Laughing Thru Pain

"Negative thoughts manifest into chemical reactions 

that can impact your body 

by bringing more stress 

into your system 

and decreasing your immunity. 

In contrast, 

positive thoughts actually release neuropeptides 

that help fight stress 

and potentially more-serious illnesses....

...Laughter may ease pain 

by causing the body

to produce its own natural painkillers. 

Laughter may also break the pain-spasm cycle 

common to some muscle disorders."

-  Mayo Clinic: Stress relief from laughter

When physical therapy was over today, I turned to Dr. Joe and asked, "Is that it?"

He said, "Haven't you had enough self-punishment for one day?"

I laughed. 

He gets me.

I may be his only patient that asks to do more than what's required of me.

We did all kinds of new scary things today.

I balanced on a rocker board.

I balanced to and fro 

then back and forth

doing 16 reps each way.

I was only required to do 15.

I did one extra just to show

Dr. Joe I was determined.

He already knew I was determined.

I stepped forward on one leg

with bended knee

onto a big blue cushy surface-y square.

Balancing in that position was hard enough,

but there was an added element.

I had to throw a giant yellow medicine ball

at a springboard and catch it 20 times

for each leg.

Dr. Joe held his arm out for support.

I wouldn't take it. I wanted to balance on my own.

I also did the recumbent stepper

and two directions of leg press.

Dr. Joe always hovers near me with his

student intern in tow.

They talk about TV and pop culture

(We both like The Office, Louie, 

True Blood, and edgy comedy).

He involves me and tells me funny stories.

He makes me laugh.

At one point he even asked me,

"Isn't it easier when I'm distracting you?"

Yep.

Much easier.

Even better when I'm laughing.

When I was on my third set of one of my leg presses he was doing a great job of making me laugh by repeating some German comedian's jokes from Twitter. I heard Lady Gaga's Edge of Glory come on the radio in the background. Gaga and that particular song are a source of strength for me. 

I almost told Dr. Joe to let me listen to the song so I could get through my reps,

but his stories were getting me through with a lot less pain than if he'd left me alone on the machine listening to music. 

The laughter made the pain better.

It was like my brain couldn't register the pain and the funny simultaneously. Focusing on the funny forced my brain to register less pain.

Why is there no laughter therapy in hospitals and nursing homes? 

Maybe if we could bill insurance for it or big pharma could profit from it...

like at the end of Monsters, Inc.

we'd have much less suffering in the world.

Imagine if I had some humorless drill sergeant-type yelling at me to push through the pain? I'd be suffering more.

I lucked out with Dr. Joe.

I hit the power ball.

*Lisa's Video Pick of the Day*

Whoa, you can manually pump a muscle to give it nutrients? I have so much to learn. I'm going to ask Dr. Joe to pump my psoas lol.

Now that I see Josh doing it, I see that Dr. Joe does something similar.

Similar but not nearly the same.

click here or click below