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[Rob <becida AT comcast.net>]

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From: "tvoivozhd" <tvoivozd AT infi.net>
To: "Homestead mailing list" <homestead AT listserv.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: homestead injuries
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 12:47:29 -0800
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Viking" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
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Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 7:19 AM
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From: "tvoivozhd" <tvoivozd AT infi.net>
To: "Homestead mailing list" <homestead AT listserv.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: homestead injuries
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 12:47:29 -0800
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Viking" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
To: "Homestead mailing list" <homestead AT listserv.unc.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 7:19 AM
Subject: homestead injuries


> On any given day, I have some type of injury.  It varies from splinters
> to broken toes, nothing too serious, but it is simply annoying.  I am
> the Splinter Queen. Right now, I have pulled or torn or done something
> to my bicep and deltoid on my left arm.  I think it is the most painful
> pulled muscle I have ever had, and it doesn't seem to be getting
> better

tvoivozhd---while totally immobilizing a pulled muscle isn't the answer, it
is telling you to have a different muscle take over most, if not all of the
work.  It won't heal if overstressed.

The older a machine gets, the more maintenance it needs.  It is a good idea
to get muscles and joints gradually get used to the idea they are going to
have to do some heavy hauling by stretching exercises when you get up in the
morning.  An exercise machine does help toward this end, and I have one
taking up an inordinate amount of space in the kitchen---primarily to tone
those biceps and upper body muscles. A couple of three-dollar five or ten
pound cast-iron dumbells (think I got them from WalMart?) and appropriate
exercises will do as well for biceps and upper-body muscles, take up less
space and a whole lot less money than an exercise machine---though a
treadmill would be useful for wintertime.  I had one, but it was defective,
took it back and never replaced it.  Think I will get a used one from the
local Trader newspaper ads this summer.

I was plagued by a protesting sacroiliac joint for years, but have bought
respite for the past two by fifty legups every morning before I roll out of
bed.  Stomach muscles help keep the back in alignment to distribute loads
properly.

After it was well-established by sound studies that Chondroitin not only
prevents joint deterioration, but restores them to some degree. I take the
tablets, along with a daily aspirin as combination anti-inflammatory and
blood thinner---the latter effect useful for bypass and other circulatory
problems.

When I forget them for a week or two, the price can be high, as it has been
for the past two weeks after hauling in two truckloads of very dense, very
heavy firewood.  Today is the first day on the way back to what passes for
octogenarian normalcy.  The healing process could have been speeded up with
a back brace and localized application of sporadic wet heat, but I loaned
the former to a neighbor who lost it, and wet heat is more easily applied to
arm or shoulder muscles than back muscles.  And with two tablets left for
today, Chondroitin is on my shopping list for the next run into town.  I
might get a back brace too---just as a precaution.  I haven't looked at them
closely, but those for sale at Home Depot, and worn by all the employees,
may be suitable, and a lot cheaper than from a hospital supply outlet.

An inflamed sciatic nerve requires a body ice pack for ten days, but muscles
and joints generally respond better to heated wet towels, as did my now
long-forgotten constant migraine headaches (stemming from gall-bladder
disease).  Wrap the bicep in wet towels, as hot as you can stand it, for
twenty minutes a couple times a day.