The scapula, your shoulder blade, is a pretty darn awesome bone. There is just a lot going on here, as it supports your back and shoulder muscles, both of which are very large and powerful, along with the movement of your arm, which is a lot of movement. This is the front-side view of a left scapula, and you can see the acromion process where the clavicle articulates. The main feature on this side of the bone is the subscapular fossa (fossa means depression), which is home to the ridges you can see. These ridges serve as the attachments for many of the tendons in the shoulder girdle. At the top of the fossa, where the color changes from a lighter to darker color, is a deeper depression that increases the structural strength of the bone. The backside of this depression is where the spine of the scapula is...to be covered later!

The clavicle, aka collarbone, is easily palpated and looks quite nice on people with nice shoulders. Its primary significance is that it is the only skeletal contact for the shoulder blade and arm to the axial skeleton - the rest of the body. On the other end it connects to the top of the sternum where the ribs begin. It is strong and stiff, in order to hold them in place and away from the body. You want that so that you can have a maximum range of movement, you know, throw a baseball, reach the stuff on the top shelf. Which is also the reason it is the most commonly broken bone in the body [If you break your clavicle you must wear a tight sling for approximately 3 weeks to hold the bone in place. Otherwise your arm will drag the bone fragment down and you will be forever handicapped and disfigured. Yuck]. The outside end of the clavicle attaches to the acromion process of the scapula. Finally, the clavicle helps protect the nerves running out to the arm.

The above photo is the anterior view.

I don't know how to take a photo of myself, so you will have to tolerate this one of a stranger. But this is what I've looked like at my computer for years and years, basically the entire existence of the computer has enjoyed my bad posture. Not good for your spine, but more importantly is the slew of problems created around your shoulders, which are already the least stable join in your body. Take care of them, yo.





Yoga was what really opened my eyes to how awful my posture was, and how limiting it can be over an extended period of time and for doing anything other than typing. An ergonomics evaluation reinforced that. I even found that my shoulders are hunched for the majority of my time - sitting around with friends, even in bed. The muscles have gotten so accustomed to this position it has become their norm. So there's a good chance that most of you out there have the same debilitating hunched over shoulders and don't even know it! I'm going to take a few posts to break down the parts of the shoulder - even your breathing and confidence can be affected - so we will all know the intricacies of the shoulder region and how to move with care.

When you hear something from two different people within twelve hours, the universe has spoken to you and you must share!

"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles."
- Audrey Hepburn

In case you need a little more than pink as a reason to believe, take this recent study done by Women's Health Initiative researchers: 205 women with hot flashes were randomized to either a placebo pill or the antidepressant escitalopram. Those on escitalopram experienced a 47% decrease in hot flashes, and those on placebo experienced a 33% decrease in symptoms. Looks like just expecting the best will help you more than you think!

Today I spent nearly an hour sitting in the waiting room of the General Oncology/Hematology floor at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. I was eavesdropping (surprise, surprise) on the couple closest to me. Their oldest daughter just got married. Their youngest daughter was an infant when the man was diagnosed with cancer. He's been cancer-free for five years. Five years is a clear triumph when it comes to cancer, but a blink of an eye with children and milestones.

Today we can all be grateful that either we are not going through that, or that we have the strength to triumph.

Once upon a time someone told me life was a veil of tears. This is absolutely a glass half-empty approach, if you ask me, but at the same time it is impossible to ignore the fact that tragedy abounds. There are a million bazillion ways to ache. And all too often it seems that people get stuck in the moment and can't get out of it. We need strength to persevere and flexibility to be open to something new. This is 100% relevant for both physical and mental pain.

You might have done things the way you were doing them before because they were working for you. Now - you hurt. Your body has reacted in this way to send you the message that these things no longer work for you. Modern western medicine will tell you that you can just take a pill. I would like to take it a step even more modern and challenge you to examine your own body and mind and to see where you are strong, where you are flexible, and where you need to let go. Steve Jobs has constantly been lauded for his intuitive recognition of the ability to individualize and customize technology. Your own health is the same! Explore your options and pick and choose what works for you.

  That's you!

I've been trying to eat healthy since sometime in middle school (before that I considered a full day of Captain Crunch and Peanut Butter 'n' Chocolate ice cream to be a perfectly acceptable diet).

My successes in this department were primarily limited to: deli turkey out of the bag, carrots and hummus, and microwavable cheese and broccoli packages. Low carbs and low effort! Cheers! Particularly because I needed another food group.

Salads... so many ingredients, all that bland lettuce, never really been my thing. California Pizza Kitchen can do a pretty good job with them, and the packaged ones at Trader Joe's get the job done too. But in my house? You want me to plan ahead, buy several different veggies and proteins, wash them, cut them up, and then be disappointed by how green my meal tastes and polish it off with ice cream? I'll get back to you tomorrow. Fortunately, the universe taught me how to make a salad and I didn't even know it was coming. I signed up for the local farmer's boxes last March, and received a $34 box of produce every week since then. A lot of the time I ended up with extra stuff I couldn't get to, or I was baffled about what to do with it (cabbage? a little bit on fish tacos would be alright but again, back to the planning issue), or intimidated (fennel is supposed to taste like black licorice!! I hate black licorice!! And it's so big!!) so things got tossed unused. Over time I warmed up to the adventure, and through conversation was given suggestions for how to use some of these strange exotic plants like parsley. As I began to realize that most of them were, in fact, not strange or exotic, it became easier to throw a little bit of each on top of my lettuce (organic lettuce and Safeway lettuce are two entirely different foods) ... and it didn't taste so bad. Today I realized I had done this, oh, maybe 3 times, but that that is enough times to be a girl-who-makes-salad. But it didn't happen naturally or overnight. I had to jump into the deep end of the produce world without my water wings and touch a lot of moldy veggies on the way.