EDLM for 02.14.25
I awoke with just enough time to enjoy a cup of coffee, a new kind: “low acid, decaf,” to help me eradicate my LPR (silent reflux, no heartburn) before we left for Reconstructive Chiropractic on 96th Street in Indianapolis. This practice is like a combination of chiropractic and physical therapy. They are sort of holistic or functional in nature, providing seminars for different topics such as metabolism and changing your diet to exclude additives and include whole foods without chemicals. They strive to get at the root cause of pain, which they say is almost always a messed up spine affecting the nervous system. If your spine is twisted or compressed, the nerves are affected, and the nerves are directly related to our organs and muscles. We are, in fact, hard wired with electrical impulses. When the wiring has a glitch, our pain lets us know. Medicines don’t fix the cause; they cover the pain, and usually, it takes more and more medicine to cover the pain, which we know is a wide-spread problem in the US. So that’s why we chose this practice.
We drove some back roads there which cut down on stressful traffic (stressful for me; my husband doesn’t mind the traffic). Once there, I listened to a presentation I was already familiar with since I had sat in on my husband’s presentation in May. We signed me up, and I received my first adjustment plus some tools to bring home to do with instructional videos. I’ll be going to Indy three times a week for a month; after that, it will taper off. I will be doing exercises similar to yoga but more along the lines of strength training at home every single day. I have issues with the curvature of my neck, and the x rays were very telling. So I’ll give this a go. What can it hurt, besides the wallet. I’m very interested in fitness and healthy eating, so this is partly exciting to me, partly hoping against hope.
After my appointment, we met our best friends at First Watch for brunch. The female of this couple has been my best friend since the summer between 8th and 9th grades. We went to different middle schools in Muncie. We both made the freshman cheerleading squad for the next year, so my friend called me to see if I would like to meet to get to know each other before the school year started. We hit it off immediately and have been absolute best friends since. We’ve never had a single argument or break in the friendship. We married at nearly the same time, had our three children at nearly the same times (coincidentally) and our first grandchildren were born about a week apart. She started dating the boy who would be her husband in high school, so I’ve known him for almost as long as I’ve known her. It happened that over the years her husband and my husband worked together professionally several times and are currently employed by the same company. Since they have spent so much time together for work and their wives are so close, they are also best friends. I do not have a biological sister, so she is very precious to me.
When we returned home, I relaxed and watched all of my new instructional videos and did some household chores.
We were going to go to BSU’s volleyball game because we have season tickets, but the weather got wicked cold, and we decided to skip it. We LOVE going to these games. BSU has a stellar team. It’s the only sport besides the Olympics I care to see.
Instead of volleyball, I watched a few episodes of past seasons of Survivor, readying myself for next week’s premiere of season 48. I have seen all seasons, most of them twice, some three times. In order to see these past seasons, we had to purchase Paramount +, which leads us to the topic of Valentine’s Day gifts, which is what my husband gave me: a year of Paramount +. This speaks volumes about our relationship, but I’m not completely sure what those volumes say, exactly. But I couldn’t have been happier than to receive that subscription.
Eating out on Valentine’s Day evening is overrated, anyway. And we’ve been making most of our meals at home since January 1. I’m eating gluten free now, avoiding added sugars and the additives I mentioned. I’m very happy that Red Dye No. 3 has recently been banned in the US. Since changing my diet, to which I’ve been almost 100% compliant, my skin issues have subsided, my achiness has diminished, and I’ve had less need to take Tylenol or Ibuprofen. What hasn’t changed much is the number on the scale, which is disappointing, but that was a secondary goal to achieving the things I mentioned.
I’m also recovering from basal cell carcinoma on my face, removed by Dr. Nicholas Countryman in Indy, whom I highly recommend, but I’m merely one voice in many who recommend him. He employed the MOHs method of eradicating the cells and assures me he got it all. I received 16 stitches between my upper lip and nose, internal and external, and I’m grateful for so many aspects of the procedure and outcome, but I’m not gonna lie; I’m vain enough to feel really bad about the scar on my face. They tell me it will flatten and fade over time (maybe a year?) and that my nerves will (probably) heal there, but every time I look in the mirror in the morning, I get a sinking feeling in my stomach because I have to face the stares of people. But I’ve heard it said that a bad day for your ego is a good day for your soul, so you could say I’m putting on a stiff upper lip, figuratively and literally, and facing the world. And once again I’m reminded that any suffering we do serves to grow compassion in us for others, and that is definitely true in this instance for me.