In April I had a sudden attack of muscle cramps in my arms and shoulders. That’s now almost 5 months ago. What started as a painful nuisance, slowly deteriorated in frozen shoulders. Everything I tried made it only worse. Small accidents reversed progress, sleepless nights became the norm and made me loose confidence.
As I wrote, my oncologist wasn’t sure about the cause and gave me painkillers. Confidence however didn’t return, and I lost strength and resilience. My mind lost its edge and soon I was visiting a physiotherapist and a chiropractor. Medicines to help recover from nerve pain and muscle cramps just suppressed symptoms.
Only during the holidays in August did I feel something change. I was able to stretch more and more. I felt lucky that I had been able to establish regular yoga sessions after I became 50, which I started using as a benchmark. I could kind of sense how far away I was from my normal full stretch.
Both in the clinics and at home I gradually pushed myself through the pain. Muscles had become weak and stuck, and needed a change of posture to get them operating again. Not pleasant, but the result was that I could find better positions to sleep, followed by better rest.
I am now resting one or two days before I exercise and stretch again. The intestines and sinuses are still regularly inflamed by Opdivo, which makes me extend the period of rest. Work stress mixed with the summer heat which feels like 35-40° makes progress very slow.
My body needs time to recover. All I need is patience and confidence!
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