Savor the Cold

Transcript Even if you tend to be a person who prefers the hot chocolate afterwards and not so much being outside in winter, it’s different during these days after surgery. It must feel plain old wonderful to have cold therapy running on the affected part(s) of your body.  To savor your cold therapy more deeply, and… Continue reading Savor the Cold

4 reasons to avoid opiate painkillers

Again, I am NOT a physician. This is my layman’s understanding. Do your own research and consult medical professionals before deciding on your approach to pain management. From talking with many folks who have used opiate-based pain medications, I have identified a few key drawbacks. There are likely more. Because they depress the central nervous system,… Continue reading 4 reasons to avoid opiate painkillers

Breathe with the sensations

There may be times that you are experiencing uncomfortable sensations with a strong intensity. Your body may instinctively tense up against those sensations, but I invite you to explore another way.  Let the sensations move through you, as if they were waves. Waves of sound. Waves of water (we are mostly water, after all). Breathe. Wiggle. Sing… Continue reading Breathe with the sensations

“Melt” your post-op foot soreness away

Are you familiar with the “wedge” approach to addressing climate change?  There won’t be one solution; instead, there will be a set of approaches which in aggregate will make the difference. Well, your pain & discomfort can be addressed similarly. Visiting a bodyworker, daily exercise to stabilize, topical salves, mind training, cannabis or other Rx,… Continue reading “Melt” your post-op foot soreness away

Gather a bag of tricks for pain management & accelerated healing

Each of the below deserve their own post, but for now I’ll just list the tools I used, so you can have a sense of what you might be game to put into your own bag of tricks. Cold Therapy Mind training visualizations: Peggy Huddleston’s Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster, and De-Discomfort and Surgical Support from Hemi-Sync Exercises for… Continue reading Gather a bag of tricks for pain management & accelerated healing

Let’s not call it Pain

Words matter. Words trigger thoughts… thoughts trigger feelings… and feelings can easily manifest as sensations in the body. And we already have enough sensations in our bodies.  Let’s choose our words with intention, so we can stay calm and clear with energy available for what we need to do. Whether pain is big or small, if we use… Continue reading Let’s not call it Pain

Using Cold Therapy Effectively

When I asked my surgeon about the optimum frequency, duration and strategic use of cold in reducing inflammation, he shrugged his shoulders. “Studies are inconclusive. Fifteen minutes max.”  No big surprise there. With cold, as with nearly every aspect of your recovery, the way forward is to start with an experiment and listen to your body.… Continue reading Using Cold Therapy Effectively