Tangofoot!

(repost)


Before leaving on a trip to Buenos Aires in 1999, when I still lived in Los Angeles, I had been worried about my sore and painful feet. So much so in fact that I went to a podiatrist for the first time, and told him I was going to Argentina to dance, and he MUST make my feet stop hurting!

Thus I deserved the painful shot of cortisone in the ball of my foot. But with that and the skillful wrapping of my foot, going home in the surgical shoe was pain free and my only worry was about missing the local milonga that night. Which I didn't do, as I borrowed a bigger size of heels from my neighbor, one that would accomodate the bandages, and went and danced at the milonga anyway. There was a standing joke at that time that if Cherie wasn't there on Friday nights, I was either in the hospital or the morgue.

It was only later I learned the cortisone was temporary, and could not be repeated. So when I returned from Buenos Aires, I went to another podiatrist who specializes in sports medicine. He diagnosed my problem as--not bone spurs, arthritis, or bursitis as other doctors had told me--but “Dancer’s Foot.” Oh thanks. It’s genetic, and dancing ballet on my toes all my life hadn’t helped.

My foot is square and tango shoes are a triangle. A classical dancer must dance in pointe shoes and a tango dancer in pointy heels. Those are the working conditions. But if you wear only leather shoes and have them stretched (and you can do this more than once), it’ll help the squished toes problem.

It’s the women who mostly suffer from foot problems and it’s because of the high heeled shoes we wear. According to the L.A. Times (June 1, 1998), 87% of operations performed to correct acquired foot deformities, such as bunions and hammer toes, are undergone by women. In the United States, women visit the doctor for foot problems four times more often than men. In societies where people go barefoot or wear flat sandals, these problems are rare, and their frequency is the same in both sexes.

Luckily my new doctor was able to carve out supportive pads from my Dr. Scholls’ material, which really helped. My feet still hurt after three hours of dancing, but at least it wasn't agony.

For normal feet sore from dancing, wearing gel or cushion inserts in your dancing shoes can make a difference. Also using ice when you get home keeps the swelling down. If you’re injured while dancing, get some ice from the bar or use a cold can of unopened soda to rest your foot on. Taking your shoes off and massaging your feet every so often as you sit out a dance can give your aching feet a new lease on life. Then later soak them in hot water with plain or Epsom salt, and file down those calluses with a pumice stone. If your stomach can stand it, take anti-inflammatory medication such as Ibuprofen BEFORE going to dance.

Remember RICE--Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation for injuries.
I haven’t tried alternative medicine, but I have friends who swear by chiropractic, acupuncture, and Rolfing.

A professional dancer in Buenos Aires also gave me some exercise tips: flex and point your feet hard while you’re sitting down every day. And stretch out your toes by making a “fist” with the fingers of one hand in between the toes of one foot, and just holding it while you watch TV or talk on the phone. Then switch. When you get more stretched, try to use the fingers of both hands for one foot. Walking barefoot at home and on the beach is great foot exercise. Some people swear by expensive orthotics which are fitted to your foot by a podiatrist. But hopefully you won’t need them.

Usually it's the woman's right foot and/or ankle that is the most painful, because during the salida we spend quite a bit of time with all of our weight on just the ball of the right foot. In other steps as well--the cross, carousel, colgada--it's the right foot more often than the left.

But you know what? After dancing for so many years, now it doesn't bother me any more, even with the super spike heels I wear. Perhaps with the improvement in my technique, I've learned to handle it differently, I really don't know what happened. But I'm glad that here's one example of something that can get better with age.

Medical Concerns of The Expat Life

Do you dream of being an expat somewhere? Do you imagine retiring to some exotic locale way, way south of the border? Do you fantasize living the rest of your life in the Mecca of Tango where you can dance 24/7?

It's a fabulous idea and an incredible experience if you can pull it off. Who doesn't want to "follow their bliss?"

As someone who's been there, my advice is to just please use common sense and a dose of reality when you are making your plans. And remember, everything is easier when you are young. If you are a retiree or over 55, I'm sorry to say it's tougher--everything is more difficult as the years add up, especially physical concerns--but it's not impossible.

One very important thing to consider before pulling up stakes for parts unknown, is your health history. If you have chronic health problems or have suffered a catastrophic illness, you might want to reconsider starting over in a strange land, especially in the Third World. My attitude at the time was that I had survived cancer, it was all behind me, what the hell, I'm going for a new life.

But when I had a complication from radiation treatments received in Los Angeles after I returned to Mexico in 2003, the doctors there had very little experience with radiation as most Mexican BC patients have radical mastectomies and no radiation. I found a good oncologist in a small town in the middle of nowhere who figured it out, but that's what he told me.

Medical care in a foreign country is not the same as you are used to. And if you are not a native speaker of your new country's language, when you are weak, nervous and sick you may misunderstand the medical instructions in any language. Even if the doctor also speaks English, there can be miscommunication due to inexact language usage.

If there is free public health care available to you, are you sure you would want that instead of a top-of-the-line medical team? Can you afford to pay a top team and private hospital? A friend of mine on a tango vacation once needed emergency surgery and the hospital required a payment of $10,000 usd before proceeding; she had to wait for two days until the money arrived from Sweden. Thankfully, she is just fine now, several years later.

Some people say in an emergency or in the face of a serious illness, they would fly home for treatment. Money must be available for that option, as well as a health plan in the home country.

And when you are sick and used to running to the drugstore for your favorite OTC treatment, it can be a shock to realize that many are not available world-wide. Sure, there are local medicines, but you need to find out what you need and how it suits you before you desperately need it! I really miss Pepto Bismol, Nyquil, and many others (and thankfully have friends from abroad who keep me supplied).

My purpose is not to scare anyone from taking a chance on a new life in a new country, but just to bring awareness that it, like most things, can be more complicated than you think, and probably will be.

Pink October

It's that time of year again when the media wants us to be aware of breast cancer, get checkups, and above all, find a cure. Should we have to be reminded every October to take care of ourselves and others?

So once again I'm contributing my story, Cancer Dancer, which you can read here.

During my first cancer treatment, I visited a multi-media art exhibit in the big beautiful central library where I worked in downtown Los Angeles
  Art.Rage.Us.: Art and Writing of Women With Breast Cancer. The very moving pieces of art and poetry comprising the exhibit were all by women at various stages of their breast cancer treatment, depicting their emotions about their own personal battles with disfigurement, disease and possible death. And in so doing created a call-to-arms for progress in diagnosis, treatment, and attitude.

Out of this traveling exhibition came a beautiful book published by The American Cancer Society, The Breast Cancer Fund, and the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. featuring illustrations from the exhibit along with the artists' biographies and writings.

available at Amazon

Here are two examples of the art, but many of the sculptures, paintings, collages, photos are very graphic images of the physical trauma of the treatments, showing especially the artists' feelings about mastectomy. And so the exhibit and the book are considered controversial.

"Venus Revisted" painting on silk by Carole Bonicelli

"Diagnosis 1" mixed media by Mary Ellen Edwards-McTamaney

A few years earlier, in 1993, the New York Times Magazine published a daring self-portrait cover photo of artist/photographer and former model, Matuschka, with a story on her stunning series, Beauty Out of Damage.

Many people were appalled and offended at the in-their-face photograph, which the NYT titled, You Can't Look Away Anymore.





 But have things changed so much in the almost 20 years since? Last year Facebook banned photos of cancer survivor Sharon Adams who wanted to share her mastectomy scar pictures to make an impact on women in a stronger way than a delicate and subtle pink ribbon.  Supposedly the photos were reinstated after a hue and cry went up on FB, but now there is only a very tiny one of her surgery scars.

It's hard for me to understand how such photos or depictions could be considered lewd, obscene, pornographic, disgusting, macabre, etc. I find them brave and heroic in celebrating the beautiful women within; femininity is more than a body. Not suitable for children? Not suitable for the sensitive? Anyone can get cancer and they have to deal with it. The more aware people (men get breast cancer too) are of the consequences, the more active they will be in prevention. Because of the efforts of women like these, cancer is no longer a dirty word--at least to most people. Being afraid to look at images of the damage cancer brings is simply outrageous.

 Oscar Wilde said one can either make
a masterpiece or be one. Artist
Matuschka has managed to do both.
Linda Vaccariello
Cincinnati Magazine

Pink Ribbon Month

As most of my readers know, I am a two-time survivor of breast cancer. You can read my brief story in previous posts here and here.

I'm also the widow of a man who died way too young of prostrate cancer.

Neither one of us had the famous risk factors that can lead folks into a false sense of security.

As our oncologist reminded us with each diagnosis, shit happens.

So during this month when we are admonished at every turn about the dangers of cancer, let's get a checkup! Estamos?

And let's walk, run, donate, write, talk, and tango to find a cure!

Swine Flu or The Buenos Aires Crud?

Many readers of tangocherie have written me lately wondering about the dangers of flu here in Buenos Aires, and if they should cancel their planned trips. Up to now, I've sort of ignored this theme in my blog, knowing it will soon pass and that the media has blown it all out of proportion across the globe. But the panic outsiders feel is real.

This article, Argentines told to stop kissing to curb spread of H1N1 flu, published last Saturday in the Borneo News, is a perfect example of bad journalism. It promotes the swine flu panic and is downright incorrect in stating that the "tango halls" are closed.

Here's the advice I write to inquirers:

From my point of view, except for theaters and the
schools,life here is normal. The milongas are
perfectly normal. I could throttle whoever it
is who's spreading gossip about "closed milongas,"
rabble rousers all. During winter here there are
always fewer tourists and folks who stay at
home with colds and flu of whatever variety,
however we've been extremely busy with lots
and lots of dancers from Australia.

No one is wearing masks in the street,
restaurants aren't closed, etc.
So just do what you're comfortable with.
There are never guarantees that something will not
go wrong on vacation.

The truth is that I haven't blogged about the flu scare because it hasn't affected us. I don't know anyone who's had it. The milongas aren't closed, there are just as many people dancing in them and in the streets and restaurants, and I honestly forget about it until I listen to the news. But the basic theme is beginning to bore everyone and life--and the headlines--is moving on.

Many folks however do get sick with what I call the BsAs Crud when they arrive here due to allergies, pollution, exhaustian, whatever. That's a fact.

No one can promise a totally healthy vacation, but there are more tourists here than ever, and all appear to be having a great time.

So the scare is leveling off and Buenos Aires is tranquilo--until the next panic. Such is life.

So come on down! We'll be here waiting for you!

Cuando Un Abrazo Es Necesario

Tonight's episode of Grey's Anatomy was about the healing properties of hugs. How a hug can calm a panic attack, slow the heart rate, and bring about a general feeling of well being.

Of course all of us tangueros know the importance of the embrace. But perhaps some don't know it also has medical benefits.

There are many current studies proving that dancing tango helps folks with medical conditions--Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Down's, depression. Even without official research, those of us who dance it know we always feel better afterwards, no matter what was bothering us physically or emotionally when we arrived at the salon. It's the endorphins, the exercise, the sheer fact of being held tightly in someone's arms.

We can spend an evening embracing friends and moving to music, or we can get our hugs for free on the street. This collage is from photos taken in Berlin during their Free Hugs Campaign. For more info, check out Abrazos Gratis.

Will You Know My Name...?

Yesterday I went in to get the results of my regular cancer checkups.

I really never think of my two-time win with breast cancer until I have to go for routine tests. And then I'm nervous until I know they came out clear.

And yesterday they did, as they have for six years.

No big deal, I am used to "living with cancer" as they like to call it. They never use the word "cure" for cancer patients, although when the time comes, you have to go with something, right? And more often than not, it's the Big C or heart.


I just hope to go suddenly on the dance floor, dancing to Miguel Calo, which is heaven on earth.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Heroines!



Tree

I am no longer afraid of mirrors where I see the sign of the amazon,
the one who shoots arrows... --Deena Metzger


October is Breast Cancer Month.
I am a 2-time survivor.

Tango to Health!

HEALTH: A STUDY BY MCGILL UNIVERSITY IN CANADA (article in Diario Clarín, Buenos Aires)

affirmed that dancing tango is as healthy as gymnastics. When doing it, physiological mechanisms are engaged to help prevent cardiac diseases and improve mobility. Not that we need medical studies to make us want the sensual embrace of tango!

A study made last year by the International Society of Cardiology revealed that dancing tango, salsa or merengue helps to diminish arterial pressure and to prevent the appearance of cardiac diseases. The choice was made to study the effects of tango because it is one of the few dances that forces the couple to merge in an embrace. "In former times, even fox-trot was danced embraced; nowadays the new generations do not practice that contact."

You see, yet another reason to dance estilo milonguero!!

Practical Fashion

One of my favorite blogs, Random Good Stuff, highlighted a fashion show at the Reproductive Health and Technologies expo in China this year which showed the latest dresses made entirely out of condoms.

Now I delight in over-the-top fancies of this sort, because I so firmly believe in the importance of women taking charge of their own sexual health. (In fact to that end, some years ago I started a women's sexual health company in Los Angeles called, vive la difference! But that's a whole other blog!)

The thing is down here in Buenos Aires, I see a lot. I've been going to the milongas for more than ten years, and when I don't dance, I watch. I also listen to my women friends. And I see various problems making their rounds in the milongas.

For foreign women coming here to dance (and often leaving all reason at home), wearing one of these dresses might be a good reminder to all of us to take care with our bodies.

Tangofoot

TANGOFOOT


Before leaving on a trip to Buenos Aires in 1999, when I still lived in Los Angeles, I had been worried about my sore and painful feet. So much so in fact that I went to a podiatrist for the first time, and told him I was going to Argentina to dance, and he MUST make my feet stop hurting!

Thus I deserved the painful shot of cortisone in the ball of my foot. But with that and the skillful wrapping of my foot, going home in the surgical shoe was pain free and my only worry was about missing the local milonga that night. Which I didn't do, as I borrowed a bigger size of heels from my neighbor, one that would accomodate the bandages, and went and danced at the milonga anyway. There was a standing joke at that time that if Cherie wasn't there on Friday nights, I was either in the hospital or the morgue.

It was only later I learned the cortisone was temporary, and could not be repeated. So when I returned from Buenos Aires, I went to another podiatrist who specializes in sports medicine. He diagnosed my problem as--not bone spurs, arthritis, or bursitis as other doctors had told me--but “Dancer’s Foot.” Oh thanks. It’s genetic, and dancing ballet on my toes all my life hadn’t helped.

My foot is square and tango shoes are a triangle. A classical dancer must dance in pointe shoes and a tango dancer in pointy heels. Those are the working conditions. But if you wear only leather shoes and have them stretched (and you can do this more than once), it’ll help the squished toes problem.

It’s the women who mostly suffer from foot problems and it’s because of the high heeled shoes we wear. According to the L.A. Times (June 1, 1998), 87% of operations performed to correct acquired foot deformities, such as bunions and hammer toes, are undergone by women. In the United States, women visit the doctor for foot problems four times more often than men. In societies where people go barefoot or wear flat sandals, these problems are rare, and their frequency is the same in both sexes.

Luckily my new doctor was able to carve out supportive pads from my Dr. Scholls’ material, which really helped. My feet still hurt after three hours of dancing, but at least it wasn't agony.

For normal feet sore from dancing, wearing gel or cushion inserts in your dancing shoes can make a difference. Also using ice when you get home keeps the swelling down. If you’re injured while dancing, get some ice from the bar or use a cold can of unopened soda to rest your foot on. Taking your shoes off and massaging your feet every so often as you sit out a dance can give your aching feet a new lease on life. Then later soak them in hot water with plain or Epsom salt, and file down those calluses with a pumice stone. If your stomach can stand it, take anti-inflammatory medication such as Ibuprofen BEFORE going to dance.

Remember RICE--Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation for injuries.
I haven’t tried alternative medicine, but I have friends who swear by chiropractic, acupuncture, and Rolfing.
A professional dancer in Buenos Aires also gave me some exercise tips: flex and point your feet hard while you’re sitting down every day. And stretch out your toes by making a “fist” with the fingers of one hand in between the toes of one foot, and just holding it while you watch TV or talk on the phone. Then switch. When you get more stretched, try to use the fingers of both hands for one foot. Walking barefoot at home and on the beach is great foot exercise. Some people swear by expensive orthotics which are fitted to your foot by a podiatrist. But hopefully you won’t need them.

Usually it's the woman's right foot and/or ankle that is the most painful, because during the salida we spend quite a bit of time with all of our weight on just the ball of the right foot. In other steps as well--the cross, carousel, colgada--it's the right foot more often than the left.

But you know what? After dancing for so many years, now it doesn't bother me any more, even with the super spike heels I wear. Perhaps with the improvement in my technique, I've learned to handle it differently, I really don't know what happened. But I'm glad that here's one example of something that can get better with age.

New Pink Ribbon Tanguera

NEW PINK RIBBON TANGUERA

Unfortunately there's a new tanguera in the Pink Ribbon Club, my friend Johanna from Los Angeles. She has a tango blog, but also a blog (Health Matters) reflecting her day-to-day trials as a breast cancer patient. It's good therapy for her to share her concerns and problems, and it's good therapy for others to read them. (Click on Link below.)

So she has a lot going for her, previous excellent health, no risk factors, caught early, shares and receives by the written word, and dances tango!

She's a writer by nature, and has written a popular book, The Tao of Tango.

Those of you who read my post, Cancer Dancer, http://tangocherie.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html
know that I'm a two-time survivor myself. I danced tango during the whole treatment the second time around four years ago.

It wasn't the first time that tango saved my life, and probably won't be the last!

Since my first diagnosis in 1993, many friends have joined the Pink Ribbon Club, among them lots of tango dancers. We deal with it, and then we just keep dancing as beautifully as we can.

Cancer Dancer

CANCER DANCER


Maybe now it’s time to explain the glittery pink ribbon at the top of my blog:
I am a two-time cancer survivor. I first had breast cancer in 1993 and underwent surgery, radiation and heavy-dose chemo. I lost every hair on my body, and was very sick. The docs threw all their big guns at me as the cancer was advanced when it was discovered. But I got through it. I survived.

Then in 2002 in a routine checkup in Los Angeles, after I had lived in Mexico for a year, another, unrelated cancer was found in my other breast. This time they caught it early and so I didn’t have to have chemo, just surgery and radiation. I stayed with my son Jason for the two months of treatment in L.A., but worried a lot about Phoebe the Cat who was with a friend in Mexico.

I was the first in my group of friends to have cancer. My husband, Jack, died of cancer in 1991 but he was several years older. However after I completed my treatment, many other friends were diagnosed. Since I entered the world of tango nine years ago, I’ve met lots more tangueras who are members of the Pink Ribbon Club.

And so the pink ribbon above is to honor all survivors, their family members and friends,-- and so that we know we are not alone.