LightbyGrace

Welp, I am returning to this thread because just last Friday I had to have that hysterectomy after all. I had a baseball-sized fibroid on my uterus. I wanted to remind myself of this discussion about returning to Yoga post surgery. The surgery was laproscopic with robotic arm, so no abdominal cut, just the holes on my upper abdomen where they inserted the cameras and the instruments.  Gabrielle, I will refer back to your link above for the core building workout. Kristin – how did your surgery go? I trust you are all healed up? Have you gotten to get back to your practice?

Blessings,

H.

Hey Kristin!

I am pretty well all healed up. It took some time for my GI tract to recover from Anesthesia but I’m starting to feel like myself again!

I actually do not attend classes. My back is pretty messed up and I have to modify almost everything and cannot to any twisting so going to class is hard because I can’t really do what everyone else is doing. Sometimes the teachers try and come push me further than I should go and I have to ask them to stop. It just became more stressful (and painful afterward)than helpful so I do Gabrielle’s home program and have a set that works for me. I have a couple of Yoga coach friends that I also consult. I wish I could go to class – maybe someday I will be able to return. 🙂 BUT yes, I have returned to my mat. Slowly but surely!!

How is everything going with you? Are you all prepped for December?

H.

Oh, wow! You are a hero!! All blessings and a quick healing be on you and your sister. My co-worker donated her kidney to her nephew last year. She was back at work and doing just fine in about 8 weeks. She had a lifting restriction for a time but otherwise was good.

I’m not sure if I will be able to return to yoga in a few days but I should be able to go back to work much sooner than originally planned. I have three incisions in my stomach (on and beside my navel) that have to heal before I will be doing any back bends or deep Yoga breaths..LOL.

H.

Good luck to you, too, Kristin!! Maybe we can be recovery buddies…LOL! Since I am going first I will let you know how it goes for me and we can keep one another encouraged as we both get back to it 🙂

I was not aware of the increased risk of hernia…Is that forever and always or just during the healing process?

Thank you for your reply! Will keep you in my thoughts and prayers…

Namaste!

Thanks…I will give it a try – my initial reaction was just ‘Ahhhhhhkk!’…LOL.

Thanks! I will give it a look! 🙂 Do you think that a stronger core will help with twists?

Hi!

I am a Special Education Assistant working with Early Childhood students (3-8 years old)…I do very little sitting at work…Up and down off the floor and from little chairs, walking the halls at school and sometimes physically moving kids around.

H.

Fixed! Thank you. 🙂

Hi Gabrielle (and all!)

It has been a while since I have posted. My back took a turn for the worst a year or so ago following a Yin class. I found a new chiropractor who recommended ceasing all exercise for a brief period while he set me right – my back was in an ‘acute’ state – so tight that it was like the vertebrates were fused. I returned to walking for exercise (on level ground only which translated to indoor walking programs) but I was not able to return to my beloved Yoga. Each time I attempted it my upper back would flare and it would be days of pain and Advil until it felt better.

After a year or so of treatment and massage therapy and working on some core strength I have been better. I began practicing again in the last week or two. It has meant being overly-careful and modifying to what works for my body and letting go of self-imposed pressure to perform perfectly. This means no holding my arms above my head for any longer than perhaps the length of a transition breath (chiropractor suggested no weight-bearing exercises over the head, but I found that even doing arm raises up and down during walking workouts would aggravate my neck and upper back), no twisting (even the gentlest of twists following all of yours or any teacher’s explicit instructions results in problems) and minimal back bending.

I know it sounds like I can barely do any of the postures anywhere close to the ideal and that is largely true – but I have to be OK with that and respect that this is where my body is currently if I have any hope of continuing to practice. Modification has been key. I hope and pray that this time I will be back at it for a longer stretch and gain ground enough to one day move beyond at least some of the need for such ‘cuts’ to the program. I work with Special Needs students in school and sometimes things have to be broken down into the tiniest of steps/increments in order to get them to their ultimate goals. And so it goes for me. God has blessed me with the lessons those kids teach me about perseverance. 🙂

As always your teaching style and instruction are so helpful to me and even though I have never taken a live class with you or met any of the people on this forum, I am blessed to know that there is a community of people out there I can turn to for support in this journey.

Thanks for listening!

Namaste!

Helen