Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

It has been awhile since I have been around here. Catching up on all this has really has my head swimming.

I had developed "Thoracic output Syndrome", where the major nerves and blood vessels that run to right arm were shut off in my neck. Especially in certain positions.

It has been eight months since I was able to practice all but a few strings of positions. I Had to drop out of class, and had to stop teaching. I now have become functional again.

This post is not so much about me personally, but rather about the effects of NOT practicing.

When I began tai chi I healed and improved a number of physical problems and enhanced my intellecual process and focus. Though some around me may debate that point *G*

First I have had allergies bother me for the first time in nearly ten years. I got a cold for the first time in that time frame as well. I have never been sick from a virus or bacteria once since I started practice. I seemed to lose some of my energy and quite a bit of focus. I won't even talk about how my few skills have suffered. The importance of Practice has never been made more apparent to me.

It is a pain to start back up the hill again, but hey, that is what legs are for.

My computer time is up. Carry on.

Welcome back Michael. I know exactly what you mean, as I have gone through a lot of big changes in my personal life in the last year and my practice suffered badly. Just beginning to get going again. It's pretty amazing what a difference regular form practice makes in ones energy and health.

Michael,
Welcome to the "ouch, my neck got injured and I can't feel one whole side of my body" club.
I've been there, for four years now. There were a multitude of reasons for my introduction to the club: I worked installing security, and my primary focus on that job was installing video cameras, doing that means you spend hours a day with your head tilted back looking up at your job, and working for hours on end with your arms up over your head. This caused long term deterioration in the cartiledge (sp?) in my neck. That, in itself, did not put me in the club, but was the first contributing factor.
Then I moved out of my home state, and did ont practice my TCC much for three years, some but near enough. Another contributing factor as it lead to my tensing up all over my body once again, a state I had not been in for a decade but did not recognize until too late.
Then I got into an automobile accident. I was rear-ended by a fully loaded 40 foot moving truck while he was going 45 m.p.h. or more while reading a map, and I was at a dead stop sitting stopped at the red light he did not stop for. The impact totalled my car and the two cars in front of me at the light.
All six of us between the three cars got whiplash.
That was the final straw for my neck.
My orthopedic surgeon called my problem "cervical ridiculitis" and said it was aggravated by the lack of cartiledge between my vertebrea in my neck.
Fortunately for me, I had begun my training with Bill just before that happened.
Why would that be?
Because I was actively practicing TCC again, albeit only the 13 posture form.
Bill will remember, I think.
I missed the last two weeks of class, because I was on total bed rest. We had finished the 13 posture form, and were working on form refinements at the time.
As a lot of people that have had this problem will tell you, I didn't get any really bad symptoms for nearly a week after the accident, only stiffness all over my body and a strange tingling sensation on the left side of my body. I was at class during that week, and Bill noticed right away that I was having a bad problem of some kind. He even suggested I go see a doctor, but in typical macho guy mode I figured I'd get over it.
I didn't.
The next week I was in full traction, a hairs breadth from surgery.
Fortunately it didn't come to that. My physical therapist and orthopedic surgeon were floored by my recovery time. The secret? I kept up my 13 posture form practice, five times a day, just as soon as I was allowed to move again.
My PT told me it would be six months before I was "better", but I reached "better", as in I could go back to work, in only a month.
I will never recover fully, they tell me. I still have problems with the tingling and numbness on my left side, especially in cold weather, but I still have my secret ingrediant, TCC, and I can work through it.

So you're not alone, by a long shot.
Fortunately, TCC is perfect for this kind of thing.
Keep up the practice.
Glad to hear you're up and moving again. I had wondered what happened to you.

Bob

Jerry and Bob,

Fun club eh?

I have had back problems for years, been in Physical therapy over and over. All of my therapists commented on the same thing...how fast I recovered each time, they know why. As bad as my back was I never failed in my practice. Actually when I practiced was the only time I felt good, so I practiced a lot.

One of my students who is a physical therapist went on to teach "tai chi fundamentals" as therapy, (not tai chi chuan) she has been getting wonderful results. It is pretty amazing stuff.

Well guys, hang in there. I will be thinking of you both when I practice.

Make it good!

Michael

[This message has been edited by Michael (edited 01-28-2005).]