I’ve been in such awful pain from that old shoulder injury—I mean, if I stub my toe on the sidewalk, the inertial jolt of that shoulder has been so bad it makes your mouth water and the sky change colors—and the thought of falling on the rink has kept me cautiously close to the wall.

But Dr. Shane did some work with it; and told me what’s going on—an old injury to a combo of the levator scapulae and another broad sheet muscle that runs down over the ribs. Nasty pain there and lower back. Like the biceps and triceps are on fire, and the same with the leg. So…

Use of the traction machine—check. Use of the thumper-unit, handheld, directly on sites of extreme pain. Check: owie! Faithful consumption of magnesium, vitamin D, potassium, and hyaluronic acid with glucosamine and chondroitin. Check. Walking. A lot. Check.

Helps. Then back to the ice. Jane and I come down with the crud. We’re on antibiotics and Theraflu. And the pain—pretty well stopped. We took advantage of this to get back on the ice, and I’m here to tell you—I got away from the wall, I did my inside edges pattern today for the first time since last November, literally a year—and I did it. It wasn’t pretty, but I did it. I’m starting to skate by reflex, not by thinking about it; and this spring when I tried—I thought, well, girl, maybe you’ve reached the age you’re going to have to give this up, and it’s just going to hurt like this, and you can’t risk a fall.

Ha! I’m back. I did it. I’m going off the antibiotics today, and if the pain comes back I’m going to be really upset, but I’m really hopeful it won’t. Two months ago, I couldn’t even lift that arm to get a cup out of the cabinet. Now I reach up to the top of the Subaru back gate and slam it down with only the slightest consciousness of that limitation. I know I’ve got some calcium deposits to work out, but I’m real hopeful.

OSG, we’ve got to get Joan and the gang together on a Friday and go have some fun.