Ouch!

“Man plans, and God (or, the gods) laugh.” My world shook with that laughter two weeks ago.

On Monday night, I was doing a photo shoot. I noticed that I was having a bit of difficulty moving around my subject, especially when attempting to kneel or sit on the floor. Tuesday when I went down the six flights of stairs to get my morning paper there was a pain in my right hip. As the week went on, the pain intensified, and began to radiate down the front of my right thigh. Wednesday night, I decided to see a chiropractor. I made the appointment on Thursday, and was in the office Friday.

The message was clear: nothing that caused spinal compression, no forward bends, no back bends, no hip rotation until I was x-rayed, and Lou (Dr. Lou Granirer, to my way of thinking the world’s best chiropractor) reviewed the films. The good news was, I could still get the x-rays taken that afternoon. The bad news, Lou was on vacation until the following Thursday. Well, I thought to myself, there goes training—both my workouts and my cardio—and most of yoga. But, I can still do savasana (corpse pose)!

It was a long six days. I continued my pranayama. I started taking the elevator. And, as the days progressed, I listened to the laughter.

Perhaps the most important lesson for me was that I could determine whether the laughter was laughing with me, or laughing at me. If worse came to worse—I could not go on the trek—and all of my preparation was solely for that purpose, then the laughter was definitely at me. As I thought about it, I realized that the gym-based part of the preparation had definitely begun solely for the purpose of conditioning myself for the Himalayas. I also realized that it had moved beyond that. I am finding great inner reward, and peace, in my improved health and conditioning. If I was able to accept the premise that perhaps this was all about improving my health and conditioning, then I, too, could laugh.

Late Thursday afternoon I was back in Lou’s office. The prognosis is positive. My pelvis is rotated, and elevated on the left; there is some compression in the lower spine. However, it is certainly treatable. I was back in the gym that evening. My cardio was on the elliptical trainer (holding off on the stairs, and the bike, for now). Mitchel was, as always, great. I had prepared him with a call, and he was prepared. We did all upper body, as we will continue to do going into the new week. I resumed my morning yoga practice on Friday (absent the pigeon for now). I was back in the yoga studio on Saturday, where I was able to do close to 75% of the poses throughout the ninety minutes of class; Mark, yesterday’s instructor, kept his eye on me to ensure that I did not push the limits! I have regular visits on the calendar with Lou. I am icing twice daily, and meditating on healing.

Understanding that I am not training for India, I signed up for another training package on Thursday night. This will take me well past the trek and into the fall. My plan is to be on the plane to Delhi in seven weeks. In the meantime, I will be listening for the laughter...