This session we talked about the 'Bride' walk, and how it is very comfortable to me. It seems to cause my pelvis to act as a shock absorber taking some of the strain off of my shoulders and collarbones. I noticed how this walk almost gives my gait the added stability of a tripod-like balance.

Carolyn said, "Yes! It's the ground pushing back at you. You are using gravity and the ground more now as something to support you as you walk. Ground, ground ground. Always remember to have the ground (or something touching the ground - chair arms, pillows, etc) supporting whatever limb is distal to your core as often as possible. Your hips and thighs LOVE using the ground to assist in supporting you. It's what their made for."

She then gave me examples of reaching, standing up, leaning out... but her example always had the hips and thighs doing most of the work and being the center of balance (ballast). Wish I had some pics of her - she's very lanky and delicate - like a dancer.

Now comes the best part of the session: she had me lie down with my normal pillow configuration. In her office it's a wedge and a fluffy pillow under my head, 2 elbow supports, a bolster under my knees and my feet supported on 2 smaller bolsters. MMmmm heaven. I did some slow deep breathing as she felt my ribs move with her hands. My guess is she was feeling that my ribs weren't flexing as much as they could at the inter-costals. She reached under the pillow to suport my spine and removed the wedge. I told her it was cutting off my breathing to lie like that so she supported my neck (windpipe) and spine in such a way that I was...

...LYING FLAT AND BREATHING LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!!!

OMG, I have not done that in a decade!! I was able to take 2 really good breaths - and she stopped me, saying I could hurt myself by over-stretching the inter-costals (muscle/tissue between each rib: interior and exterior of the rib cage). But she was thrilled that I could do that and said all I needed was to get those sails to billow some. It felt really good! She said I might be sore later and I sure was, for 24 hrs I felt really sore - like when you discover new muscles from exercise. She then replaced the wedge. She helped me up really slowly and said I'd lose this new feeling in a little while.

She recommended a water class to me at the YMCA: "Chi-splash", a type of Chi-Gong (less 'arms away from the body' than Tai-Chi). She knows the instructor and is going to talk to him about me so that he's not expecting more from me than I can do. As long as I can tolerate the water temp, I'll try it.
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A side note: I woke up in the middle of the night after this session to go to the bathroom like normal... but I moved very slowly and balanced and counted the moves out very slowly.... it was bizarre.