Thing of Beauty #20-101: Detox Diet, Physical Therapy and Weed

The shoulder with the arthritis and inflammation has shown dramatic improvement since I started the detox diet.  The thing is, though, that I was already out of weed when I started the diet, and I couldn't get any weed for two weeks after I was fully on the program.  It takes a couple of weeks without caffein, gluten, dairy, eggs, corn, alcohol, sugar, etc. for the detox diet to start working.  So just as the diet was kicking in, I finally got some weed.

Then I went to physical therapy.  The therapist has been stretching out my frozen shoulder for some weeks, when the insurance company denied further treatment.  The provider will cheerfully continue to treat me for my original co-payment plus the amount they got from the insurance company.  Turns out that amount is only $15 per session, so I can still go once a week.  That's how it works with our current health care system.  But I can't start thinking about how fucked up that is or else I'll go straight to all that bullshit with the deficit ceiling, S&P, Congress in general, Michelle Bachman's vote-buying tent in Iowa (which I saw on Jon Stewart) and pondering the idea of a progressive challenge to Obama in the primaries.

I probably could have managed all that bullshit without drinking, but when I was sadly fatigued and foggy from a week on the detox diet when Buzz Kill called from the street outside my building at 9:30 Saturday morning.  He wanted to come up and fix the wireless cable with Velvet.  I'm pretty sure he mentioned Velvet.  Anyway, a few minutes later, Buzz Kill was in my space wearing his bicycle outfit and carrying his bike.  Not only did he have on those little spandex shorts, but he wore a white nylon sleeveless top so thin you could see his body hair, white cleats that looked for all the world like maryjanes. Under his helmet he wore a little, yellow bicycle cap. He was very sweaty from riding his bike along the river. He didn't feel like going over the bridge, though, because something was out of whack on his bike. As it happens that my new apartment is not far from one of the spots where folks can connect to the bike/jogging path and the places for giant picnics.

I'm not sure where we were with politics, society and the economy when I saw Buzz Kill in spandex, but I sure was out of weed.  I decided there an then the alcohol moratorium was over and resolved to have sparkling rose at brunch the next day with Gigi - whom I fondly call my daughter the pole dancing quadroon.  She's not really my daughter, and she's not exactly a pole dancer and she may actually be an octoroon - but certain stories have combined and that's how her name evolved.  She and I split a bottle of sparkling rose.  I had a couple of glasses the following weekend, and when I saw the nutritionist on Monday, she said a little wine every now and then was fine.  I didn't ask her about the weed since in my view weed played an integral role in my increased range of motion and decreased pain level.

Weed didn't fix my shoulder, though, because I had weed all spring and the shoulder was fucked up.  When that earnest young surgeon suggested a shoulder replacement I had plenty of weed which was a good thing because he was annoying.

My shoulder was fixed by a combination of physical therapy, diet and weed.  I decided to keep going to PT once a week after the insurance company cut me off.  In the time between my last insurance company approved session and my next appointment, the benefits of the detox diet kicked in and I got some weed.   The therapist had me walking my fingers up the wall trying to get my arm over my head.  It was okay as long as I faced toward the wall, but when I turned to the side the range of motion was sorely limited.  Back at the table, he jiggled my shoulder around in the joint a bit and pushed on a point near the lower scapula.  He repeated the process a few times and even though it was intense, I could tell it was good.  The next day,  the arm moved more fluidly in the socket, and I could even touch my head.

I figure that once the muscles were loose enough, the therapy helped ease the bones back into their correct position.

It is a thing of beauty, and so many little moments of beauty when into healing the shoulder so far that I'm going to give it 5 places in the list I've been making as part of the Discover Beauty Challenge from relia.  That brings me up to #20-101.  Buzz Kill was so funny, he gets to be #21-101.