Towards Vulnerability
About a year and a half ago, I realized that if I sat down in the same position for too long, my whole leg would go numb.
Not fun, but an easy solution: don't sit in the same position for too long.
This past summer, though, my leg started getting worse, especially when I was trying to sleep. I had pain all the way down to my toes. That's when I got a bit scared.
After a month of physical therapy, my physical therapist figured out the problem: my sacroiliac joint had come out of place. She readjusted it and my pain went away.
So, for now, I need my SI joint readjusted about once a month or if I do something that's particularly bad for it (sitting for extended periods of time, playing golf or cornhole). I don't even have to keep going in to PT, anyone can readjust it! Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
While I was still at home, my dad would lovingly readjust my joint for me.
But how do I tell 5 strangers that I just moved in with that I need one of them to pull on my leg once a month?
What an odd request. I was nervous. What if they all refused and I had to live in incredible pain until I could go back to Richmond?
Welp, the worst they can do is say no, right? So at the beginning of my time in New Orleans, I just had to ask them. Especially because I had just driven 16 hours and then we had flights and train trips to New York for orientation, which meant lots of sitting. I was in lots of pain.
A couple of them were a little freaked out by it; they don't want to pull my leg.
But a couple of them were willing to try.
Sarah even said that we should include it on our community covenant because it was a health issue for me, which meant that it concerned our whole community. I was touched by that because I had always just thought of it as an individual burden and to have another woman advocating for my health made me feel so supported.
So, every once in a while, if you look into the windows of our house, you will see me lying on the floor on a blanket with my left leg a foot and a half in the air as one of my housemates holds it tight and then tugs so hard that I slide about two feet forward on the ground. Then we reset and do it twice more.
~
Honestly, we laughed the entire time we discussed how to add this to the community covenant. It was incredulous that we were having an earnest conversation about literally, not figuratively, pulling my leg. We laugh every time I need my leg pulled. Because the whole thing kinda weird.
But the important thing was that I was honest about what I needed and that there were people in the house willing to step up.
Vulnerability doesn't always have to be about deep emotional stuff. Sometimes vulnerability can be as simple as asking someone to pull your leg.
Not fun, but an easy solution: don't sit in the same position for too long.
This past summer, though, my leg started getting worse, especially when I was trying to sleep. I had pain all the way down to my toes. That's when I got a bit scared.
After a month of physical therapy, my physical therapist figured out the problem: my sacroiliac joint had come out of place. She readjusted it and my pain went away.
So, for now, I need my SI joint readjusted about once a month or if I do something that's particularly bad for it (sitting for extended periods of time, playing golf or cornhole). I don't even have to keep going in to PT, anyone can readjust it! Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
While I was still at home, my dad would lovingly readjust my joint for me.
But how do I tell 5 strangers that I just moved in with that I need one of them to pull on my leg once a month?
What an odd request. I was nervous. What if they all refused and I had to live in incredible pain until I could go back to Richmond?
Welp, the worst they can do is say no, right? So at the beginning of my time in New Orleans, I just had to ask them. Especially because I had just driven 16 hours and then we had flights and train trips to New York for orientation, which meant lots of sitting. I was in lots of pain.
A couple of them were a little freaked out by it; they don't want to pull my leg.
But a couple of them were willing to try.
Sarah even said that we should include it on our community covenant because it was a health issue for me, which meant that it concerned our whole community. I was touched by that because I had always just thought of it as an individual burden and to have another woman advocating for my health made me feel so supported.
So, every once in a while, if you look into the windows of our house, you will see me lying on the floor on a blanket with my left leg a foot and a half in the air as one of my housemates holds it tight and then tugs so hard that I slide about two feet forward on the ground. Then we reset and do it twice more.
~
Honestly, we laughed the entire time we discussed how to add this to the community covenant. It was incredulous that we were having an earnest conversation about literally, not figuratively, pulling my leg. We laugh every time I need my leg pulled. Because the whole thing kinda weird.
But the important thing was that I was honest about what I needed and that there were people in the house willing to step up.
Vulnerability doesn't always have to be about deep emotional stuff. Sometimes vulnerability can be as simple as asking someone to pull your leg.
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