On Monday, I graduated from my rehab stint. Physical therapy rehab, that is. There was no big ceremony or anything. Just me and my therapist reviewing my progress over the past five weeks. It was pretty enlightening, what we talked about, and I left the clinic feeling both successful and motivated.

When I first walked through my rehab clinic doors, I wasn't sure anything could be done to fix the tightness, the limited range of motion, the sometimes pain I felt in the area of my left arm. It had been three long years since I'd had surgery to remove a breast cancer tumor, after all, and almost that long since radiation zapped the whole cancerous area. Both are to blame for what I was experiencing and the way I considered it, if my problems weren't solved long ago, there was little that could be done now.

I was wrong.

My therapist took tons of measurements when we first started working together. I moved, bent, stretched, pushed, and pulled so she could record numbers of all sorts. Then we spent weeks on our tasks. She massaged and manipulated and broke down scar tissue, stiffness, knots. Armed with weekly exercises, I stretched and strengthened by body at home. Together, we achieved victory -- my improved numbers prove it. I'm responsible for 50 percent of the success, my therapist tells me. She takes credit for the other 50 percent.

Before I left my final appointment, my expert shared a few parting words. Here they are.

• My posture is better. She could tell the moment I walked in the door. Must be the exercise in standing tall she'd given me during one visit and my new awareness of the poor posture I'd been carrying with me all these years.

• I should be sleeping on my back, not on my side. Back sleepers enjoy better alignment and less rounding of the shoulders -- one of my posture problems. My assignment from this moment on is to sleep on my back with one relatively flat pillow under my head. I should make sure my pillow fills the gap between my neck and my bed. I should enjoy the benefits of this technique immensely, says my therapist.

• Keep at it, says this same gal who streamlined all my at-home exercises and told me precisely what I need to do to hang on to the results the two of us have achieved.

Did you get a chance to see the hit movie Cloverfield on opening weekend? The home camera look really made the film stand out from other monster flicks. But if you're like some people with uneasy stomachs, then motion sickness might have followed the jerky camera movements.

In fact, a manager at WebMD admits to having left the movie theater to escape the nausea. Personally, I had to look away several times or down at my feet. The reason people like us felt so icky was because our brain and eyes were transmitting mixed up messages.

The erratic camerawork tricked our eyes into sending messages that we were moving around. But the inner ear told our brain otherwise, since sitting in a theater chair is obviously stationary. This is also what happens in cars or planes. There are lots of medications one can take to prevent motion sickness (but most result in drowsiness, like Benadryl). I'm just glad to know I'm not the only person who felt the side-effects of Cloverfield!

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Very few things can destroy a road trip as fast as motion sickness. Those who suffer from it know all too well that the effects of a long car ride, with someone at the wheel who is a little bit heavy on the breaks, can make you desperately ill for hours after the offending trip is over.

The problem isn't much better for those accompanying the ill traveler either, as they're the ones who have to look after their incapacitated friend or family member and, if worse comes to worse, smell the aftereffects of a round of heaving into a barf bag. If you, or someone you're about to travel with, gets serial car sickness here are a few tips to help you cope.

The article is geared towards parents with sick kids, but the suggestions should work for everyone. Some things to try include not reading or playing video games in the car, letting the nauseous person sit in the front seat where they'll get a more normal view and keeping the windows open for fresh air. Motion sickness pills like Gravol work, but only if taken before starting a journey. So keep these, and all the other tips listed, in mind before starting a car trip as your entire group will be much happier for it.

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Lots of you fail to stretch on a regular basis, because you have limited time right? I know it's hard. I'm a Mommy and a professional and I only get so much time to spend at the gym before I simply have to get somewhere else. It's like that for everyone. Given 60 minutes to train, most folks will choose cardio and strength cause those are the things that get us trimmer and harder.

Don't feel guilty about neglecting to stretch at the gym. It's OK. Just don't neglect to stretch all together. If I were to have my way 100% of the time, we'd all have time to do complete cardio, strength training, and stretching at each workout. It's simply not reality though. So......what do you do? Stretch throughout the day!

• When you wake up, stretch like a cat in your bed.
• Stretch out your triceps in the shower.
• Reach down and stretch your hamstrings while tying your shoes.
• While walking through a doorway, grab the door frames at shoulder height, continue to walk through and hold as you stretch your chest.
• While sitting at your desk, twist at the waist and stretch your low back.

We have two kinds of dogs in our household. Those that love to ride in the car and those that hate to ride in the car and get sick. Our Dalmatian, Kiva, loves to ride in the car more than she loves to eat steak and will literally howl at the kitchen window if she sees me drive off without her. But our boxer/bulldog mix, Joey, lays in the back of the station wagon and gets sick just about every time he is taken for a ride or has to go with us on a trip. We often gave him small doses of Dramamine and didn't feed him before we had to put him in the car to go on trips.

Now there is hope for many pets that experience motion sickness and vomiting while riding in a car. The FDA, Food and Drug Administration, said the drug, Cerenia, is the first to prevent and treat vomiting in dogs. When used in tablet form, the drug can prevent vomiting associated with motion sickness. The drug also can prevent and treat acute vomiting due to chemotherapy, parvovirus, kidney disease, pancreatitis and other causes. This is great news for Joey.

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