Posted onOctober 18, 2022|Comments Off on An Evening Of Medical Testing (or Getting More Stuff Done)
Between some of the doctor appointments I’ve already had and some that I have coming up, I’ve had a few different medical tests that I’ve needed to get done. Nothing too crazy, but things that could potentially take up some time depending on how busy the hospital was. Mainly, I needed to do some blood work to check some levels and get a hip x-ray to prepare to see a new orthopedic doctor. Unfortunately, neither of these things are tests that you can schedule and you just have to go as a walk-in. I was a bit surprised to find that out with the x-rays, but I guess when they aren’t that crazy they don’t book you in.
I have waited for medical tests in the past where things took significantly longer than they should have. I had one MRI where I waited an extra 90 minutes because of some emergency patients that came in. Of course, I understand that, but it also makes it tough to schedule when to do things around work. And I have had to change up my work schedule quite a bit for all the appointments I have booked. So I wanted to try to get this done without disrupting my schedule.
Fortunately, both offices for these tests are open a bit later than when you can do regular appointments. I knew it might be a rush to get in to get them done, but I decided to go for it this past Friday. And I figured if I could only do one thing, I could go back another day after work to do the other.
But this went a lot easier than I expected. For the blood work, I was taken back right away. I did black out, as I always do, but that didn’t make anything take longer. And it was only 3 vials of blood, so that didn’t take as long as my last big blood work did. And as soon as they were done and bandaged my arm, I headed over to the imaging department and hoped they could fit me in for the x-ray. There was a bit of confusion about what time they closed, but they were still open when I got there and I checked in with no issues. They let me know that I would be called when it was my time to be brought back, and I sat in the waiting room and got my phone out to catch up on social media.
I probably was waiting for less than 5 minutes before I was called back. These x-rays were very basic ones for my hips. I’ve done some that were more intense with a lot of weird positioning to see specific issues. But I guess since this is a new doctor, they didn’t order those, and I only had to do two different positions for the x-rays. And because I knew I was going to try to get my x-rays done, I made sure I wore clothes that didn’t have any metal on them. So I didn’t even have to get undressed and into a gown to do the x-rays. I just got on the table, they positioned me into the two positions they needed for the images, and I was out of there!
I really was expecting things to be a lot worse or more time-consuming, but I was done with both tests in under 20 minutes. It really was simple to get it done and I didn’t have to wait for other people to be done before it was my turn. I know I might have lucked out into this because I’ve done medical tests on weekends when it should have been easy but then things got delayed unexpectedly. I’m just glad that it went smoothly, I didn’t have that many issues, and I can continue on with all the other doctor appointments I have coming up.
Posted onOctober 11, 2022|Comments Off on A Month Full Of Doctor Appointments (or I Guess This Is A Health-Focused Month)
For most of my adult life, I have tried to spread out doctor appointments so I had them throughout the year and not bunched up together. For once-a-year appointments, I know they say to make them around your birthday so you don’t forget, but I would do various holidays to remember to schedule them. It’s rare that I have a lot of appointments at all once unless they are all for the same issue. For example, when I had blood work for my MRI one week, my MRI the next week, and my follow-up appointment the week after. Even during the pandemic, I’ve been trying to keep things spread out when I have the option to do so.
But for some reason, this month is going to be filled with various doctor appointments. Some of these were scheduled already, some are ones I have been waiting for a referral for, and some are ones that I realized I needed to do and just scheduled as quickly as possible. And last week, I kicked off a month of appointments with one that I tried to schedule as quickly as I could. And that was to get my eyes checked.
The last time I got my eyes checked, it was at the beginning of the pandemic. It was right after everything in LA had shut down, but I still had my appointment to go to. It was very weird and eerie because I knew we were supposed to be staying home, but I also needed this appointment because I was out of contact lenses and couldn’t get more without seeing a doctor. If I didn’t need to go for that reason, I would have stayed home. And I remember how everything just seemed off. There weren’t cars on the road because people were staying home. I’m used to seeing a ton of people in the waiting room and there was nobody there. Everyone was being hypervigilant and I was worried that being out for that appointment was maybe too risky.
That appointment was over 2 years ago, and contact prescriptions are only good for 2 years at a time. So when I realized I was almost out of contact lenses again, I knew it was time to schedule my next appointment. I know that I probably should be a bit better about trying to go 2 years apart instead of something like 2 years and 6 months, but I also know that these appointments are mainly to confirm my vision hasn’t changed. Of course, it’s important to have other eye health checked out, but the appointments I schedule are mainly vision checks.
Even though the pandemic is very different now than it was in March 2020, a lot of what I experienced at this appointment was the same. I scheduled it to be very early so I could go before work and not be late to log in. There weren’t too many cars on the road and there was nobody else in the waiting room. But I think the lack of patients in the waiting room was more about how early my appointment was and not because people aren’t going in for their appointments.
I expected my vision to be the same and for there to be nothing much to discuss with the doctor, and I was right. I did have a little trouble with the vision test because wearing a mask while doing it meant the little lenses in the machine would fog up quite a bit. I was having to wipe them off every time I looked through them to say if version one or two was better for me. It wasn’t too annoying because the doctor and I both were laughing a bit about how ridiculous it was. It did make the appointment take longer, but not by much.
When the eye exam was done, I went to order new contacts and I got a spare pair of contacts that were a different brand because I had told the doctor that I was wearing my last pair. I didn’t intend to let things get like that, but I didn’t realize I was out of contacts until I put in my last pair. I thought I had another box left and panicked a bit when I realized I was wrong. But at least now I have some backup ones I can use if necessary. But the ones I ordered should be arriving in another week or two.
I’m glad this appointment went well. Some of the other appointments I have coming up this month are a bit more stressful or I’m worried about how things will go. I know everything will be ok, but I still get stressed about the possibility of finding out something weird at an appointment. But at least for this first one this month, it was very routine and easy and I’m hoping this is a trend that will continue throughout the month.
Posted onOctober 7, 2022|Comments Off on A Recurrence Of Pain (or I’m Not Sure If I Should Worry Now)
The back pain I was dealing with last month was pretty awful. I’ve had back pain from time to time, but it was nothing like what I dealt with recently. The scariest moments for me were when I realized the pain was preventing me from being able to turn in my sleep and I would wake up in pain because I was moving in my sleep. I’ve only experienced that one time before and it was right after my hip surgery. That feeling of not being able to move terrified me back then and I still remember how helpless I felt. So having a similar feeling to that scared me as well.
The pain was more severe than any other time I had dealt with back pain and it lasted longer. I really started to worry that it was more about my hip than my back and that I might need to see a doctor. Fortunately, the pain was getting better over time even though it took a lot longer than I would have liked. But it felt like it was finally gone last week. I was still being cautious and careful because I didn’t know if the issue was still there even if the pain was gone. And I didn’t want to injure myself again if that was the case. Even though I’m used to dealing with pain, this was more than I’m used to and I didn’t want to experience it again.
And unfortunately, since Wednesday evening I’ve been dealing with very similar back pain again. As of right now, it hasn’t been as severe as it was before. And I’m doing all the same pain management things that I did last time. I have no clue if it will get worse and feel like it did last time or if it’s just going to be another slow process to get better. And I also don’t know if this is technically a new injury or if I aggravated the old one. I don’t know if those really matter that much, but my guess is that I aggravated the old one. I had a crazy workout on Tuesday and then that evening I went out to a place that had very uncomfortable seating where my legs dangled. And I know when I can’t rest my feet properly, it can bother my hip. So by having those two things back to back, I think I would have been shocked if I didn’t have a little pain. But I wasn’t expecting something like this.
I am worried that this isn’t my back and it’s really my hip, but I’m trying to be optimistic. I guess I will need to wait and see if this pain gets better over the next few weeks or if it doesn’t have much change. If it stays the same, then I might need to schedule an appointment to try to get a referral to orthopedics again. I know that the timeline for me to get my hip replacements done was to be at least when I’m 40. And even if that still feels a million years away, in reality, it is less than a year away for me. This pain is on the side that wasn’t operated on yet, so I haven’t really experienced what a slow uptick in pain is like yet. The side that was operated on wasn’t in pain one moment and I was in extreme pain the next. It was a very different process and maybe this is what things are like when it’s not drastic like that.
I’m trying to not keep thinking of the worst-case scenarios, but it’s hard to not think of them when I know that my body has a lot of issues that still need to be fixed. And I’ve almost hit the goal of when my orthopedic surgeon wanted me to wait to have the surgeries he knew I would need one day. But I’m just going to take this one day at a time again and hope that the pain decreases a bit each day so I don’t have to think about making plans for some sort of medical intervention. And hopefully, it’s just bad luck that I had this happen two months in a row and after I get over the pain this time, I won’t have to worry about it again for quite some time.
Posted onSeptember 16, 2022|Comments Off on Finally Feeling Better (or Just In Time To Feel Bad Again)
I wrote earlier about how I have had some health-related things to deal with every week for the past month. I think it affected my mental health more than I wanted to admit because I really have been down this week. There were other things that caused me to be in a bad mood, but feeling sick or off always seems to make things worse. But I knew that all the physical health stuff I was dealing with would get better even if it seemed to be taking longer than I would have liked.
And finally, I’m feeling normal again. Dealing with the side effects from the booster shot seemed to be a bit more than what I’m used to, but looking back now I don’t think it was as bad as I sometimes go through with the flu shot. I think it might have just hit me harder than I’m used to, but it didn’t last as long as it can with the flu shot. Almost all of my severe side effects were gone within 48 hours. The only real things that lasted longer were my swollen lymph nodes and feeling a bit weak in my workouts. I think I’m still feeling a little weak in my workouts, but I can finally do a lot of things that I was struggling with at the beginning of the week. And I’m sure that my lymph nodes are still a bit swollen, but they are no longer swollen to the point where you could see them and it was affecting how much I could lower my arm. I know I saw reports online about not getting a mammogram for 1-2 months after getting the vaccine because a swollen lymph node could be mistaken for something else. So I think it’s very possible that I could still have them swollen for a while, but I don’t really mind if it’s not affecting what I can actually do day to day.
And my back has been an issue for a few weeks now. It was slowly getting better, but it also felt like I was taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back every day. I would see improvement one way but then discover another way that things might have been worse. I have just been doing everything I could to take care of myself. I was making sure I was taking pain medication when things were getting worse so I didn’t compensate for pain with bad posture and have more issues later. I used topical pain relief throughout the day to help the pain but limit how much medication I took every day. I was trying to do stretches when I could, but I also noticed that they sometimes would hurt me more.
The worst of my back pain seemed to be when I was in bed. I don’t know why laying down was so painful for me, but it really was a struggle. And as I mentioned, I wasn’t sleeping well because every time I moved, the pain woke me up. And this has been an issue since my back started to hurt. But 2 nights ago, I noticed I moved while laying in bed and reading and I didn’t have searing pain in my back. I didn’t keep moving around to test if things would hurt since I didn’t want to jinx myself. But then last night, it continued to be somewhat ok while I moved in bed. I wasn’t waking up all night because of the pain, which was so nice. I do still have some back pain, but it’s really mild now compared to how it was even at the beginning of the week.
I’m so grateful that I’m feeling better with these two things. Although now, I’m just waiting to see how bad my pain and nausea will be this month. Normally, it would have kicked in by now but it hasn’t yet. I’m glad it hasn’t started since I’ve been dealing with other things, but I’m also worried that this could mean that next week will be even worse. I know I can’t think that and I just have to keep hoping this month won’t be bad. I also know that getting the booster shot might be throwing off my cycle a bit so maybe things are just late and that’s why I haven’t had those symptoms kick in yet. I’m not too worried if things are off by a day or a few days since I know that’s a normal side effect of any vaccine. But it’s also making me feel a bit antsy to see when things will kick in and when I will need to work on managing those symptoms.
After having a month of back-to-back health issues, I’m really ready to be over them. I know I still need to get through the pain and nausea when it kicks in, and because of the timing, that means I will be dealing with health issues for 5 or 6 weeks without a break. But hopefully, after I’m through that in a week or two, I will finally have some weeks with no health issues and I can just relax and enjoy my time.
Posted onSeptember 14, 2022|Comments Off on Sometimes It Feels Like One Thing After Another (or Having To Miss Things For My Own Good)
I’m used to having a bad 1-2 weeks each month. It’s an annoying reality of my life, but it’s just what I have to deal with. The ways to avoid it are either not options for me or things I don’t want to do just yet. But it feels like since my last bad week, it’s been one thing after another and it’s not stopping. And I feel like it’s starting to affect my life a bit.
I’m glad that I didn’t throw out my back while also having a regular bad week because that pain would have been really difficult to deal with. My back is doing a lot better now, but when it started I was really worried that something serious was wrong with me. I am used to bad pain with my hips, but this was another level. And when I was trying to sleep, the pain sometimes got worse. I do move quite a bit in my sleep, and every time I moved the pain woke me up. And almost worse than that pain, sometimes I wasn’t able to move and I felt trapped and that woke me up. I don’t know how to explain my lack of ability to move, but I just couldn’t turn over the way I normally do. I needed to wake up, sit up, and use my upper body to move me. It was really odd.
I’m glad that things are better now and I’m not in severe pain and it’s becoming less frequent. I still feel pain when I move certain ways and I do still have some issues moving while I’m laying in bed. But it’s nothing like what it was just a week ago. And I think that every day things are getting a bit better and I should hopefully be back to normal soon enough.
But just as my back was doing better, I got my booster shot and had to start dealing with those issues. I’m glad that I timed it out well so the worst of my side effects occurred over the weekend when I could rest and recover. But my lymph nodes are still swollen and my arm still hurts. And I have been feeling pretty weak in my workouts, which I should have expected but I wasn’t. Feeling weak when I don’t feel sick anymore is such a tough thing to deal with.
And now, I’m just about to start up another round of regular bad weeks. So I feel like I haven’t had a break. And this isn’t my normal, so it’s been hard for me to deal with this mentally. I’ve been trying to keep up with my normal plans, but this week I will have to skip something that I really was planning on.
I have done the Dri-Tri at Orangetheory almost every single time that it’s been offered since I started working out there. I missed the first one because of my schedule, and of course, I missed the ones that happened when the studios were shut down. But I did do the Dri-Tri at home, even though that’s not exactly the same. And this weekend, it’s the Dri-Tri again. I had every intention of signing up and just going for it. I know I wouldn’t get a PR or do something amazing, but that’s not the point for me. I just like to do them to prove to myself that I can.
But between how weak I’m feeling and the issues with my back, I know it wouldn’t be smart for me to try it. I have to be careful with what I do, and I know that some of the exercises wouldn’t be the best options for me to try. I do push myself, but I’m aware of my limits and what adrenaline can do. And I think that if I did the Dri-Tri, I would probably push myself too much and not realize until after it’s done that I did something that set me back with my back recovering. I wanted to wait and see how I felt and make a decision at the last minute, but I know now that there’s no way I could do it in a smart way and I just have to accept that’s what will happen.
I’m still thinking I will go to the studio to cheer people on, especially if any of my friends decide to go for it. But I also know that it will probably be a bit sad and frustrating to watch others do something I wanted to do and know I just can’t join in. I know this won’t be my last chance. They do the Dri-Tri every 6 months or so, so I just need to focus on being ready to do it then and not missing out on the one now.
Posted onSeptember 13, 2022|Comments Off on Time For A Booster Shot (or Getting Through My Normal Side Effects)
I’m never excited to get a shot or have anything done that involves needles. Needles are probably always going to be something that is tough for me to deal with and I always hate how fearful I get going to the doctor or having blood drawn and knowing what could happen. I’m lucky that I’m not fainting the way I used to, but I do still have this weird blackout thing where I tense up my body and hold my breath. It only lasts a few seconds, but it’s still exhausting to go through. And with vaccines, I have the added annoyance of always having a reaction to them. I can’t remember the last vaccine I got that didn’t give me some side effects. I don’t mind since I know it means I’m building immunity, but it’s something else I have to think about when I time getting a vaccine.Â
I think the only time I had a bit more excitement for a shot than fear was for the first Covid vaccine. But that was because I was so tired of being isolated and alone and that vaccine felt like the light at the end of the tunnel. And it was a big change for how I feel being around others, but it wasn’t the ending I think so many of us had hoped for. Because of vaccine hesitancy for whatever reason, not enough people were vaccinated to prevent new mutations from popping up. And those new mutations were able to get around the vaccines. I know that the vaccines still work because they don’t necessarily prevent illness but prevent serious illness and death. And I have had multiple friends test positive for Covid since being vaccinated and they all had very mild cases. So I have been staying on top of the news about vaccines and boosters.Â
I got my first Covid booster in November last year. And I became eligible to get a second booster over the summer, but I actually waited on getting it. I knew that there would be a new booster soon that helped with the new varients, and I didn’t want to get the old booster and then need to wait longer for the new one. So I just have been very careful about who I have been around and making sure that I’m wearing a mask when I’m in large gatherings.Â
But the new booster finally became available this past week, so I went about getting myself an appointment as soon as possible. I have only gotten vaccinations through Kaiser for my entire life. Even for the flu, I get the vaccine at a hospital or medical center. It’s just easy to do that since it’s automatically on my medical record. But when I looked into getting the booster at Kaiser, they didn’t have it available just yet. And since I didn’t want to keep waiting, I decided to look at the CVS near my house and found out that not only did they offer it, they had appointments available. So I booked one for this past Friday, knowing that I would probably have a reaction to the vaccine like I always do and would have the weekend to recover.Â
Making the appointment was super easy, but when I got there I guess it was the first day that they were offering the new booster because there was a decent line. It went quickly and I was only waiting for about 45 minutes, but it took me by surprise since I thought not too many people would get a vaccine in the middle of a weekday. But I guess everyone had the same thought and did it during their lunch break.Â
Since I know I have my blackouts, I warned the nurse there so she wouldn’t freak out. She made another nurse come to stand there in case I fully passed out, but fortunately, I didn’t and I just had my blackout for a few seconds. But they told me afterward that it was really crazy to see it happen and if I hadn’t warned them they would have been frightened. I’ve never been told that before, but I guess it does look odd.Â
I had to wait at CVS for a bit to make sure I didn’t have any severe reactions, but I wasn’t worried about that since I’ve never had a severe reaction. And when I was home, I felt pretty ok for a few hours. But then a few hours later, some of the side effects started to kick in. At first, it was just a foggy head and some body aches. Nothing too severe and actually pretty mild compared to some other vaccines. But on Saturday, I got a bit worse. This felt much more like what happens when I get a flu vaccine. I had a fever, more body aches, and my head felt like it weighed a million pounds. But I only had to work for a few hours that day and then I spend the rest of the day resting. I slept a lot and on Sunday I was starting to do better.
I still have swollen lymph nodes and a bit of a headache, but I think I’m finally over the hill with side effects. And while they are annoying to deal with, I know that getting Covid would be so much worse. This is the smart thing for me to do to protect myself and to protect those around me. I will still keep my same habits of wearing a mask and being selective when I’m in big crowds for now. I want to see how the numbers look for cases as it gets colder here and it’s when more people seem to be getting sick. I’ll be getting my flu vaccine soon too, so I’ll be protected against that as well. And hopefully, with both these vaccines, I will continue to stay healthy and the weekend of side effects will be totally worth it.Â
Posted onSeptember 12, 2022|Comments Off on Trying Out A New Workout Schedule (or Still Working With Some Pain)
This past week I tested out a new workout schedule. Because the schedule is changing at the studio and some coaches are changing when they teach, if I kept my old schedule I would miss at least one of the coaches I like to take a class with. But this new schedule also means going 4 days in a row, so I’m not sure if this is going to work for me or not. But I was excited to test it out this past week.
Monday was a holiday, so I got to go to a slightly later class than I normally do. It was still a morning class since I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep in that late, but getting an extra 30 minutes of sleep was nice. And I was surprised to see that it was a 2 group class. Usually, I go to 3 group classes, and they typically do that for holidays. But it was nice to have a 2 group class because we got to do a run/row workout.
For the run/row, the treadmill/bike portion involved working with inclines. And for the row, we always had a 100-meter row. For the treadmill/bike, we started with the shortest segment, but it was also at the highest incline/resistance level. And every time we were back to the treadmills/bike, the distance got longer and the incline went down. Then we had our row and then we were supposed to do a 1-minute recovery on the treadmill/bike to make sure we were ready for the next interval. We don’t always have recovery built into workouts like this, and we were told not to skip it, so I think I was much more ready for each incline segment. My back was still hurting, so getting on and off the bike and rower wasn’t the smoothest, but I was able to do it quickly enough.
On the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block started with a goblet squat, which I had to do as a regular squat because it was too tough for me to hold a weight while doing it. Then we could rest before doing the next 3 exercises without a break. We had front raises, lateral raises, and reverse flys. Since those were without a break, everyone had to use a lighter weight than we might have used if we did each exercise separately. The second block had lateral hops, shuffle steps, bicep curls, and hip bridges. For the lateral hops and shuffle steps, I just did them slowly and as steps to not aggravate my back. And the last block was timed with neutral thrusters and walkouts to planks. For the walkouts to planks, I did something that looked like a modified burpee by stepping out to a plank and using the bench for my hands.
Tuesday’s workout was a signature class and it was the Infinity workout. This one is a bit of a Dri-Tri prep, and we have the Dri-Tri coming up in a couple of weeks. Normally, I would already be signed up for it, but I’m waiting to see how my back does. I want to challenge myself, but I also don’t want to hurt myself more.
For cardio, we started with a 3-minute push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace. We repeated this pattern and the push paces decreased by 30-seconds each time. And we ended with a 1-minute all-out. I was using my new base pace and I was feeling pretty good about how I did. I did need some breaks when I had some pain in my back, but they were much less often than what it was like the week before.
On the rower, we had rounds of a 100-meter row and medicine ball work. We were supposed to do power jacks, but since I had to be careful I did overhead presses instead. We started with 20 reps for the medicine ball and that decreased by 2 every time. And the goal was to get as far on the rower as we could. I had a goal of getting to at least 1500 meters, and I just made it so I was very happy with that.
And on the floor, we had the same exercises that are a part of the Dri-Tri. We had bench hop-overs, squats, step-ups (which I did as lunges), push-ups, plank jacks, and burpees. And doing these exercises proved to me that if I’m still feeling the same way I feel right now, I won’t be able to do the Dri-Tri. I really did my best with each exercise, but I had to take quite a few breaks and I only made it through the exercises once before the workout was done. The goal was to make it through them all twice to be the same as what would be done during the Dri-Tir. I know there is time for me to feel better and I’ve made a huge improvement since my back was injured last week, but it still was a bit upsetting to realize how difficult doing these exercises was for me. But I tried in the workout and that’s all I could do.
Wednesday was a bit of a tougher day for me. I think because I have been compensating for my back hurting, I woke up on Wednesday with not only back pain but hip pain. So having extra pain meant I had to be even more careful during my workout.
We had 2 blocks for cardio and for both blocks the focus was on intervals of a push pace followed by a base pace. In the first block, the push pace got shorter each time and the base pace stayed the same. And in the second block, the push pace was always the same and the base pace got shorter each time. And both blocks ended with a 1-minute all-out. I did use my new regular resistance levels on the bike, but I just pedaled slower than normal.
On the rower, for the first block, we had decreasing rows with squat jumps between each row. The rows started at 250-meters and went down by 50 meters each time. I did regular squats that weren’t exactly my normal full range of motion since I wasn’t able to bend much more than that. And in the second block, the row was always 150-meters and we were supposed to do squat jacks between each row. And the reps for the squat jacks decreased each time. For this block, I did overhead presses with the medicine ball instead of squat jacks.
On the floor, I just had to manage the best that I could. In the first block, we had step-ups, chest presses, and low rows on the straps. I did lunges instead of step-ups and they weren’t very good lunges. I tried my best, but I couldn’t bend as much as I thought I could. And in the second block, we had chest fly with weights, lateral step-ups, and plank jacks. I did lateral lunges instead of the step-ups and I stepped out for my plank jacks.
And my last workout for the week was on Thursday. I know doing 4 days in a row is more than I normally do, but it was a good test for me to do when I was dealing with pain. And even though it was another tough day, it was a good challenge and I just did the best that I could. The workout had 2 blocks for each section of the room and we switched between each block. So we did 1 block at each section first and then did another round to do the second block.
For cardio, both blocks were the same and I did some modifications to make it easier for me to make it through. Each block had 3 hill challenges in it and a 45-second base pace between each one. Each challenge was 90 seconds long and we were supposed to increase the incline/resistance level every 30 seconds. I did do that increase within each challenge, but we were supposed to continue increasing the incline/resistance level for each challenge and I kept it the same for all 6. So my resistance levels ended up being the level between my push and all-out, my all-out, and 1 above my all-out. I know I should have tried to go higher, but I really didn’t want to push things too much for my back.
On the rower, for both blocks we were timed with cardio. So we had a 30-second base row, 30-second push row, and 30-second all-out row with a 45-second recovery row in between. And we did that pattern a total of 3 times for each block. I surprised myself by being able to row almost the entire time for both blocks. I did have quick breaks, but I only really took a few seconds each time.
And the floor again was the most challenging part of the workout for me. The first block was supposed to have bench tap squats, jump squats, and plank low rows. I did regular squats as far as I could go for the bench tap squats and squats with calf raises for the jump squats. And in the second block, we had chest presses with weights, push-ups, and balance lunges. I was doing ok with the chest presses, but getting up and down with the bench was harder than I expected so that slowed me down. And for the balance lunges, I just tried to do lunges the best that I could.
I’m glad I tested out this new schedule and I’m curious to see how it feels as I try it again. I really think this could be possible, but it just depends on how I feel. Since this past week wasn’t my best week, it could be a good representation of a bad week for me. So I might be able to manage it no matter how I feel. But I also know it’s easy enough for me to switch up my schedule if I feel like this won’t work for me for a week. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how I feel.
Posted onAugust 31, 2022|Comments Off on Ending Some Pain and Starting Other Pain (or At Least I’m Stocked Up)
I was just starting to feel better after dealing with monthly pain and nausea at the beginning of this week. The type of pain I feel each month is very specific pain and it’s not like any other pain that I feel. I might be lucky that I only deal with that pain for part of the month every month, but unfortunately, I pretty much deal with pain on a daily basis in other ways.
Even though my hip pain is so much better than it was before I had my hip surgery, I’m still in at least a little bit of pain every day. Some days the pain is more like a dull pressure and that’s really easy for me to deal with and I don’t worry about managing it. Other days, I worry that this could be the start of things needing to be operated on again because the pain is so severe. I’m lucky that I have been dealing with this pain for over a decade so I have some great tools I can use to manage it. I don’t always take medication as the first option because I know that doesn’t always work and often I have to be really on top of scheduling when I can take things. I have different stretches that can help and usually that will take the edge off of things. I also have some over-the-counter things I can use.
Because pain is a daily part of my life, when I’m dealing with pain every month I can try some of the methods I use for my hip pain. It doesn’t always work, but it’s good to have options. And when I have other random pain that comes up, I usually have some good ideas of what I can use and try.
And as the monthly pain was easing up at the beginning of the week, I did something to my lower back or hip and it’s pretty painful. I’ve dealt with this before and it’s likely some sort of pulled muscle or spasm. I know it’s different from my hip pain because joint pain and muscle pain feel very different to me. It doesn’t mean it’s not painful, it’s just a different type of pain. But pain is pain and I’m lucky that I’ve been working through pain for so long so I’m pretty prepared.
I am still going to my workouts, but I just have to be careful and make sure that nothing I’m doing will make me hurt worse. I’m good about paying attention to my body when it comes to pain, so this isn’t too tough for me to do. And while I’m working, I’ve been using different pain creams and heat pads to help make sure that sitting for several hours won’t cause more pain. So far, it’s only been a few days of dealing with this new back pain and I know it will probably take a few more days before it’s gone. But I’m hoping that it continues to ease through the next few days so it won’t be as severe.
But if it sticks around longer or is severe longer, I do know I’m prepared for this. If I have to take some painkillers, I have options because of what I take for my hip. Even though my hip pain is joint pain, dealing with it can cause muscle pain on the other side when I’m compensating for things so I do have a lot of over-the-counter muscle pain options. The plug-in heat pad I use for cramps is the perfect size to have against the back of my chair and I can plug it in at my desk and not worry about it losing the heat.
It does suck that I had a new pain start just as another type of pain ended, but at least I know I’m prepared to deal with this and it will pass. This is temporary and I know I can tolerate it. And hopefully, soon enough I will only have my normal pain to deal with and I can feel much better than I do now.
Posted onAugust 30, 2022|Comments Off on Really Having A Lazy Weekend (or I Guess Sometimes Bad Days Can Be Helpful)
My weekends have been busy but not busy since I moved. I’m usually doing something for my new place over the weekend. I might be organizing things, trying to unpack things that I have still in boxes, cleaning, or doing some shopping for things that I still want. Because I work Monday-Saturday, my weekends are more like a day and a half off each week, so I don’t always have all the time to do what I want to do. But sometimes it also feels like I don’t do much each weekend since I don’t see a lot of results from my work. It’s weird to feel like I’m so busy and I don’t have time, yet it seems like I didn’t do much when I’m preparing for another work week.
I don’t feel like I’ve had a really lazy weekend recently because of all the random busy work I’ve been doing, but this past weekend I was forced into having a lazy weekend. I was really feeling nauseous and in a lot of pain over the weekend so a lot of the things I wanted to get done were put off. I had a full list of errands that I wanted to run, but I had to limit it just to getting groceries for the coming week and everything else will just have to be done at another time.
So for my time after work on Saturday and most of Sunday, I was laying around my house. I did make it out to the grocery store on Sunday, but that’s the only thing I worried about doing. The rest of the time, I only did things I felt like doing and wanted to do. That really felt like a luxury and I think I needed this reset weekend. Most of the time, I was either in bed or on my couch reading. I got through multiple books this weekend which was really fun. I now have Kindle Unlimited, so my to be read list continues to grow and I got to work through some of the books I’ve been wanting to read. I watched a little tv, but I’ve been noticing that I’m not watching as much tv as I used to, especially when there aren’t new shows to be watching. I don’t usually watch reruns, and I don’t watch a lot of tv just randomly. I tend to watch things that I planned on watching or already recorded on my DVR.
Because of how I was feeling, it wasn’t the most relaxing weekend. I did have to deal with all the symptoms I was feeling and I tried to make sure I was taking care of myself. And there was plenty of time that I was just laying down with my eyes closed and waiting to let the nausea or the pain pass. But I was lucky and the bad moments really weren’t that much of my weekend and I was able to just enjoy the time I spent being lazy at home. And even with how I was feeling some of the time, it did feel like a bit of a reset weekend. And that’s not something I feel like I have really done in a while.
I have done resets for part of my weekend. Most weekends, my Sundays are all about getting ready for the week and getting groceries, doing laundry, and cleaning. But doing all the things I need to do to get ready for my week can feel tiring and like I never had a break. Because I really didn’t do much this past weekend (including not doing my usual Sunday cleaning), I got to have a bit of a mental reset instead of just getting my house and things reset for the week. And that almost felt like a bit of a splurge.
I know having a mental reset like this isn’t something I can do every weekend. I just don’t have enough time in my limited time off each week to take this much time to things that aren’t productive. But I think that I really needed this time this past weekend. I feel a lot better going into this week than I have for a while. I’m not necessarily feeling physically better, but I know that will come soon. But at least feeling bad physically allowed me to feel a bit better mentally.
Posted onAugust 17, 2022|Comments Off on First Therapy Appointment At My New Home (or Seeing What Other Options Are Out There)
Because I only see my therapist every 6 months or so right now, my last appointment was before my move. I knew I was going to be moving and the renovation had started when I had my last appointment, but I didn’t know when I’d be moving in and didn’t know that the renovation would take as long as it did. Â Realizing that the last appointment was before I moved makes it seem like it was forever ago, but it was only 6 months ago. But a lot has changed in those 6 months.
I don’t know if this will ever change back, but my appointment with my therapist this week was another video appointment. I’m actually ok with keeping them video appointments so I don’t have to worry about taking time off of work to drive there and back. And since they are pretty basic check-in appointments, I don’t think I need to be there in person for anything.
And as always, my appointment this time went pretty smoothly. We talked a bit about my move and the renovation. I also showed off my office space a little since it’s very different on camera than what my living room looked like before. And she agreed that even if you are only moving a few blocks away as I did, moving is still very stressful and exhausting. I feel like I’m finally recovering from moving, but I also still feel like I have so much more work to do.
And I was honest with her that my food wasn’t so great during the stress of moving. I think she understood and I explained that I have been working to get things back to normal for me and not let the stress get to me the way it did during the move. I don’t have a scale right now, but I can tell with how my clothes are fitting that I’m back to what my weight was before or perhaps a bit lower. I am debating about getting a scale again because I do see the pros and cons of having one. For now, I’m ok without one and I think that’s ok since I’m using clothes to be mindful of things.
As always, the main part of my appointment was to discuss my medications. I’m good with the medication that I’m currently taking and I do feel like it still makes a difference. It’s not a miracle cure that makes everything easier for me, but it is a helpful tool. But I wanted to ask about some other medications that I’ve been hearing about more that can help as well. I know there are always new medications out there and some are weird off-label situations, but the ones I’ve been hearing about are FDA approved to help. The main downside to them is that they are medications that have to be injected. They come in injection pens, so that makes it easier, but I still hate needles no matter what and I don’t love the idea of having to give myself shots. But I’m also willing to try what is out there to see what might work.
So I brought up the new medication options out there and my therapist agrees they might help. But because they are more focused on weight loss or weight management and not treating an eating disorder, she could not prescribe it to me. It would need to come from another doctor who specializes in that. So she put in a referral for me to meet with someone in the bariatric department. I know they will probably discuss weight loss surgery with me, but I’m really not interested in surgery. I’ve heard too many negative side effects and I don’t know if there would be anything that changes my mind. But this department also deals with medications that help with weight, so whether it would be one of the medications I heard of or something else, maybe I’ll start something new soon that will help me more. As I said, I just have to try and see what works for me and this is another step to do that.
After my therapist set up the referral for me, we set my next appointment with her for 6 months from now. Maybe I’ll have some big updates or changes if the referral appointment goes well. Or maybe I’ll have progress another way in 6 months. I’ll just have to wait and see what happens and continue to try the best that I can as long as I can.
A Medical Afternoon (or Getting In All My Regular Checkups)
