My best friend Rob came to visit for a few days this past week. We visited a couple of local museums, went out to eat, explored the outdoors... the sort of things good friends do.
But Rob's visit has some actual relevance to this blog, too. Rob is a chiropractor based in Pawling, New York, and he had a lot to say about my current skeletal-muscular issues. He had me go through a whole bunch of movements and concluded that my deltoid/biceps woes are the result of inflammation of tendons in my rotator cuff. He said that only once this inflammation is calmed down will any other treatments really work. He urged me to do my best to keep my left arm in the "neutral position" (i.e., as if it's in a sling) as much as possible to minimize stress on the area. He also showed me some exercises that target the rotator cuff area specifically. While he was at it, he showed me a whole slew of core exercises (mostly on the stability ball) that I now want to incorporate into strength work this fall and winter.
All this advice is what one would expect from a chiropractor. But Rob is also quite knowledgeable of internal health in general, and while he was here he gave me advice on my diet and the vitamin supplements I should be taking. My cholesterol level has been somewhat high my whole adult life, and after a particularly high test result back in June, my doctor finally put me on a prescription statin drug. My LDL level has come down a lot as a result, but Rob thinks I can achieve the same thing with a natural over-the-counter statin (red yeast rice). He explained that the prescription statin has an oversized impact on other nutrients in my body that is less severe with the natural statin. So I'm looking into possible changes there. I'm scheduled to visit my doctor again in December, so I'll probably wait until then before making the switch.
Since Rob was here on vacation, I took sort of a vacation of my own from most chores (both athletic and non-athletic) this past week. But we found ways to get out and be active. On Tuesday we took my plastic sea kayak down to the river for Rob to paddle, and the two of us paddled out of the harbor, up the Mississippi above the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, and across the river to a bunch of sandbars, where enjoyed a little beach time. On Wednesday afternoon I was hoping to find a bike for Rob to use so we could go for a bike ride together, but the closest thing we could find was one of those app-activated electric scooters. So we got that running and Rob rode it out east on the Greater Memphis Greenline while I rode my bike; once we were out at Shelby Farms we switched mounts for the trip back.
Rob departed after lunch on Thursday, and I turned my attention to catching up on some of the chores I'd ignored while he was here. The annual crafts fair where I demonstrate bowl carving is just two weeks off, and I need some material for the job, so on Friday afternoon I set out on a scouting trip on my bike, looking for good logs that people had cut in their yards and put out on the curb for the city sanitation service to collect. I rode all over sections of the Evergreen, Vollintine-Evergreen, and Speedway Terrace neighborhoods and made a mental note of any promising material I saw.
Yesterday I did some stretching and started some of the rehab exercises Rob had shown me. Then I went down to the river and paddled for 60 minutes. I felt surprisingly good in the boat and even got some good rides on the wake behind a fuel barge that services the tour boats that pass through Memphis on the Mississippi. All the while I tried to keep my left arm in the neutral position as much as possible; since good paddling form involves keeping the elbows close to the body, I was able to do so without much trouble. On the way home from the river I stopped and picked up several logs I'd spotted during Friday's bike ride.
This morning I did some more bike scouting, focusing on a couple of the neighborhoods south of the Greenline that I usually ride out to Shelby Farms. I didn't see much bowl-carving material today, but I live in a big city with lots and lots of trees, so I feel pretty sure I can find what I need in the next few days as long as I keep at it.
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