has to be a reasonable compromise for good health. But all I know for sure is that Slovak pharmacy is the bomb!
How this happened I'm not sure but my theory is connected with my trip home. I had 2 backbacks and 2 large suitcases with me, and although I checked the suitcases, I had the backpacks with me on my Chicago-Warsaw-Vienna flight. I slept awkwardly on three seats on the main flight, and probably had some extra baggage in the form of stress to bring back with me as well. Some days later I woke up with a pain in the side of my back that felt like someone had punched me repeatedly in the right shoulder blade.
Knowing better about rest but having none of it, I couldn't resist an invitation from Erika to join her in going to Sopron, Hungary for our last Saturday before returning to classes. Christian had recommended rotating a tennis ball against my back on the wall to knead out the tightness so I put one in my backpack and used in during the train rides. We did some shopping, saw some sights, and back to BA for dinner with Chuck and Susan, Kathy and her daughter, Kate and husband Harsh, who were due to return to the states soon. By the time I got home I was sore and tired and thinking what I most needed was a good night's sleep, went to bed.
During the night I was awakened by incredible pain from muscle spasms in my back. I sleep in a loft, so I initiated what felt like about an hour effort to get out of bed and go down the stairs. I could barely move an inch and decided, this is it, I'll die up here and no one will know! I managed to get down and up, though, and fell back asleep. The next morning I had scheduled a Thai massage, recommended by Nora and Viera of the Fulbright office. Thai massage is dry (no oil), performed on a platform which is on the floor. My masseuse was very small and used her whole body as a lever. It included her stretching me and at one point she was crawling on my back on her hands and knees. I thought I felt better afterward but should have realized that was too extreme of a massage to have with a tight back.
That evening went from bad to worse, and again involved one of those middle of the night episodes. By now the pain had grown in intensity and seemed to cover the whole right side of my back. When I moved on the stairs I adjusted my body to accomodate the pain on the right side. So what worked "best" was to drop my right shoulder down and hang my arm, sort of lifeless and ape-like down to my knee. In this simean posture I went down to look for a banana in the kitchen. Just kidding about the banana, and kidding about kidding; there was really nothing funny about this.
So now after managing to NOT recover my back and in fact making things significantly worse, I tried to go to school on Monday. After having taught from a chair for one hour in the gym I recognized I really needed to go home. I was in touch with Fulbright-Nora again, who this time recommended THE PATCH, an amazing analgesic, anti-inflammatory adhesive gel-patch applied right to the back. The patch was easy, fast-working, and I'm quite certain unavailable over-the-counter in the states. I stayed home Tuesday and returned to school Wednesday, feeling comfortable and happy. No, more than happy. Buzzed! Sadly, I don't think anyone even noticed, but after that night I decided I better go PATCH-FREE! Yes, folks, I'm patchless now and proud of it, and have been given a wake-up call to take care of myself. (Later that week I tried to give Zuzka some aspirin tablets because she had supplied me with some earlier. She threw up her hands, palms facing me, "NO! It is bad luck to return medicine, then I'll get sick." She meant it, too.
Slovaks are a very nurturing society. It is not unusual for children to miss 3-5 days of schools due to illness, and then remain out of P.E. for another week because they had been sick the week before. I just counted my written excuses collected so far - over 70 not counting those I didn't save from the first 3 weeks of school. Also many of these notes are for one to two weeks out of activity. Most excuses come to me in Slovak; I now have the girls re-write them in English. many, however are written in English and I have included a few favorites:
Some are achingly polite: Please, take in your consideration that my daughter doesn't feel the best today and feels like not to practice today at your lesson.
or chipper: Hello Joan! I have an infection on my toe and I can't do anything.
formal: Dear Professor, Please excuse my daughter. She won't train. She catch a cold.
REALLY formal: Justification - I would like to excuse my daughter from today's gymnastic lesson because she still has difficulty breathing.
retroactive: Excuse me, my daughter didn't train on the last lesson beacuse she was sick.
accident victim: Please apologize my daughter in your lessons for this week in cause of striking her wrist. She's fallen from in-line skates. Thank you very much.
and the dental patient: Please excuse my daughter. She cannot exercise because of wound for yank tooth which is not closed.
(You will notice that parents write about training, exercising and gymnastics, which is how "participation" is translated over here. A CLASS is a group of students but a LESSON is the period of time they are in a certain subject, like the 4th lesson of the day. Teachers days are described by how many lessons they teach per week. Amounts vary; the more you teach the more money you get.)
Some of our teachers have also missed multiple days of work so it's not just an issue with the children. Health care is subsidized; people often visit doctors, who are actually poorly paid. Those returning to work can then subsantiate their absence with a doctor's note. Americans, on the other hand, often tough it out, bringing our contagions to both work and school; somewhere there has to be a reasonable compromise for good health. But all I know for sure is that Slovak pharmacy is the bomb!
posted by Joan Vande Velde @ 1:05 PM
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