I feel like I’ve been writing about being sick for months now! But I have been sick for almost a month now which is a pretty long time. I have a feeling it may take another month before I’m totally back to normal, but I am noticing a little bit of progress every day. I’m having fewer coughing fits each day (but still having a bunch) and I have less congestion in general. I am still a bit shocked about how hard I went down with this cold and how long it has taken me to even feel this much better.
I did take some time to be lazy and do nothing since that’s what you really need to do to get better. But I get so antsy and restless and felt like I needed to do more. I worked hard at ignoring that feeling and just lying low and the past 10 days or so were when I was really getting back to full force and just trying to make my life as normal as possible again.
I did some fun things like getting my hair done. Just feeling refreshed physically can do wonders mentally as well. I’ve also been practicing other beauty self-care things like using the nicer products that I have or using sheet masks to make my face look better. It can feel so special and luxurious to do beauty things at home that you don’t do on a daily basis. While I have my everyday body lotion, I’ve also got a nicer one that I rarely use. So when I do use something other my my normal products it feels like a real treat for myself. It’s the little things like that which help make things feel fancier even if they are still cheap things. I’ve been wanting to get a pedicure too, but that keeps getting put off so eventually I’ll be doing that too. I just don’t want to spend the money on a pedicure yet because I like to save them for when I have a good reason to get one.
I have gone out for fun things like the Lena Hall show. Even though while I was at the show I was dealing with several coughing fits and my nose was running the entire time, I still had an amazing time and that show was just incredible! It was a form of self-care by getting me out of my house and doing something. Sometimes you just need an excuse to get out to get yourself together and then you force yourself to feel better. I also had a date this week. The guy I met was nice, but not the guy for me. He was in LA because he’s in town for work (he may be moving here for his job) and we just had a pleasant night out. I could see him and I being friends if he moves here, but there was nothing romantic between us and neither of us felt chemistry. But again, it was just nice to get out and have some time outside of my house.
And I did some cooking which helped me feel extra productive. I know how important it is for my physical health (as well as my financial health) to be cooking at home as often as I can. And knowing that I can make an amazing meal and not need to spend all day cooking and cleaning is a nice confidence boost and another way self-care can just make me feel less sick. And now I have a ton of new recipes that I want to try so I’m going to work on some meal planning stuff so I can make sure I try things more often. Plus, if I feel like I’m getting sick again, I have better ways to make soup at home instead of having to rely on canned soup (which is nice, but not the most nutritious option).
I’m sorry that so many of my posts lately have been about me being sick. It really did dominate my life for so long and I’ve been working hard lately to turn that around. I’m working on adding things back into my calendar instead of making sure I have more time at home to relax and work on getting better. I need to move on with my normal life again and I think I’m finally getting to that. It’s nice to feel like even if I didn’t do a ton of stuff this week as far as big events that I still was getting out and doing things for myself. Even if those things are little things to help me take care of myself, I’m doing what I can to just be back to regular life again. This cold took over my life for far too long and I’m done with letting that happen.
Posted onMay 21, 2018|Comments Off on Getting Back To My Workouts (or Dealing With Not Being 100%)
After having half a week of workouts off last week due to being sick, I was so ready to get back to Orangetheory! I knew at the beginning of the week that I was probably a bit weak from taking time off, but I just needed to get back to my normal routine.
On Monday I was still feeling a bit sick and knew my workout was going to have to be a light one with much less intensity than I’m used to. It was a 3 group strength workout, but to be honest my focus on the workout was just to get through it.
I used the bike instead of the treadmill and I really didn’t focus at all at what we were supposed to be doing as far as incline/resistance. I kept my bike at what it usually my base pace resistance and never moved it from that during the 15 minutes I was on it. I had to take breaks to catch my breath or to cough probably every 2-3 minutes, but even doing the bike for 2 minutes was exhausting me. It was shocking how out of shape I felt, but I had to keep telling myself that it wasn’t necessarily being out of shape but still dealing with being sick.
Next I was on the rower where we had rowing and shoulder exercises. We started with a 500 meter row and did decreasing rows for the first half and then for the second half started at 100 meter rows that increased. Between each row, we used the mini-bands on our wrists to strengthen our shoulders. Just like on the bike, I had to take breaks during the rows. I would have loved to have done each row without a break, but I knew that was not going to happen. But I just tried to focus on the fact that I was there instead of what I wasn’t able to do.
And for the last part of class I was on the floor where we had 2 blocks. The first block was squats with weights, hip bridges, deadlifts, and side plank leg lifts. I used lighter weights than normal for my squats and deadlifts and they still felt heavy for me. The hip bridges were a bit tough because of my nose being stuffed up, but I still was able to do them and used a weight during them as well. And in the second block we had the mini-bands on our legs to do suitcase squats with a weight and squat walks. While these were a bit easier for me to breathe during, they were still tough for me to do and I had to take several breaks. This workout was far from being one of my great ones, but it felt great to be back and to be getting back to my normal life.
I was still feeling a bit congested on Wednesday, but I was definitely on my way to getting better. But I still needed to work on my endurance and getting back to normal so I stuck with the bike. This workout was a mix of endurance and power but for my time on the bike I didn’t really focus on that. I again just stuck with the resistance I use as my base resistance on the bike normally and tried to go as long as I could without taking a break. I still needed breaks every few minutes, but it wasn’t as often as I needed them on Monday. Technically we had 5 blocks, 3 as power blocks and 2 as endurance blocks, but I didn’t worry about that since I just wanted to work on my cardio and getting myself to where I was before I was sick.
On the floor, during the 3 blocks that were power based we had rowing blocks. The first 2 blocks were 150 meter rows with squats between each row and the last row was 30 seconds of a push row and 30 seconds of an all out row. For the 150 meter rows, I just worked on not needing a break and fortunately I was able to do that. And for the push and all out row, I just rowed. For the endurance blocks on the floor, the first block was chest presses while laying on the Bosu, sit-ups on the Bosu, and Y-raises using the straps. And the second block was lunges while holding a weight and triceps using a weight. I was so happy to be back to using a weight that I would normally use. I did have to take some breaks to catch my breath or to cough to clear my lungs (I knew I sounded gross but I warned people near me about that), but it was much closer to normal for me than I was expecting.
I was still working on getting better on Friday, plus I saw that the workout was going to be strength based, so I was on the bike again. But even though I go a bit easier on the bike, I did take it up a step compared to the past 2 workouts. I did increase my resistance for push pace, all out pace, and incline times. But I didn’t do a ton of variation with the resistance. I used the same resistance for my push pace resistance and all inclines. I didn’t want to push things too much. But I did increase it more than that for the all out resistance. It’s baby steps towards being back to my normal self. And while it is slower than I would like or expected, at least I am seeing some progress.
On the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block was mini-band work. We had squats with single leg lifts and lateral squat walks. I was happy that I was able to do both with less difficulty than expected. The single leg lifts aren’t easy and with being congested I was worried I’d have very little balance, but that wasn’t the case. I did have to take more breaks than I would have liked during the block, but I’ve learned that will just be the case while I work on getting better. The second block was bicycle chest presses, lateral raises, and lunges. I was using slightly lighter weights than normal and I struggled with the bicycle presses since I was on my back and it was a little bit more difficult to breathe. But again, I pushed through and did better than expected. We ended with a 4 minute core blast which was definitely not one of my best core blasts. I was tired and starting to realize that I might have overdone it a bit earlier in the workout. But I did what I could and still felt impressed and happy when the workout was done.
On Saturday, I was feeling a little bit better but also was a bit sore from going hard at Friday’s workout. So even though this workout was a power based one that was a run/row and it would be ideal to test myself on the treadmill, I stuck with the bike. It was tough to not do the treadmill when I was feeling like seeing what would happen, but I just kept reminding myself that by doing the bike I was going to be able to be back to the treadmill sooner instead of getting sick again.
The run/row for me started with 3 rounds of .4 miles on the bike. After the first round I had a 300 meter row, the second round had a 200 meter row, and the last round had a 100 meter row. The second block had the same row pattern but the bike distance was .6 miles. I was using similar resistance levels to what I was using on Friday but I was able to pedal faster which helped me work harder. And when I had the rowing everything was under the time goal. I even managed to get within 1 second of my 100 meter row PR! I was not expecting that at all.
When I got to the floor we had 2 blocks. The first block was low rows on the straps, crunches, and plank punches. But between each of the exercises we had a round of lunges. And the second block was tricep work on the straps, toe reaches, and mountain climbers with speed skaters between each exercise. I started the first block going pretty fast through everything. I even was using a weight on my chest during the crunches which was something extra. But when I got to the second block, my breathing issues kicked in. I had to take a ton of breaks to cough and catch my breath. I still got through everything, but I struggled. But in the end, I still did better than I had done in the previous workout. And that’s all I can hope for right now.
I honestly think I may end up being on the bike for a longer time than I thought. I’m still dealing with congestion and being short of breath. If this doesn’t go away in a few more weeks I’ll go to the doctor, but I know that with a cold it can take a few weeks to have all symptoms go away. But until I feel better, the bike is the safer option for me and I’m able to be a little bit easier on myself. But at least I’m back at my workouts and I am seeing progress and improvement. I’m just ready to be back to my normal self already!
Posted onMay 16, 2018|Comments Off on Not Having Fear Of Missing Out (or I’m Sorry In Advance For Boring Posts)
After being sick for what feels like forever (I’m still not totally better), I’m seriously having some cabin fever. I’ve left my house for a few errands in the past couple of days because I was finally feeling like I wasn’t at risk of passing out, but pretty much I’ve done nothing in a week now. It’s starting to get to me and I’m trying to do more and more things each day to help be out of this boredom. But even with doing a few things, there are plenty of things I’ve missed out on.
There was supposed to be a Disney adventure with friends this past Monday. I was starting to feel a bit better then, but I also knew that I would be exhausted just walking from the car to the tram into the parks. There was no way I could do a day at Disneyland. And my friends totally understood (they ended up having other things they needed to do that day too). Disney days are always fun, but it would have been awful if I was there and feeling miserable. I’m glad I didn’t go but I’m totally ready to reschedule and be there soon!
And yesterday I was supposed to go to an informational session at SAG-AFTRA. Yesterday was the first day I felt really like myself. I was still sniffling and coughing, but my voice didn’t sound like I was sick and I wasn’t dealing with fatigue. And I thought about still going to it because I wanted to get back to my normal life, but I also knew that I didn’t want to be there and coughing and sneezing the entire time. And even though I know I’m not contagious, I bet other people there wouldn’t really want to be sitting next to me if I was sniffling the entire time. So I ended up staying home for that too.
While I was looking forward to both of these things, I’m fine that I missed out on them. I know it was for the best for my health and that has to be my focus while I get over this epic cold! I know that having these lazy days are exactly what I need to do to get my body healthy again. It’s a little frustrating that this is taking so long, but the improvement each day is keeping me hopeful and motivated.
But the one regret I have about missing out on things is about what I can write on here! Those days would have been fun posts for me to write (and for you to read) and now I don’t have them. And there are only so many posts I feel like I should write about being sick even if it has taken over my life for a week and a half so far. I always try to keep this blog interesting and fun and when I’ve had nothing in my life to write about for so long it’s tough! So I’m sorry if the posts lately have been a bit boring. I’m hoping to make things interesting again soon and I should be going to some fun things in the coming days as long as I keep feeling better.
I know I have a few friends who are also battling this epic cold (fortunately, I don’t think I passed this on to anyone else I know). It’s almost like a hybrid cold/flu and seems to be taking so many people way longer than normal to get over it. It sucks that I got this, but I’m grateful that I’m healthy enough that I was able to fight it on my own. All I had to do was take about a week off of my life and take some over the counter meds. That’s a minor inconvenience compared to what other people have had to do (including going to the hospital for breathing treatments). So if you are reading this while dealing with this cold bug going around, I’m sorry you are sick. And I’m sorry if my blog is dashing your hopes that you will be over this bug quickly.
And to everyone reading this, sorry for the boring posts that I’ve had lately and will possibly have for a few more days. There’s not a ton to write about when you are napping and watching a lot of tv and I can’t wait to be done with that and back to my normal life again.
I wrote a very short post on Friday about being sick. I wrote that when I was so sick that I can’t believe the post had coherent sentences. I don’t get sick that often (although I was surprised looking back at old blog posts that I was sick last fall) and this cold I caught was possibly one of the worst ones I’ve had as an adult.
One of the weird things about this cold was I know exactly when I was exposed to the germs. I was on a date on Monday and the guy I saw told me on Tuesday that he was sick. So I knew the day I caught it was Monday. I could look at these different timeline things online about what symptoms to expect each day of being sick which I usually don’t look at. And since I wasn’t feeling off until Wednesday, I missed the first few days of the cold.
Thursday morning when I woke up, I almost passed out trying to stand. If I had to drive to a job, there would have been no way I could have worked. I barely made it from my bedroom to my desk. I have no idea how I managed to work on Thursday, but I did. And as soon as I was done with work, I took a 4 hour nap and then got ready for bed and went to sleep. Friday was just as bad if not worse. I was feeling like I was ready to pass out at any moment. I couldn’t breathe through my nose and I was constantly trying to clear my throat so I never felt like I could catch my breath.
Saturday was pretty bad too, but I managed to stand long enough to take a shower. And after that, I was able to drive 2 blocks to the grocery store to get some cold medication and soup. And on Sunday, I finally was able to breathe through one side of my nose and didn’t feel like my head was so heavy it was going to fall off my neck.
With the exception of the 10 minutes I was at the grocery store, from Wednesday evening until Monday morning I never left my house. And even though I was in my house all that time, my house became a huge mess. I wasn’t cleaning and didn’t really care that things were piling up. I know that I could have been worse, but this cold was really brutal and took me out of things for a while. I love lazy days sometimes, but having 4 days in a row where not only I was lazy but I felt awful was not something I wanted to have.
I know that lying low and taking things easy was exactly what I needed to do. If I had pushed myself more I could have gotten sicker or made this last longer. I’m still not totally better yet, but starting on Sunday I was finally over the hump and getting better. And knowing that I’m at the tail end of this thing is helpful. But I really just want to get back to feeling normal. I know there is a joke online about how you are never grateful to be able to breathe through your nose until you can’t do it because you are sick and you feel like you never appreciated your body doing that. I’m still in that phase right now and I can’t wait to be back to where I don’t think about my body being able to do anything.
Hopefully I won’t be sick again for a long time and that this will be the worst cold I have for another decade or so. I hate being so out of it and feeling like this. Sick days as an adult are nothing like sick days when you were a kid (and you had someone to take care of you and you spent the day watching tv). I can’t wait to have the energy to clean my house since now it needs a major deep clean.
And even though I got this cold from a guy I went on a date with, I will still give him another chance since I really can’t blame him for this. He didn’t realize I would get sick from seeing him. And if he felt even half as miserable as I did over the past week, then I feel like that is a bit of payback for him getting me sick.
This is going to be a quick post, so I apologize for that.
Just last week I was writing about how I was feeling nauseous on one of the weeks I’m normally fine because of antibiotics. I was saying how my body just needed a break and it was unfortunate timing. Well, I spoke too soon.
It’s been a while since I’ve been sick so I guess it was just time for me to catch something again. I’m pretty sure it’s just a basic cold, but it still sucks when you aren’t feeling right. I can almost guarantee I know when I caught it (I was hanging out with someone on Monday who ended up coming down with a cold on Tuesday) and hopefully this bug is out of my system quickly.
I started feeling like something was off on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Usually before I get sick I have a weird feeling in my throat that I can only describe as feeling like I’m constantly thirsty. When that happens, I almost always am sick the next day. Since I was feeling like that on Wednesday, I took care of myself that day and made sure that I was staying hydrated. I also got some supplies in case I did get sick.
And when I woke up on Thursday, I had a full-blown cold. It’s not the worst cold I’ve had, but I’m dealing with congestion and some fogginess/headache issues. I’ve got cold medications and I’m using throat lozenges to try to keep the symptoms at bay. And I’m drinking more water than I feel like I could tolerate. I have no guarantee of how long this thing will last, but I’m hopeful that because I’m doing all the right things that it will be gone before I know it.
Being sick sucks and being sick after over a week of expected nausea and then another week of unexpected nausea is really just bad timing. I have a bad feeling that as soon as I’m over this cold I’ll be back to my usual 2 weeks of nausea and I’ll have to wait for that to end before feeling totally better. If that’s what happens, it happens. I can’t really do much about it. All I can do now is to take care of myself, get rest, and not overdo things too much.
While it is annoying to be nauseous for about 2 weeks each month, I’m starting to get used to it. The medications I take now help to manage them better than what I could take when I was a teenager. And maybe I’m also just stronger and able to tolerate things better now. I know when I should be getting nauseous and when it will be ending. It’s not always exactly on schedule, but it’s pretty close so I’m able to prepare myself mentally for it.
My nausea ended this Monday (after I was at the dentist) and I was so happy to have it go away. I was hanging out with a friend and joking that I finally can start my 2 weeks of freedom now before I forget how bad it can be sometimes and feel sick again. But joking aside, I do look forward to the 2 weeks that I know I won’t be feeling as badly. I hate feeling nauseous and even as I get used to it, it’s never a fun feeling.
While I was hanging out with my friend on Monday, I could almost feel the nausea slip away from my body. But as I started to relax, I was feeling another off feeling coming on. I couldn’t figure out what the feeling was and just figured it was some nausea or maybe a bit of a cold. So I didn’t worry about it too much and just went on with my day.
Unfortunately, by Monday evening I was feeling worse and I knew something was wrong with me. I didn’t figure it out until the middle of the night that night when I was having to get up to go to the bathroom every 30 minutes or so.
I know that bladder infections and UTIs are pretty common for women, but I’ve been lucky. I only had one before and that was about 5 or 6 years ago. I actually didn’t know what it was at first and suffered for a few days before figuring it out. But this time, I knew that night what was wrong and I knew I’d need to go to the doctor in the morning.
Tuesday morning I managed to get an appointment with a nurse over the phone (it saves me the $50 co-pay) and she agreed that my symptoms seemed to be an infection so she wrote me a prescription and told me to come in for some lab work. I wasn’t able to do it until after I was done with work, so I went through my over the counter medications to find what I took last time to help the pain.
The good thing about not having bladder infections that often is that you don’t have them that often. The bad thing is that when you look at your medications, you discover they expired 4 years ago. I wasn’t going to take medications that expired that long ago, so I just had to suck it up while I was working. I’m lucky that I work from home because I was always only a few steps away from my bathroom. And I was drinking so much water to try to flush this out of my system.
As soon as I was done with work, I went over to the hospital. I went for my lab work first, and it was nice to be there and not have to give blood. Although I will say that having to give a urine sample while having a bladder infection (which makes it very difficult and painful to pee) is pretty awful too. But I got it done and then headed to the pharmacy to get my prescriptions and to get some more of the over the counter things I take.
The pharmacy was a bit crowded, but I was done in under 15 minutes which was nice since I was getting more and more uncomfortable. I forgot to bring some water with me to the hospital and I don’t love taking medications without water or using a drinking fountain, so I quickly drove home to take the pills and wait to feel better.
I was in a lot of pain through Tuesday evening, but yesterday I was feeling significantly better. I know I’ll keep getting better over the next few days too. Just knowing I’m getting better and that there is an end in sight does help with how uncomfortable and painful things can be.
Of course, medications have side effects and the antibiotic I’m taking is making me feel nauseous. It’s not nearly as bad as how I feel from hormonal changes so that’s good. But to have nausea for 1 week out of the 2 that I know I don’t have nausea is almost a mean trick. I haven’t had to take my anti-nausea meds yet and I’m trying not to take them if I can help it. And hopefully the nausea decreases each day I take the medication.
It would have been nice to have my full 2 weeks off of nausea this month, but I guess that wasn’t in the cards for me. And I am grateful that I have health insurance so I could get treated right away and that this is something pretty easy to treat. There are so many worse things I could get and I’m a relatively healthy person. But while I’m grateful, this is just one of those moments where I wish I had a little bit of better luck and not back to back issues with my health.
I had a dentist appointment this week and as always I was a bit nervous. My panic attacks at the dentist are still significantly less than they have been in the past, but I still don’t enjoy going in. And I was a little more nervous than normal for a few reasons.
First, this was the bigger appointment that I have once a year where I have a cleaning plus seeing the dentist. Seeing the dentist includes x-rays (which I don’t love) plus having him see if there is any teeth that need a bit of work. I’ve been lucky lately that I’ve needed only minimal work but I’m always scared that I’ll need something more significant. And I was also a bit more nervous than normal because at my last appointment I was told that there was a spot on one tooth that probably does need some more work.
First I saw the hygienist for the cleaning and I told her to tell me immediately if the dentist was going to say I needed work done. She checked the tooth she warned me about last time and confirmed that if I didn’t have a filling done soon that it would turn into a cavity. This would be minor work, but it’s still something bigger than normal and would require a shot. But beyond that one tooth, she didn’t see anything else that looked like it would need work or require to be watched.
The cleaning went pretty easily. I was feeling pretty nauseous still that day so I was worried that things would get really bad. But my medications were helping and I didn’t have to really take any breaks to let the nausea pass. I did have a moment when the chair was leaning back that I was terrified I would throw up, but I took deep breaths and that feeling passed without anything that bad happening. I don’t think I will ever like going in for my teeth being cleaned, but at least it’s quick and tolerable now for me.
After the cleaning, I moved over to the chair where x-rays are done and where you meet with the dentist to discuss things. I was mentally prepared for him to say I needed to be back for a filling soon (I joked to the hygienist that I wished it could have been done that day since I was already there and nervous) but I was still a bit nervous he would have some more bad news for me. It didn’t help that there was a woman in another chair getting work done that seemed to be in a lot of pain. I tried to ignore her and just stay calm.
Usually the assistant would come over to do the x-rays and then I’d see the dentist. So I was surprised to see the dentist and hygienist coming over to talk to me. The dentist explained that he was in the middle of an emergency root canal that he was not expecting to do while I was there. He wouldn’t have time for me to have my appointment with him but he knew I knew I needed a filling on a tooth. So he asked if I’d be ok coming back in a week to do my appointment with him and they would be able to do the filling at the same time.
Of course I said that would be fine, but I still wish I could have gotten the appointment with him done. I know there was no way to do the filling that same day, but at least I would know for sure that I was only have 1 filling done. Now I’m just hoping that it will only be 1 filling that I’m having done when I go back next week. But I also know that even if I knew that I’d still be nervous while waiting for the next appointment.
I was totally prepared for both of the appointments and to be told that I would need a filling. While I didn’t have all of that happen in one day, it will happen between the appointment I had and the one I have coming up. And at least I am a little bit confident that I won’t be getting any worse news when I’m back for the next appointment. But if I do, hopefully they can take care of it then along with the filling I’m having done.
I am so grateful that even though dentist appointments are still tough for me, they are getting easier and easier. And hopefully next week this filling will go super easily too and I can write another post about how I was prepared for something so much worse than reality.
Posted onApril 30, 2018|Comments Off on Working Through Physical Challenges (or Not Letting Feeling Bad Ruin My Workouts)
This past week of workouts weren’t the best for me. I was so hopeful with feeling ok when I thought I wouldn’t, but that decided to come at me this past week. It’s not easy working out when you don’t feel great, but if I let that stop me I would only be working out half of the month. And I just can’t do that to myself. It’s not fun when I don’t feel 100%, but I think I made the most of it this past week.
Monday’s workout I went into feeling pretty confident. I hadn’t been dealing with the nausea I was expecting the week before and I thought maybe I wouldn’t have to deal with any nausea this month. Of course, being that confident about things meant that they were going to get crazy. The workout was an endurance workout and we had 3 groups, so I knew I’d only be on the treadmill for about 15 minutes. But I only lasted on there for the warm up and then maybe 4 more minutes.
The treadmill workout was based on doing 2 minute push paces and then base paces in-between. And during the first 2 minute push pace, my nausea came at me with full force. I left the workout to take my anti-nausea medication, but I also knew that I wouldn’t be able to stay on the treadmill and do much. So I grabbed my things and went over to the bike to finish the cardio part of the workout. I honestly wasn’t focused too much on when we had a push pace versus a base pace. I was just trying to get through the workout and hope that my medication would kick in soon. For my mileage challenge this was easily the worst workout I have had, but I also knew that there would be at least a few workouts that would be like this when I felt horrible. So I just had to push through and try to keep pedaling when I could.
Next I was on the rower where we had 2 different attempts at a 500 meter row. My medications were finally starting to kick in, but I was still feeling off so my first attempt was pretty slow. By the time I had the second attempt I was doing a little better and was able to do my row about 20 seconds faster. We also had pull challenges where we tried to see how far we could get in 20 pulls on the rower. Feeling off worked to my advantage since I was super slow and I got much further in 20 pulls than I expected I could do. And on the floor, we started with mini-band work with suitcase squats with weights, lateral walks, and upright rows with weights. I finally found a good spot to put the mini-band so it wasn’t twisting up my leg and I went heavy with the weights to make up for my lack of cardio work. We were supposed to do plank work, but I knew that if I did plank work that I would feel every more nauseous, so my coach had me use the straps to do tricep work to work the same muscle groups. I left the workout feeling a little disappointed because I know I wanted to do better, but I also know that my struggles were due to things out of my control which does help a bit.
I was worried about how I’d feel on Wednesday for the workout, but I was doing a bit better. And because the workout was a power day with lots of switches, I decided to go for the treadmill instead of using the bike. I also may have been a bit stubborn because I wanted to get the mileage for my challenge. The workout was kind of a run/row format, but it was pretty unique with the blocks being 3 or 4 minutes long.
I started on the treadmill where the first block was a run/row with a .1 mile power walk and then a 200 meter row. I was doing my normal speed and incline even though I wasn’t feeling totally great. It was a bit tough, but I managed to do it. After that block, we went to the rowers where we had rounds of 100 meter rows and squats. Then it was back to the treadmill for another run/row that was .08 mile power walks and a 150 meter row. Then back to the rower for rounds of 100 meter rows and squats. And the last block was a run/row of .05 mile power walks and 100 meter rows. Then it was time to switch to the floor.
But even though I was on the floor, we still had treadmill blocks. First we had a block that was all timed exercises. The exercises were supposed to be pop jacks, pull ups on the straps, sit-ups with rotation, and burpees to step ups. But because of how I was feeling, I couldn’t do a lot of the exercises. Instead of pop jacks I did squats, I did crunches instead of sit-ups, and instead of the burpees to step ups I did lunges. It still wasn’t easy with no breaks between things. After the exercises, we had a 3 minute block on the treadmill. Then 2 more rounds of exercises with a block on the treadmill in-between. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to get it done and be on the treadmill when in the recent past I would have been on the bike.
After feeling better on Wednesday, I was hoping that trend would continue and I’d be ok on Friday. But that wasn’t the case and I went to my workout with horrendous nausea. I really wanted to use the treadmill, but there was no way for me to do that without feeling sick so I used the bike. The workout format was similar to Wednesday with it being unique and different. While it was a run/row day, it wasn’t the normal run/row format.
I started on the bike to warm-up and normally if it’s a run/row day that means I do the run/row work first. But this time, we had a 1 minute all out pace and then headed to the floor while the people who warmed up on the rower did their row and then went to the treadmill. All 3 blocks I had where I started on the treadmill/bike side started that way with the 1 minute all out pace and then going to the floor. When we were on the floor it was mainly work using the Bosu. We had kneeling tricep extensions, crunches, hip bridges, and pullovers with weights. There was also some work that we had in plank positions that I knew I couldn’t do because of how I was feeling so I did squats or extra core work in place of the things I couldn’t do.
When we switched, I had the run/row (although I guess technically it was row/bike for me). Each block started with a longish row. The first block was 500 meters, the second was 600 meters, and the last was 700 meters. The 500 meter row was tough for me and I took longer than I should have. But for the 600 and 700 meter row I was within the goal times we had for the rows. And after each of the rows, there was a run for distance which was a bike for distance in my case. I tried to just keep pedaling until the block ended but there were a few times where the nausea got really bad and I just had to take a quick break on the bike before continuing. Even with how badly I was feeling, the workout seemed to go by pretty quickly which helped.
Saturday’s workout was another one where I thought I was feeling ok at first but before getting to the workout I knew I wasn’t going to be able to use the treadmill. I ended up using the bike again, but that was a good thing because one of my friends from the Brentwood studio was in that class and on the bike next to me! We tried not to turn the cardio time into social hour, but we did spend a bit of time catching up. That helped to pass the time and to distract me from feeling as queasy as I was feeling.
The cardio blocks all had the same format with the people on the treadmill starting with doing .1 miles on a high incline and then we had regular push pace intervals. For the bike, I did .4 miles with a very high resistance and then did the resistance I usually do to replicate my push and all out paces. I did have moments where I needed to stop pedaling because the nausea took over and I needed to let it pass, but they were much less frequent than they had been earlier in the week. That was good and I felt much better about my cardio on the bike than I had in the other workouts.
On the floor we also had 3 blocks. The first block started with ab dolly rollouts. I knew I must be feeling better because when I’m really feeling nauseous I can’t do anything in a plank position. But I was able to do these with very minimal nausea so that felt like a victory to me. In that first block was also had squats with leg lifts using the bands which normally would be tough on my hip but I was able to do. So that was another victory. In the other blocks we had sprint rows, lunges with shoulder presses, pull-ups on the straps, hip bridges, and knee tucks. While I still had some nausea from time to time, it was decreasing as the workout went on so I was just so happy about that.
I’m really hopeful that this week of workouts the nausea will either be super limited or gone. I know the timing of my body and it should be over in a few more days. Then I have 2 weeks of freedom before I feel it again. So many people tell me that they couldn’t do a workout when they felt the way I feel, but for me it’s becoming a normal part of life. And each month that I have to go through this I keep proving to myself that I don’t let feeling nauseous stop me from trying my best during a workout. And while my best during these weeks isn’t usually close to my normal best, I’m really trying hard and hopefully I will start judging my nauseous workouts against the other nauseous ones and not against the ones that happen when I feel fine.
1 year ago today I was supposed to have my liver surgery to remove my tumors and about 30% of my liver. And as you know if you’ve followed my blog for a while, that surgery didn’t happen. Even though the research shows that the type of tumors I have don’t typically shrink on their own, somehow mine did. The tumors were caused by hormonal birth control and I guess going off of it made the tumors smaller. I’ve done some research on my own and it seems like even though this situation is still very rare, it is a bit more common than we previously thought.
For my hip surgery, it’s easy to know what the anniversary is because it happened on a certain date. For this medical situation, it was a bit tougher to pick what my anniversary date would be. There was the date when my OB/GYN called me to tell me my MRI results were in and the tumors shrank. At that time I only knew the tumors shrank and that it was almost unheard of that happening. She didn’t know what was the next step and I assumed I might still be having surgery. Then there was the phone call I had with my liver surgeon that happened 2 days before I was supposed to go in for my pre-op appointment. That was when my surgery was officially cancelled and I knew that I was a medical miracle.
But to me, I think I want to consider my non-surgery date as my medical miracle anniversary since it is the anniversary of my surgery not happening. It’s also an easier date to remember because I have to look back at a calendar to figure out what dates I got the phone calls from the doctors. And the surgery date was ingrained in my head while I prepped for it so it will be hard for me to forget it. So that mean today marks my 1 year anniversary of being a medical miracle.
It’s weird to think that 1 year ago I would have either still been in surgery or in a recovery room recovering from a major surgery. While I was looking forward to the surgery because I knew that I needed it, I’m much happier that I didn’t have to deal with a very long recovery from a major surgery. While I’ve had a few surgeries in my life, this would have been the biggest one and the first time I would have been in the hospital overnight (I would have been there for multiple days and nights to recover before going home).
When my surgery was initially cancelled, I did have a bit of a struggle because it felt like something in my life was unfinished. I also felt a bit out of control and disconnected because I had no sense that this was happening with my body (both the tumors existing and the tumors shrinking). It took a while for that feeling to go away, but now I’m just so grateful that I was lucky enough to not need a major surgery. As much as I prepared for that recovery, I know that there really isn’t a way to prepare and I was worried about how painful it might be and what my body may not be able to do for a while. I’m glad I didn’t have to have those worries but instead just got to enjoy a long visit with my parents instead of being in the hospital.
Since my medical miracle, there has been very little I’ve had to do with my liver. I am still limiting my drinking since I know alcohol can stress my liver (and I doubt stress is good for it). I’m taking some supplements for liver health because I figured it can’t hurt to do that and it’s not expensive to take them. And while I don’t have to worry about the tumor breaking off and causing me to bleed internally as much as I did before, I’m continuing to be cautious of not bumping my stomach into anything and avoiding any trauma I can to my abdomen.
I had an MRI 6 months after the miracle because my surgeon had no idea what really would happen with the tumors. The hope was that they would continue to shrink, but there was the possibility that they would either stay the same or grow and that would have led to me needing surgery. Fortunately, they did shrink a bit more (but not nearly as significantly as they did previously) and my surgeon and I went over what the plan would be. The plan is pretty limited as this is not the normal path, but basically I’m just continuing doing what I’m doing and then I’ll have another MRI in October (1 year from the most recent MRI).
Even a year later, I still think I’m a bit shocked about how this all turned out. Discovering I had a tumor was pretty dramatic with a full day at the hospital. Discovering what type of tumor I had and how large they were was pretty crazy too. And then being a medical miracle and having my surgery cancelled is something I never believed could happen. Even though my family always believes in the best for medical situations, my tumors shrinking to the point of my surgery being unnecessary didn’t really enter any of our minds. Hopefully the dramatics with these tumors is done now and my next MRI and all future ones will show the tumors shrinking. I guess I’ll find out in 6 more months.
Posted onApril 16, 2018|Comments Off on A Fun And Unique Workout Week (or Not Letting Setbacks Set Me Back)
This past week of workouts could have been pretty bad for me, but I was able to stay positive and it ended up not being so bad. I really have learned how to manage my setbacks recently and not let them control my workouts. I do have to be careful with myself and not push myself too hard, but I also know that being super easy on myself isn’t always the best thing either.
Monday’s workout was a bit of a weird day. On Sunday evening, while I was getting out of the shower, I felt a very sharp tinge in my calf muscle. I pretty quickly recognized it as the start of a tear in the muscle (something that I’m sadly familiar with). I took it easy on Sunday night, but on Monday my calf was still feeling a bit tender so I knew I would need to be taking it easy in the workout. Fortunately, it was a 3 group workout so I knew that I wouldn’t be at any part of the room for too long.
I started on the rower where we had one long block. We started with a 600 meter row followed by squat front raises. Then the row went down 200 meters and we continued that pattern going down and back up until time was done. Because of how I bandaged my calf, I wasn’t able to row that hard. I knew my rowing times would be on the slower side and I didn’t concern myself too much about how long each row too. I was on the floor next where we had one long block that was split into 3 segments. The first segment was doing pull overs on the BOSU followed by hammer curls. The second segment was hop overs on the BOSU and then knee tucks on the BOSU. And the last segment was running man and then BOSU burpees. Because of my calf I had to do some modifications such as lunges instead of hop overs, skipping the knee tucks, and limiting how much I did with the burpees.
I ended the workout with cardio. Between the calf issue, knowing I’d be at Disneyland later, and doing cardio at the end; I knew I’d have to use the bike. There really wasn’t an option for me if I wanted to be able to do stuff after my workout. There were 2 blocks and they had decreasing push paces. I worked on getting the watts and cadence on the bike up during all the push paces even if I was using the same resistance. I think I did a pretty good job at doing that and I was feeling like I was working hard. I wished I could have used the treadmill since I have been tracking my miles in my workouts, but I am glad I went with the bike because it was a good break for my body while still allowing myself to feel a bit challenged.
Fortunately my calf was doing much better by Wednesday. Even though I did a lot of walking on Monday, I think the compression bandage along with resting on Tuesday helped so that I was feeling almost completely better by my Wednesday workout. And that workout ended up being a strength day with another benchmark challenge. This time, the benchmark was the 500 meter row.
I looked at my past 500 meter row challenges and knew that there was no way I would do a new PR. My best one was about 15 seconds faster than I thought I could do it this time. It was nice to have that pressure off of me since I knew my calf was almost better but not totally better. Instead, I just decided to set a new idea of what time I would like to be under. The goal for everyone in class was to be under 2:30 (my PR is about 1:45), so I decided that I wanted to be under 2:15. And I accomplished that with some time to spare so I was very happy with my 500 meter row attempt. Eventually I’ll get back to where I can PR again and it will be awesome when I can beat my best time. But I’m glad I just beat the mini-goal that I had set for myself.
The treadmill work was 2 blocks and I did go with the treadmill. The workout was a strength workout which means inclines, but I just kept my inclines to my normal ones I use for push and all out paces. The first block was decreasing push paces and the second block was increasing push paces. Considering how I was feeling on Monday, I was just glad that I wasn’t feeling really any pain in my calf. I occasionally had a little soreness, but I also wondered if that pain could be do to me always putting a little bit more on my left side since it is my right hip that hurts. I took breaks when I needed to, but it wasn’t anything worse than what I normally do.
The floor was one long block with 5 different exercises and a row. We had deadlifts, low rows on the straps, goblet lateral lunges, plank crunches, and bicycle crunches. For the deadlifts and lunges I went with heavier weights than I normally do. I figured it was a strength day and I should be working on going heavier. It was a bit tough for the lunges, but for the deadlifts it didn’t feel that different from what I usually feel with the weights I usually use. I do need to work on using the heavier weights more often and I’m glad that I did it this time. After the exercises we had a 250 meter row. I was a bit lazy with the row each time I did it and I was a bit slower than we were supposed to be doing the row in. But I figured that was my rest time during the floor block and once I was done with the row I tried to jump right back into the exercises instead of taking a quick break then.
Friday’s workout was an endurance, strength, and power day and it was also a Capture The Flag workout. The first half of class was a regular class with the treadmill work and floor work. On the treadmill it was push paces followed by base paces and in the end there was a push to all out pace. I was at my normal treadmill speed and inclines because my calf was feeling pretty much completely healed that morning! I was struggling a bit with hip issues and I didn’t sleep enough the night before, but I would rather have those problems since I’m used to them than the calf issue.
For the Capture The Flag workout, we were all in teams of 2. I started on the floor/treadmill work which included squat twists with a medicine ball, double crunches, and push ups. And then there was a sprint on the treadmill. Then I tagged my partner and she did the floor/treadmill work while I just focused on rowing for distance. The goal was to get the rower distance as high as possible and I really wanted to make sure I was being an equal teammate and doing at least my share of the rowing work. Fortunately, we were pretty equal as far as rowing ability and the time it took us to complete the floor/treadmill work. And when we were done with Capture The Flag, I think we had a pretty good distance on the rower! I would have loved to be at 5,000 meters, but in my head my goal was to just be at least at 4,500 meters which we did!
Saturday was a Tornado workout. I’m used to these for my 3 group workouts, but to have one for a 2 group workout was fun. It was the first Tornado at the Culver City location so they were trying to keep things a bit simple. We had 5 rounds around the room. The first round was 1 minute, the second round 2 minutes, the third round 4 minutes, the fourth round 2 minutes, and the last round was 1 minute. On the treadmill, things were pretty much the same for every round with a push to all out pace. I stuck with walking and had my normal speed and inclines.
On the rowers, we just did timed rows for each block. The 4 minute timed row was really tough and that surprised me since I know I’ve done longer rows than 4 minutes. But it might have been the combination of the longish row plus all the other work I had done before that. And on the floor, we had all Bosu work. Most of the rounds were timed Bosu work like doing burpees, plank jacks to pop jacks, and plank work. It wasn’t that easy to do a lot of the exercises on the Bosu and I ended up doing many of them on the floor instead. But to me it’s more important to just keep working than to give up because I found things too hard.
Overall, I’m pretty proud of myself for this past week of workouts. I had a lot of times where I could have just not tried as hard because I felt not 100%. But I was so motivated to keep going and I’m glad that I did. The only thing that wasn’t super great this past week was the mileage I got in each class. When we had Capture the Flag and the Tornado workout, I wasn’t on the treadmill for as long as I usually am in class. It’s not horrible that I didn’t get as much mileage in each workout because that just meant I was on the rower more, but considering this is a monthly challenge for me I really was hoping to have a ton of treadmill miles. But hopefully this week will make up for it!
Yup, I’m Sick (or Trying To Take Care Of Me)
