I know you’re expecting me to talk about my spiritual awakening after reading the above title. But this blog is about the physical aspects of yoga. In fact, a very physical aspect – pain.

When my trainer at the gym left to pursue another career some months ago – after 4 successful years of getting me to come to the gym AND do strengthening, balance, and flexibility exercises there regularly – I was at a loss. Being motivated to do regular physical activity is a problem for me.

It was around this same time that a lovely yoga and Pilates studio opened in my neighborhood. I figured that if I got myself onto a schedule of going to classes there , then it was just one step more to keep up my cardio workout. So, I enrolled and went to my first class, an intermediate Ashtanga yoga session.

Now, I’ve practiced yoga positions before, though not in a long time. But I’m fairly flexible and had no trouble keeping up with the different postures during the class. Things were going swimmingly (I use that word because I was literally swimming in sweat) until we got to Downward Facing Dog and I surprised myself by squealing out in pain as my palms hit and pressed down into the floor. Especially the right palm just beneath the bottom of the thumb.

What in the world? I thought. I’ve never noticed pain in my hands before. My mind automatically switched into doctor mode, and I figured that I had stretched the ligaments or tendons between my thumb and forefinger when I had swooped down and picked up my own little 9 pound downward facing dog several days before . Having a quick satisfactory explanation, my immediate problem became what to do about this particular pose, and the ones after it that required pressure on the palms. Unfortunately, the pain was so severe that for the rest of the class I could only take part in those postures that did not require my hands to be in that position.

Fast forward two weeks. I was still having aching now in both palms,worse in the right hand. So, while I was accompanying my husband for his preoperative visit for carpal tunnel surgery, I mentioned the pain to the hand surgeon, thinking he’d confirm my diagnosis of a tendon or ligament or muscle strain and would tell me it would clear up in a few weeks.  He grabbed my hand, pressed down in the exact spot that hurt causing me to grimace, and said that he was sure I had arthritis of the CMC joint. Then he did an xray which proved it. And then he said it was one of the most common joints to get arthritic in older people.

The CMC?  (That’s “carpometacarpal” ). I’d never even thought about that joint since medical school. It’s the one connecting the base of the thumb to the bones in the wrist and plays a crucial role in the function of the thumb. In some studies, degenerative arthritis (inflammation caused by wear-and-tear) of the CMC joint is up to 20 times more common in older women than in any other group.  Like arthritis in other joints, it responds for a time to anti-inflammatory medications, but can become progressively severe in which case it can be debilitating resulting in severe pain, decreased range of motion of the thumb and decreased hand strength. It can even make simple tasks at home – like turning the doorknob or twisting open the lid of a jar painful and difficult. The good news is that in recent years a successful surgery has been developed to treat it in the most severe of cases.

So what about me and yoga? After getting over the shock of being called, yet again, an “older” woman, I did the usual things one does for arthritis, including a brief course of anti-inflammatory meds, heat to the area, and rest.  My pain is better for the moment, and I think I’ve accepted this diagnosis as one that will be with me for the longterm, as well as the fact that this is an age-related problem. That last realization may have been the hardest part of the entire experience.

I learned something else important in that same class. But that’s another story for another day and another blog. Janet Horn

NEXT WEEK: PART II