Hare, Zheng Gu Tui Na

Standing up with Dan's aide was one thing, but I had no idea what to do from there. I took an almost 360 degree gaze around me (almost 360 degrees because unfortunately my head cannot make a full circular rotation and I had no ability to pick up my feet and actually move them to turn around). We were truly in the center of the rink. Great. I explain to Dan that THERE IS A PROBLEM. I ice-scoot my way over to the railing with Dan. Fantastic; in only moments I'm sure the rink guards will tell us to move. Apparently standing still is now a hazard. Movement really didn't seem like a  possibility though. The doorway that would take us away from the rink and into the locker room area was directly across from us; a short distance it was not.

I knew I had no choice but to skate back to the other side. Ugh! "I can do this. I'm a yogi; I've done harder things." We did it; made it to the other side. "Thank you universe!" 

I hobbled over to the nearest bench to find that taking the stiff-as-a-board ice skate off of my stagnant ankle was not going to be easeful nor pleasant . While scrunching my face up in different non-ballerina-stage-appropriate ways, I pulled the skate off of my foot. My right ankle was three times the size of the left one! I would learn that the black and blue bruises were to make their appearance in about 24 hours. I tried to walk, walking turned into crying, and we took a cab back to Dan's place. 

Although I was in tears from the pain, I'm stubborn, and I tried to get up off my assigned place on the love seat and limp around; I am not one for staying still. Dan was not having it though, and he ran and swooped me up each time I tried to stand and carried me everywhere I needed to go, which was pretty much no where but the bathroom and to get the wine bottle for a refill. "Oh, you best believe I was drinking!"

When trouble rears its nasty head, I call the acupuncturist. No Westernized hospital emergency room visits for me. They squeezed me in the next day. Yes! I had never been so happy to be punctured. Approximately 10 needles, a bag of marijuana-looking medicinal herbs, and a  stick of burning sage later...well, I would love to say that I was as good as new.....however, I felt exactly the same. 

After my session, my acupuncturist told me to do two things: one; schedule another visit for Tuesday, and two; go to an herbal pharmacy in Chinatown called Kamwo and get Zheng Gu Tui Na. This is mixture of chinese herbs that when combined with boiling water can be used as a soak to reduce swelling, relax muscles, kill pain, relieve spasm and move stasis.

--So my daily ritual of  today has been the heating of two to three gallons of water and herbs in hopes that this sacred solution will allow me to walk without pain tomorrow--not to mention have a leg that is not the size of a tree trunk.

Stay tuned. Cannot wait to gauge the size of my ankle after the fourth soak!