Thanks for the medical advice, but....

Soooo....I was a dancer, a gymnast and a diver from the time I was 3 years old.  I loved it.  I was good at it.  By the time I was 13 years old, I had to "sleep" over a stack of pillows to try and get any sort of back pain relief.  The fracture, or pars defect, I had developed from the sports I loved was making me miserable.  I had to stop tumbling and diving...the hyperextension on my spine was just too much.  But I continued dancing...through high school, college, and then beyond.  I became a ballroom professional in 1999 (I know...I'm old) and began teaching full-time to pay my bills.  8-9 hours a day in heels, with tall men standing over top of me in dance position. I tried chiropractors (HUGE mistake on that one - made it worse). I tried physical therapy (Oh? It hurts to hyerextend it?  Let's put you in a cobra position!). I tried massage (Nice...but not helpful long-term). I tried acupuncture (All it did was make me break out in welts). I tried oral steroids (Rage much?). I was even doing epidural steroid injections every 6 months (Only helpful on occasion). In the mean time I can't sleep, I can't sit comfortably, I'm in varying amounts of pain every single day, and in general I'm getting a shooting pain down the back of my leg that's bad enough to make me see stars with every step I take. I have constant pins and needles in my left foot.  I keep tripping over it as I lose strength in it.  I finally found a doctor specializing in decompression therapy.  It's a combination of traction (like being stretched on a rack, but with computers), ultra sound, physical therapy, and bracing.  It's a loooong process that I've gone through twice now.  2 weeks every day, 2 weeks every other day, and 2 weeks every third day.  The first week is pure misery.  The second week isn't much better.  But I've gotten better results from this than all the other "cures" combined.  Every 4-5 years I usually end up having to go back and have another round. We're at about year 6...and ouchy.  In the mean time I go to my PCP and get a shot in the hip of anti-inflammatories and pain killers to get by for a few weeks.  So when you see a little less of me on stage each time...please don't be angry.  I'm doing as much as I'm capable of.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spondylolysis

G

It's hell getting old.

So my day job consists of teaching dance and group fitness.  You would think this would keep me in great shape.  It seems all it does is remind me of what I can no longer do.  Joints are getting creakier, muscles stay sore longer, and I get winded much easier.  I keep thinking I can turn back the clock with diet and exercise, but as a dancer you spend at least 20 years of your life abusing the hell out of your body...and there's just no cure for that.  I wish I could go back and tell my younger self to take better care of myself, but it's not to be.  Young dancers out there - take heed. You will need those knees and that back your entire life.  Don't abuse them.

G