SURVIVAL OF THE ARTIST

Wow! I've been missing from this blog for so long. I feel a little like Long Life Old Man here. His story is that he gets older throughout the winter until the first day of spring when he begins getting younger and younger until winter comes again. This illustration was inspired by a Tibetan folktale. So why do I feel like him? It all started in January when I woke up with what felt like a pinched nerve in my right shoulder blade. It was painful, but since I hadn't injured myself I figured it would go away. It stopped feeling like a pinched nerve after about a week although every once in a while I would get that jolt of pain. I got some acupuncture and it started feeling much better. Still the muscles were really tight and I wasn't using my arm as big as I could. By mid-February I was feeling pretty good until I aggravated it by falling backward in the snow to make snow angels with my daughter. From there I slid downward for a couple weeks from the pain. I really protected that shoulder and wasn't using my arm for any big movements. Big mistake! Drawing became difficult - although I did it anyway - and being on the computer was no picnic either. By the end of February it was time to face the music. I tried not to think about it, but occasionally those visions of surgery danced in my head.

So, what happened? Lots of things. I have always been really careful with my neck while drawing and I have a set up that allows me to bring my work to me rather than hunching over to meet my very detailed work. However I had become careless and began hunching my shoulders. The muscles in the front of my body began to tighten up and pull on my shoulders putting them in a vulnerable position. Our winter was not up to par for a lot of my normal activities which meant more tight muscles. So, there I was doing lots of repetitive motion by drawing and being on the computer without releasing the tension with other normal winter activity. Bad combo. I lapsed into all sorts of bad habits in order to protect myself from the pain of moving my right shoulder. Because of this lack of movement I began to accrue a lot of scar tissue which bound everything together even tighter. My whole shoulder joint froze up.

After rotator cuff tears were ruled out, the next order of business was breaking up the scar tissue. OUCH! A rather painful life lesson. Now I'm retraining my shoulder to move like my left one. I spend about four hours a day stretching and moving my shoulder. My range of motion is getting better every day. I still have a few stubborn areas I'm working on, but I've got a chiropractor, acupuncturist, and massage therapist helping me out. It's a time consuming, painful, expensive lesson I don't plan on repeating. No matter how absorbed I am in my work I will set my mental timer to take regular stretching and movement breaks. So with every day of spring I feel younger. Long Life Not So Old Woman once again.

You can see more of Long Life Old Man here at Faery Medicine Boutique.