Saturday, April 6, 2024

 Saturday, April 6, 2024

     Today was my last Gokhale Foundations course class with Lisa in Havi. I was concerned; my stomach had been upset for days. As I loaded the car with the three pillows, yoga mat and food I would need for the trip, Yvette entered the driveway, returning from her morning walk with Little. She said she was returning the bottle of 5-HPT I gave her. She read it caused stomach problems.

    My doctor had recommended it as a substitute for Lexapro. While the drug blocks serotonin uptake, the herbal supplement helps the body produce serotonin. It sounded good to me. It was having a positive effect on my emotional state. I had attributed the stomach problems to postural changes causing a release of stored toxins. When I checked the internet, I got the low-down on the negative side effects. While the stomach issue was listed as a problem, there was also a solution. Take a low dose of 5-HPT after a good-sized meal with plenty of water. I took a pill first thing in the morning with a sip of water. I planned to take my next pill after I had dinner. In the meantime, it cleaned me out.

  I didn’t do my gentle seated yoga this morning. I hadn’t done it for two days. My back, right behind the left armpit, was killing me. I didn’t know what I had done to myself, but I wasn’t going to continue the exercises until I knew whether this pain might be permanent or not.

  The drive to Hawi was gorgeous, as usual. There was only one other student in the class besides me today. Lucas, our third student, would be away for three weeks. The other student was an older Japanese lady. Very sweet. She always brought treats for the rest of us. I learned today that she had been her husband‘s caretaker for several years. I didn’t ask what his problem was, but it did involve physical strength to move him. She was taking the course to help her with her tasks.

   I got a nap in while Lisa worked with the lovely Japanese lady, reviewing all we learned and taking the ‘after’ pictures to compare to the ‘before’ ones. Lisa did a great job teaching the course. She was very responsive to the students.

    It finally occurred to me to use a heating pad on the sore muscles. 

It worked like a charm, where massage and Tylenol had failed. The good news was that the relief confirmed that my midback ache resulted from pushing my shoulders back. Lisa confirmed that’s where it commonly hurts when you’re doing/overdoing the right thing.