Bob In Provo Is Back... Yay!

Hi all. Just want to let you know I'm back after fighting with a messed up back--3 epidurals every couple of weeks and 3 weeks ago a surgical procedure to the same area of the spine. I'm better. the docs promised to give me a break before they do more. So, I'll try to be here as much as possible. It's good to be back. Bob In Provo, Utah

Welcome back, Bob! You definitely were sorely missed!

Glad to have you here Bob and that your back is better now!!!

I do hope you eventually find a Feldenkrais practitioner in your area to work with. Surgery for a bad back tends to repair the problem but not the use of self that led to the problem. An overall approach to the stresses and efforts within your skeletal system may help you change the pattern that led to the back problem and thus avoid a repeat episode somewhere down the line. nice to have you back! AFF

Thanks everyone for the welcome back home. I appreciate all the kind words. Having the back go out sure is no fun, and it is still out in some places. It makes me have to sit a bit straighter when I play--feel like Zimerman (ha). I do wish there were some real Feldenkrais practitioners around here. I'd like to just take up the very basic, slow movement, is it Tai Chi? But I can't even find classes for that. Oh well. Alan, I may have to pay you to give me lessons (ha)--at least I don't slouch when I play piano--I do lean forward but it's with a pelvic tilt and keeping the back in line. The actually back problem came about because I have very loose ligaments. When down on my knees, on concrete, trying to repair a clothes dryer, I was there for some time. When I got up, the ligaments that hold the knee cap in place let go and off to the side it went. Talk about ouch. The doc, after surgery, found the problem was the ligaments and not a torn meniscus, which he thought it was. And there's really nothing to do for the loose ligaments. But the months the knee kept slipping out, caused me to favor that side of my body, which put more pressure on that side of the spine and the vertebrae couldn't sustain all the weight, so -- they went squish onto nerves. I wonder what Feldenkrais could do, if anything, to strengthen loose ligaments. But I'm sure willing to try. -- physical therapy people told me they don't know what to do, because if we do something to strengthen one set of muscles, it causes another area to get undone. This is mostly to Alan. Thanks for the ideas. Since I can't find any people here, have you a good book to recommend that might help. It'd be really helpful if it addresses the problem of laxity. Anyway, it's great to be back, even though my back isn't so great (ha). Bob

Feldenkrais wouldn't strengthen or shorten the loose ligaments. It would teach you to keep the femur and tibia/fibia in more exact alignment, reducing the stress placed on those ligaments. There are many sets of CD Feldenkrais lessons available at , I am not sure which ones would be best for the knee but I know Russel Delman's set is very good. And you should be encouraged to know that Moshe Feldenkrais himself came to his method because of a knee injury. Many said it was a miracle he could walk because he had virtually no meniscus at all in his injured knee! Wishing you the best of luck in further recuperation, AFF