For the past couple of weeks I’ve been indulging in some hard core geekdom and my “nerd file”, filled with research papers is getting fatter and fatter. Horrifyingly enough, it makes me yearn to go back to college for a—gasp—4th degree. Because, you know, the perfect compliment to an English BA, a creative writing masters and a library science masters is a degree in exercise physiology. Relax, Mom and Dad, I won’t be quitting my job any time soon. I suck too much at math to study anything technical. But to indulge my nerdy side, I’m resurrecting a research feature here in my own virtual fifedom. The goal is to spread the word about research relevant to this blog—CP research, exercise research, obesity research, etc., and to allow me to pontificate and gush about the geeky stuff I read. It’s my soapbox, after all. 
So this week’s read was: Neural plasticity and treatment across the lifespan in motor deficits in cerebral palsy by George F. Wittenberg, MD, PhD.
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This week I made the trek to Baltimore for some physical therapy. Generally after you receive Botox injections, you embark on a pretty serious regimen of physical therapy–two or three times a week. The idea being that you should take advantage of the additional flexibility and get some muscles stretched and some joints moving. I lucked out, since PTE (personal trainer extraordinaire) is also a physical therapist, I can have this taken care of during our weekly workouts. Also, I’m the Queen of Compliance–which means I can be depended upon to comply with all of the doctor’s/PTs orders, to the letter and beyond. PTE routinely warns other physical therapists that they should be careful what they tell me to do, because I will, on average, do 50 to 100% more. Yeah, yeah, I’m an over-achiever.
Roughly once a month, though, I head to Baltimore to have my back, pelvis, and guts rearranged by an osteopath specializing in visceral manipulation. Would you like to hear that again, in plain English? As I understand it, visceral manipulation–and osteopathy, in general–focuses on the body as a single system, and on the relationships between tissues, organs, muscles, etc, and on the energy they produce. When you see an osteopath, they’re going to look at your whole body–not just the “sick” or wonky bits. I’ve read a little about it, and I’ll tell you now that some doctors doubt the effectiveness of visceral manipulation. However, in my case, it’s been a wonderful experience and both the visceral manipulation and regular muscle releases have yielded some terrific results. For the first time in two years I went a solid month without an SI flare, or having to call PTE for an emergency realignment.
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