Home Sweet Home

2 Comments December 30, 2015 drworobec

You didn’t hear from me yesterday. That’s the first time in nearly four years that I didn’t publish a blog post on Tuesday morning. Did you miss me?

My family and I were at the mercy of the Winter storm that just swept through Ontario and Quebec, and it took us 40 hours to get from my parent’s home in Sundre, Alberta, to ours here in Burlington. It’s usually eight hours door to door.

This is what I wrote on my personal Facebook Page yesterday, and my adrenaline is still pumping:

Friends. Thank you for your concern. We are SAFE. I need to tell you about this circus because you will not believe it.

Our trip home began yesterday morning, leaving Sundre at 6:45am. In the last 30 hours we have experienced flight delays, push-backs to the gate, flight cancellations, and several trips through 60-90min baggage and security lineups. The most terrifying experience of my life was trying to land at Pearson last night- we were over the runway, past the tops of buildings when we experienced wind shear and the pilot had to abort the landing- as we rose back out of Toronto we could hear the ice pellets hitting the plane and could not see a thing through the thick cloud. Chris and I were separated, as the plane didn’t have room for us to sit together, and our sleeping children missed their parent’s terror completely.

We arrived at our hotel in Montreal at 3:30am last night and our flight today was again cancelled. There are no rental cars available. We are now at the Via station waiting for our (delayed) train and hope to be home by midnight tonight, as scheduled. We have 100lbs of luggage, two car seats, 4 carry-ons, and we have taken 8 cabs/planes/shuttles/trains. Oh, and Chris lost his wallet to spice things up a bit.

But we are SAFE. What an end to a peaceful 2015!!!

I had a full day of patients booked yesterday, my first day back after five days of Christmas vacation, and our wonderful reception team (yay Morgan, Emilia, and Jen!) stepped up to the plate for me and were busy rescheduling patients, fielding calls, and altering their shifts to accommodate my situation. They are the backbone of our clinic and I was reminded of that yet again.

You can now find me at Burlington Sports & Spine Clinic:

Today, 11:00am-7:30pm
Tomorrow (Dec 31st): 8:30am-1:30pm
Sat, January 2nd: 9:45am-1:00pm

Regular post-holiday hours resume January 4th.

And yes, I wrote this post late last night. The euphoria of being home kept me awake.

Straw. Camel’s back.

Leave a comment December 22, 2015 drworobec

In my practice, I often ask the question, “Was there an incident that started your pain? Or did it just creep up on you?” The answer is very often, “Well, it could be (insert activity here), but I’ve been doing that for years, so I don’t think that’s it.” But, perhaps, that’s exactly it.

Tissues have a certain amount of force they can withstand before they become injured/dysfunctional/irritated. This is called tissue tolerance. The end result of too much force is usually pain. You see, pain is often the last symptom to appear, not the first. So, prior to your experience of pain, damage has been done behind-the-scenes for awhile. If you are body-aware, you may have already noticed this in yourself; perhaps your first perception of a symptom was tightness or decreased strength or lack of range of motion. But the pain didn’t follow until later.

This process gives us some valuable insights into treatment. At least, that’s how I see it, and that’s how I treat it.

First, pre-pain symptoms (the above-mentioned tightness, strength, and range of motion) should be watched for and can be used as warning signs to prevent further injury. Maybe these pre-injury symptoms can be used as healthy reminders to improve your mobility, add in some recovery time, or focus on your nutrition. Maybe they cause you to re-check your workplace ergonomics or your sleeping positions or your form in the gym. Maybe they are a signal that your body needs some hands-on treatment. Listen to those signals, and heed their warnings.

It is much easier to prevent an injury than it is to fix an injury.

Second, just because the pain has disappeared, doesn’t mean that the affected tissues are back to their normal pre-injury state. This helps to guide my decisions for a patient’s return to activity and give appropriate movement guidelines. So when I tell you to stop box jumps for the time being, or to raise your computer screen, there’s a method to my madness and science in my reasoning.

The bottom line is this: if you’ve been dead-lifting with a rounded spine for months, or you’ve been sitting at a desk job for years, or you’ve been hunched on your couch with your iPad and “it’s never bothered you before,” doesn’t mean that it won’t bother you now.

Straw. Camel’s back. Remember?

Blizzards and Accomplishments

4 Comments December 15, 2015 drworobec

It was the annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show last week. Not sure if you watched it, but I did, as I do every year, and this was my view:

Yes, those are DQ blizzards. And yes, I realize the irony of watching women with 2% bodyfat parade around in lingerie while downing 800 calories in a single go. And that’s why I did it. Because I am about enjoying the simple things in life, like couches and ice cream with my husband. Because I will never be a Victoria’s Secret model. Because my body-image has shifted ever-so-slightly over the years. Because I love blizzards.

I’ve written about my personal struggles with eating disorders, so this isn’t a surprise to many of you. But the surprising part to me is how my thinking has shifted away from my own struggles, and onto changing those future struggles for my daughter. As a mother, I’ve become much more aware of the images that bombard our young girls. I can now see the damage that photoshop and magazine covers and yes, Victoria’s Secret fashion shows, can do. Most of us will never be 6 feet tall. Most of us will never weigh 110lbs. And yet, skinny is still lauded and valued and praised. As is height. And blond hair. And blue eyes. And the thing is, I actually have a few of those qualities. But I don’t have the skinny. And so my body-dysmorphic thinking only focuses on that.

But instead, I have the strong.

This is a relatively new world for me. A world where strong is praised and skinny is secondary. A world where how much you can lift, how fast you can run, how high you can jump, are more important measurements than your 36-24-36. A world where you can work hard, reach your goals, and keep striving for more. Where accomplishments are calculated against your own personal bests rather than against external factors that you cannot control.

My three-year-old daughter proudly dressed herself yesterday morning. When she was done, she went running to find her big brother. “Look, look,” she squealed, “Look how beautiful I am! I got dressed all by myself!” Can you see why her statement is so magical?