How is your recovery coming, Jukashi?

Last time Jukashi mentioned his arm on quest, a little over a week ago, he said this


"To leave humour aside a moment, though, my arm is still not so great. It's sort of settled into a low level of discomfort that doesn't seem to be going away, so it's beginning to seem like I'm stuck with it."


and also that he'd returned to college this year. The lack of updates about how are things going here on the forums or on the comic page is disappointing, but I'd imagine he doesn't feel good about the hiatus due to injury and would rather come back with comic as opposed to a "Still going to be a bit"
 
Jukashi, you are hearby ordered to get feeling better by Halloween so we can see more character cosplay. That is all.
 
Damn...obviously, it's time to start working on developing some modicum of art skill, so I can make some fanart!


That, or start commissioning people for some.
 
I know I am saying it again. If there is problems with his arm that can be solved by us raising money for it, I just hope he will tell here on the forum.
 
Your arm is in poor shape, and you cannot draw. While disappointing, that is ok.


It worries me though that we have neither word of your recovery, your plans for KoC, or even if the rest of your physical form is ok.
 
Has he moved onto other stuff? If so, I'd love to see what else he's up to. Google seems to imply that he hasn't, or, if he has, it's not under his typical username.
 
I do hope he comes back to this comic, eventually. I want to hear what the rest of the story is!


Also, then I can stop being accused of the completely ridiculous accusations that I stole the life force from Keychain of Creation for my own comic.
 
I probably owe an explanation by this point.


So, yes, I did go back to college this year, and my arm continued at its low level of constant discomfort, as I had mentioned. I had been doing some solitary pieces of art, and some quests (the most recent of my own of which sort of... failed), and I had hoped to spend the Christmas break getting some work done on the comic, maybe enough to return to at least a page-a-week routine. However, my arm got worse again over said holiday season, compounded by having some hand-written exams in january. I hate falling back on that, since it sounds fake by this point, but I can't argue with pain. I'm sorry. I still have hopes.


I should also apologize to anyone who tried to contact me by the email address on the page, which I have always been terrible at checking, and moreso when I knew it would be people asking after my health. Special regrets to anyone who sent fanart. That email was shifted and redirected over to another arrangement some time ago, in which a lot of the old emails were probably lost; sadly, I don't really check the new one either. It's still the same address, but people should probably post on the forums instead.


I'm hoping to at least start the second chapter of Lunar Quest in a couple of months or so, which I hope will suffice as something for the Exalted fans. In the meantime, you could read the first chapter of it, if you like.
 
That sucks to have such a reoccurring pain! I know how much that sucks, and don't think you're just making up excuses!


Maybe you should try to get some massage therapy? I know massages sound like they are "useless rich people stuff," but if you get actual therapy it is very beneficial. Massage therapy is particularly good at helping with muscular problems, such as tendonitis and carpal tunnel, along with back pain and its like.


(Massage therapy helps to stretch out compacted muscles, which are the major cause of problems such as tendonitis and carpal tunnel.)
 
Acupuncture maybe as well? I'm (fairly) sure we would be willing to give donations to such a cause.
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I have doubts as to Acupunctures efficacy. I tend to stick away from anything that labels itself as "alternative medicine." It's based on rearranging your Qi, which does not have physical basis, and so cannot be studied scientifically.


On the other hand, Massage therapy is about forcing your muscles to relax and stretch back out. It's still more of a "borderline medicine," but it has been studied and shown to have real effects. There are still some wild and completely baseless claims associated with it, of course.


It matters what type of massage you go for: anything that does deep tissue is probably the best. So a rule of thumb arises: if the massage you get isn't somewhat painful and/or uncomfortable while you're getting it, it probably isn't doing its job. Trust me, though, the pain is only temporary and you feel much better afterwords.


------


How does Massage work you might ask? (probably not, but humor me.) Well, first you need to understand that the muscular system is always in tension, not compression. Meaning that muscles always pull, they never push. Muscles can only contract, not expand, on command. So, for a full range of motion, you always have at least pairs of muscles. One pulls one way, the other in the opposite way. Think of them in a constant state of tug-of-war.


Now, muscular problems tend to arise when one side of the muscular pair becomes disproportionately stronger. It contracts and contracts, but the opposing force is not enough to force it to expand again. So it gets pretty compact, forming a "knot" of muscle. This is very stressful on tendons, which are what connects muscles to the rest of the body, typically bone. Tendons are slightly elastic, so they elongate to compensate for the "knotting" of the muscle. However, they have a limit, and if pushed past their limit, will start to tear. The body then tries to repair the tendons. The area swells because of the repair work. (Think of it as the body putting up scaffolding.) Occasionally swelling of the tendons isn't a huge deal. But when it is constantly happening over and over again, this is true Tendonitis--the consistent swelling of the tendons. It makes the range of motion hard to accomplish, and can cause carpal tunnel if the tendon is in the medias carpal--the wrist area.


Now this is where massage comes in. It is a manual forcing of the muscles to expand again, lengthening and taking up its slack the tendons were taking care of. This lets the tendons repair themselves, and get rid of its swelling.


Usually after a couple of sessions of massage, the opposing muscles strengthen, getting rid of the problem entirely. Still, to prevent a reaccurance, you should make sure to stretch your muscles, which also prevents knotting of muscles.


What causes knotting? Excessive use of a particular muscle group. You might think this sounds like a bodybuilder, working only on the bicep and ignoring the tricep, but this is actually most commonly caused by writing and typing. You are only using the muscles on one side of your arm, and not the other. It is important to stretch! It gives the opposing muscles some time to excersise!
 
Jumping in as a Massage Therapist very quickly - massage is much more than just "forcing your muscles to relax and stretch back out". Massage itself should NEVER feel uncomfortable in any way, shape, or form, nor should it ever be just plain painful. Additionally, there is no one thing that is a massage. Various modalities of massages exist to address various issues and complaints.


It sounds like Dragonmystic was generally referring to either Connective Tissue Therapy, or Neuromuscular Therapy - aka Trigger Point Therapy. Our bodies are entirely connected by connective tissue, which consists of mostly collagen fibers in hyaluronic acid. This connective tissue forms the many connective planes of our body itself structurally, and anything from physical trauma to repetitive motions/actions can cause these fibers to "knot" up, restricting our range of motion. Connective Tissue Therapy works specifically to address these chronic adhesions or conditions, and is paired with client awareness and feedback. It utilizes strokes that gradually lengthen, soften and mold the tissues to re-educate them. Our goals for each session encompass not only the muscle groups specifically to the adhesions, but also any other areas which may be affected by these issues (ex: neck and shoulder issues brought the client in, but how have these issues then spread into the lower back, which might reinforce the original complaints?).


Neuromuscular Therapy (Trigger Point) works specifically with trigger points (areas of hypersensitivity in a tissue that are tender and can cause pain when contacted) within a muscle group. It can be painful to have these trigger points worked, but as long as the pain does not exceed a client's personal threshold of "acceptable", will assist to increase oxygen and blood flow to these areas, as well as increasing overall mobility. This pain, however, is often described more as an 'achy, deep' than the more immediate sense of 'OW'. Additionally, these points are addressed slowly to reduce the pain/discomfort levels; if your massage therapist is just cranking down into your muscles with no care as to 'warming up' the tissues for such deeply felt work, or communicating with you during, you need to find a new therapist.


A client can expect to feel somewhat sore after an NMT session, but post-session treatments of heat applications, Epsom salt soaks, and plenty of water can reduce this soreness, and every client should be informed of such post-treatments.


Massage works with all body systems, from energy manipulation to the lymphatic, circulatory, and nervous system. The benefits to having massage range from the immediately felt effects (relaxation, lessened pain, etc.), to the peace of having a space in the day entirely for you, and yourself.
 
Re: Ifra.


"Pain" was perhaps a bad choice of words on my part. "Discomfort" or just "it feels weird" would be better to convey what I meant, as to what you described. When your muscles, and the fasca, and all the connective tissue are rearranged, it will feel uncomfortable, simply because it is different from what we are comfortable with.


As you can see from Ifra's (really good) post, massage is a lot more complex than my small explanation.


The ultimate point, is that I would suggest Jukashi get some massage therapy. From a scientific, medicinal, and mechanical point of view, I believe it would help with your chronic pain. I don't believe in the energy manipulation part of it (sorry, but putting the stones out into the moonlight doesn't make sense to me...), nor do I believe much in the Qi aspect of the acupuncture. But the rest of the benefits of massage can be proven, so I support it.
 
Massage therapy definitely would benefit him, and you're exactly right about the discomfort to new patterns for our bodies.
 
/sidles in past the arguing Ifra and Dragonmystic


It's sad to hear you still suffer such pain, I can empathize as I get crippling joint/muscle pains myself.


I'm sure you are well aware that everyone on the WW Exalted Forum, The Freedom Stone and here on ECR are concerned more for your well-being than for your update schedules. I'm sure they all send you their thoughts, wishes and prayers for a speedy and lasting recovery.


Captain Hesperus
 
Jukashi said:
people should probably post on the forums instead.
Click to expand...
Then I shall do so.
I was wondering, Jukashi, if you had considered becoming an author and have someone else do the drawy bits? It would allow you to tell KoC's story without straining your muscles unduly, and (despite the reactions from the art shift at the end, and with no offence meant towards your really quite excellent mastery of the OotS style) it was really the writing that defined KoC more than anything.


Hopefully, I'm not coming across as impatient or demanding, as it's not my intention; I was just curious as to whether it was in the cards at all.
 
I shall come across as impatient and demanding for you, good sir.


*poke*


Hop to it.


*poke*


No, seriously, Jukashi. I'm sure Weimann and I aren't the only ones who have thought of this.


I've just been just too busy to type it out and I can't exactly go bug you at your place with that giant puddle in the way and all.
 
I'd just like to post my well-wishes, Jukashi. Your comic was one of the first things to introduce me to Exalted. (It and the now long-defunct Freedom Stone comic.) Thank you so much for all the enjoyment you've provided me in the past, and I sincerely hope that things improve for you.
 
I know it's belated, but you've got my well-wishes too.


Also the offer to draw a bunch of terrible stick figures under your advisement to help KoC continue.
 
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