Day 25: Oooooo. Aahhhhhh. Ooohhhhh. Ouch!

I think I mentioned last week that my left shoulder was hurting. It hurt to move my arm. It hurt to put any sort of pressure on the left arm. It hurt when I moved from lying down to a sitting position. It just hurt. It was definitely a muscle pain. I tried everything to loosen it up. And finally thought maybe I should get a massage. Scott mentioned this bass player that he knew who lived here in Hoboken and was a massage therapist, Mario. So I asked Scott to get in touch with him and get his info. Two days later, I asked if he had gotten in touch with Mario. And Scott said, "I didn't know your shoulder still hurt. You haven't complained about it." Exasperated, I looked at him and replied, "That's because I'm a woman! Sheesh! We don't complain about pain!" (There's the old joke, that if men had to have the babies, humans would have died out long ago.)

He had Mario's info for me that night. In the meantime I had a woman do some Reiki energy work on the shoulder and it started to loosen up and the pain lessened. But it didn't solve the underlying problem that I carry all my stress in the my shoulders, neck and upper back. I feel like my shoulders are so tight they are up around my ears. So I gave a Mario a call.

My appointment was this evening. When I got to his apartment we chatted for a little bit about common acquaintances and then he asked me what was going on with my body and I explained to him about my shoulders, back and neck. He left the room, I got undressed and on the table and then he went to work. For a solid hour, he concentrated on those three areas, rubbing, kneading, practically beating those muscles into submission. Every time he hit a seized up spot on my back I flinched. We chatted a little during and he explained what he was seeing and how the muscles get knotted up and lose circulation so they can't loosen up. He said he's seen worse backs but I think he was just being kind. Towards the end he had me turn over onto my back and he went to work on the pectoral muscles which were also tight and therefore waging war with the back muscles over who controlled the shoulders. He ended up with some work on my neck and a scalp massage.

When I got up from the table, the tension was lessened, but still present. My shoulders at least felt like they had dropped a couple of inches and my neck felt longer. I think the tension is so firmly entrenched in my muscles that it is going to take some work to get them unknotted. I made another appointment for the 23rd and I think I'm going to hit the spa on my cruise next weekend for a massage.

I've always looked at massages as a luxury. I think I'm going to have to change that attitude for a while and view them as a necessity. I'm trying to imagine a day when I don't feel that familiar, painful tightness in my shoulders, neck and back. Right now, it's hard to see, but I know I can get there.

When I was getting dressed, I looked in the mirror and saw that my hair was really wacky from the scalp massage and the oil on his hands so I smoothed it down the best I could. When I left his building and headed home, I passed a guy sitting on a stoop and thought I saw him kind of smirk at me. And then I passed another guy who did the same thing. I thought, "What's their problem?" When I got home and really looked at myself in the mirror, I saw the flush on my body, the messy hair, and smudged mascara and suddenly realized what they were smirking at... I looked like I had just gotten laid! I started laughing. Oh well.

I didn't feel like harshing my mellow when I got home this evening, so I took the night off from exercise. I will return to exercise this evening. If my knees aren't up to walking, I think I'm going to pull out "Sweating to the Oldies". Richard Simmons is always good for a laugh.