fear and trust

[Guest guest]

Thanks everyone for your support. I have never

felt so completely vulnerable and helpless as I do

now. I will hopefully start physical therapy soon and

if all else fails I'll buy a one way ticket to India

to see Jois or Desikachar. <br><br>The numbness in

my hands grow as I type. Although I have no neck

pain, I feel as if the ulnar nerve is trapped somewhere

in my neck and is causing the numbness. I hope it

isn't a disk. I wait for an MRI.<br><br>I was really

torn between checking myself into a 10-day vipassana

course and waiting for physical therapy. I opted to wait

for therapy and take my vacation time from school to

do my own home retreat. I've done the 10-day course

twice and it totally relieved tension I had in my body

especially my shoulders. BUt I'm kind of panicky now and

couldn't focus and commit.<br><br>Ropes: I'll definately

hunt for myofacial release. thanks for the

info.<br><br>Does anyone know whether inflamation and muscle

tension could be the sole reason for sciatia or is it

always a bulging disc. I hope I don't have a disc

problem in back as well.<br><br>Whew! I hope to look back

on this in one year as a horrible

nightmare.<br><br>I want to do yoga forever.......<br><br>Yeshe

[Guest guest]

Good luck on your healing.<br><br>I am sure there

are many doctors/bodyworkers that can help you. I

recently found an interesting book called Discovering the

Body's Wisdom by Mirka Knaster. This is a guide that

describes all kinds of physical therapies (including

myofascial release). Your problems may be serious enough

that you really need outside help. But it can be very

hard (and expensive) to find those who really can help

you. There are Rolfers that will change your life in

an hour, but I once spent $500 for 10 sessions that

didn't make a dent in me. In my opinion you will really

have to do most of the work yourself. I think yoga is

the ultimate physical therapy, especially self-help

therapy. Howerever, I think that when it becomes necessary

to use yoga as a therapy for specific problems, it

must be modified to suit your purpose. It is not easy

to find info on this or to find teachers who are

expert in this. But I think you can learn a lot just

from self-exploration and by just studying like crazy

and getting help anywhere you can. I think most

physical problems (other than those caused by

food/chemicals) are caused by tension in the musculo-skeletal

system (which is more complex than just muscles and

bones). This tension can be deep or even really deep. It

can be recent or chronic. I think that Ashtanga yoga

is the ultimate form of asana practice, but I don't

think that it is the ultimate kind of therapeutic yoga.

(At least not if we are talking about Ashtanga as

typically practiced and taught - it can be modified to any

extent though). Anyway what I am saying there is that

you may need to study all kinds of yoga books and

consider looking at other kinds of yoga teachers. One

thing I have come across lately is neck exercises -

these pop up everywhere - Hellerwork, Callanetics,

modern exercise science (Pavel Tsatsouline) and even in

some yoga books. But instead of just doing a few

exercises like forward and backward, side to side, you may

need to spend hours exploring the tension in the neck

muscles - it can be very complex (have a look at an Atlas

of Human Anatomy). I've spent over an hour just

moving my neck around and freeing tension. Of course you

have to be very careful, but you have to explore. I'm

sure there are some asansas that are good (and some

that are bad) for any specific problem. Rather than

doing them once a day for a minute or so, you may need

to spend a long time exploring some particular

asanas (or variations on them). The standard types of

yoga that are commonly practiced and taught are for

healthy people. For therapy, you may have to make your

own totally unique practice. In some cases, it may

not work, but I think people can solve very serious

physcial problems by applying themselves to yoga.<br>It

may take a long time.<br><br>Again, good luck. Get

help if you can, but heal yourself if you have to!

(Going to see PKJ or Desikachar could just be the

ticket)

[Guest guest]

John Sarno, M.D. ("Healing Back Pain") believes that sciatica has nothing to do

with discs at all and is tension-related. Eventually you'll all have this book

and we can quit talking about it.

[Guest guest]

yeshe, you mentioned that you have lost your

trust in doctors. i wasn't clear if you had gotten

advice or treatment from an md or mainly from

chiropracters. while orthopedics, physical medicine and

neurology are light years from what i know, i would have no

problems telling any one who developed numbness in the

hands with simple activity after a neck injury to see

an md to rule out a nerve impingement. this may well

have been done at the time of your whiplash but the

symptom is a concerning one to me. if you have not yet

had an mri of the spine and neck, please consider

that before doing any strenuous physical adjustments

or rehab. <br><br>i don't have good advice for you

on the hip misalignment--not my turf. is the

misalignment something that you can feel or did someone give

you that diagnosis? if diagnosed, how did they come

to that conclusion--x-rays, physical exam, gait

analysis? i know you're not looking for medical care here,

i'm just asking to try and figure out who to

recommend you see to get help. my first inclination, given

the severity of your symptoms, is to recommend an

orthopedics evaluation

[Guest guest]

Hi okrgr1<br><br>THe car accident was a year and

a half ago. I saw a doctor the day after and he did

nothing. ONe month later I saw another doctor (physical

medicine) and he ordered physical therapy for me. The

numbness in my hands didn't begin until about 5 months

after therapy stopped and has stayed now for 6 months.

The insurance co didn't want to pay for my MRI so I

had to wait until this past october, when I had

insurance, to get an MRI. Still waiting but hopefully will

get one in the next couple of weeks. All in all I've

been to 3 MD's and 3 chiro's.<br><br>My hip is new.

AFter returning from Guruji's workshop in France this

summer, it was apparent that something was not right with

my hip. I went to a chiro, got an adjustment, and it

practically paralyzed me. It's been two months and, although

I have little pain in my back, my sacrum area is

extremely weak and I have a 'flooding' feeling down my legs

and they feel swollen at times.<br><br>I got an xray

immediately and it is very clear, even to me, that my hip and

top vertebra of the sacrum, are twisted. I am waiting

for my MD to have the insurance co. ok physical

therapy for my sacrum area.<br><br>I was just feeling

very low and helpless about my situation and was

wondering if anyone had similar problems and how they

healed. I needed some hope. I've had infinite patience

that its wearing very thin.<br><br> thanks for

caring,<br><br>Yeshe

[Guest guest]

I was in a car accident in 1990. I started

ashtanga yoga about a year later. I had to take it very

very slowly because my neck was so weak I couldn't

pick my head up off the floor. I did not even attempt

to do sirsasana until the muscles were stronger. It

took about 2 years of being in constant pain from

muscle spasms around my neck & down my back. I work on a

computer & would sometimes experience numbness in one arm.

I was able to vary my work a bit at the time which

helped. I can't stretch one of my legs as far as I used

to because of the sciatic nerve & I have to be

keenly aware of it. It used to bother me on a regular

basis but I only notice it when I push too far now.<br>

The best advice I can give you is to take it slowly.

Your body has been through incredible trauma and it

needs time to heal.

[Guest guest]

Just one more thing - althought I don't know

about what is going on with the necks that have been

injured in car accidents, I do know that most people have

trouble with their necks when they first learn ashtanga

because of lack of strength. During their daily lives,

many people compensate for lack of strength by

collapsing their necks and develop tension in their

upperback/sholder area because they are using these muscles to try

to keep their head afloat. This also makes for a

collapsed chest/heart center area and generally throws the

whole body out of alignment. This will also affect the

hips and lower back/sciatic area. When you do yoga, it

asks that you open these areas up and usually it will

ache and be very sore for a while until balance is

restored.<br> Someone told me that the process of mastering the

primary series is akin to straightening out the frame of

an automobile after a bunch of accidents. <br><br>T.

[Guest guest]

I can tell you from my own, considerable,

experience that even sciatica so severe as to make it

impossible to roll over (much less stand up) for days at a

time, can be healed without resort to medical

intervention. It is not necessarily that significant whether

you have a "bulging" disc, or not. The Sarno book

discusses this rather thoroughly.<br> I found that

continuing some kind of yoga practice whenever possible did

not interfere with this healing and I believe that it

both accelerates and promotes CORRECT healing. <br>As

Sarno explains, to a large degree what can prevent or

retard real healing is the FEAR that there is something

seriously and permanently wrong with you. And, the fact

that you are experiencing some really disconcerting

physical symptoms does not necessarily indicate that there

is something really "wrong" with you. Bones that

look wrong on an xray can move in the right direction

, if you practice yoga in an effective way. <br>I

have only a little experience with numbness, but I can

see no reason in principle why it could not be a

manifestation of the same type of syndrome as the sciatica

problem.<br>It sounds like your problems will not go away

overnight, with or without any "magic bullet" assistance

from an M.D. or even a guru.<br>I hope that you can

find a good teacher (not necessarily an ashtanga

teacher) who you can work with over time who can help you

get back on track.