Posted onMarch 4, 2022|Comments Off on Finally Feeling Healed (or Recovery Took Longer Than Expected)
When I had the minor procedure done on my foot, I was told that I would probably be walking normally again after a week or two, and then maybe it would be another week or two after that before I would feel completed healed. And the first part of that was accurate for me. A week after it was done, I was wearing normal shoes again and I didn’t need crutches or my cane. But I was still in pain as my foot healed. And I had to keep it bandaged for almost a month because my skin was feeling very sore and tender. The pain reminded me of a bad sunburn or if you burn your fingers on a hot pan. And I guess in a way, that’s pretty close to what it was. It was new skin that was healing and the tightness I felt was the skin coming back together.
But after I was off my crutches, I felt almost completely better. I didn’t mind having to keep a bandage on my foot since I was walking normally and could wear any shoes I wanted to. And as each day passed, the tenderness I felt was subsiding and I had fewer moments where there was a sharp zap of pain because of how I was stepping on my foot. Because I’m used to so much pain normally, this didn’t bother me too much. But I did want things to be done healing so I could finally be past this time.
And it really took until the beginning of this week before I felt like I was done with the tough healing process. Right now, you can still see the edges of where my foot was cut on my heel because the skin hasn’t fully healed over. But it’s now looking more like what your foot looks like when a blister is almost fully healed. I can put lotion on my foot again, which is normally a regular part of my daily self-care. And while I’m still waiting to do some things to my foot for things to fully heal (like different foot masks that I like to do from time to time), I feel pretty confident that I’m finally on the other side of having to worry about this wart on my foot and the treatments I’ve been doing for so long.
I know that there’s always a chance I will be the extremely rare case that will either need more freezing treatments or to have something cut from my heel again, but I’m trying to remain hopeful that I won’t be. I have another appointment with my dermatologist in about a week and a half, and I think he will be able to give me a better idea of if things are done or not.
Even though this healing process was longer than I was hoping it would be and I did have about a month where I was dealing with a lot of pain and discomfort, this will be worth it if I finally am past this and don’t have to think about it again. I still have plenty of other things in my life that cause me pain and discomfort, but to have one less thing is nice.
Posted onFebruary 21, 2022|Comments Off on Swapping One Type Of Pain For Another (or I Feel Like This Happens More Often Than I’d Like)
The past few weeks of workouts have been interesting with letting my heel heal. I have new types of pain to deal with and I’ve also learned that with the way the skin is healing, sometimes I don’t feel the pain until a few hours after the workout. So I’ve been testing my boundaries and also trying to not push myself too much. And finally, this past week of workouts, my heel was really doing better. I still had pain to deal with, but it was less than before. But as my heel pain was decreasing, I had to deal with monthly pain and nausea. So in a way, it felt like my pain level stayed the same all week.
Monday’s workout was a strength workout and it was a 2 group class. It wasn’t necessarily themed for Valentine’s Day, but a lot of us in class joked that the class was extra tough to make up for all the chocolate people would be eating later.
For cardio, we had a run/row workout. The first block was a 2 1/2-minute distance challenge on the treadmill/bike and then we had a 2 1/2-minute distance challenge on the rower. After that, we were on our own. First, we matched the distance on the treadmill/bike and then again matched the distance on the rower. Then we had lunges and took the distances from both sides and did half that distance but increased the incline/resistance level. We continued that pattern and did the distance in half with increased incline/resistance for the rest of that half of class.
On the floor, we had two blocks. For the shorter block, we had single-arm neutral thrusters, single-leg sit to stand (which I did as bench tap squats), and single-leg v-ups. In the second block, we had reverse flies, single-arm high rows, chest presses, bicep curls on the straps, and low rows on the straps. It was a lot of work, but fortunately my heel was hurting less than before.
Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and for both cardio and the rower it felt like we didn’t get a break.
For cardio, we had rounds of a push pace followed by a base pace. We had 1 round of a 90-second push pace followed by a 2-minute base pace, 2 rounds of a 1-minute push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace, and 3 rounds of a 30-second push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace. And after all that, we ended with a 1-minute all-out.
The rower was timed with the cardio side. For all the push paces, we had a push row. And when the cardio side had a base pace, we had high knees and forward and back hops. The exercises between each row were a bit tough for me between my heel and some nausea that I was starting, so I just went slow and took it easy for those. But my rowing was better so that made me happy.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. Both blocks started with high rows on the straps that we only did the first time before doing the rest of the exercises. In the first block, we had Bosu single-arm chest presses, Bosu pullovers, and running men (which I did on the floor and not with the Bosu). In the second block, we had goblet static lunges (which I did as goblet squats), kneeling lateral raises, and plank jacks.
Friday’s workout was another strength day. And while my heel was feeling much better (I think I might not have to bandage it that much longer), that’s when my pain and nausea really kicked in.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had a 3-minute push pace at an incline, a base pace, and an all-out. And the second block had 2 rounds of a 2-minute push pace at an incline with a base pace in-between with an all-out at the end. Even though it was a strength day, because of the longer push paces, it felt a bit like an endurance day too.
On the rower, we had 1 long block. We had a 100-meter, 200-meter, and 400-meter row. The first time we did each row, we had squats to overhead presses with the medicine ball between each row. The next time we did those distances, we had a ground to press with the medicine ball. I did have to take some breaks on the rower, but it was more about nausea than my heel so I consider that an improvement.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had suitcase squats, single-arm high rows, and plank shoulder taps. And the second block had sumo squats to upright rows, lunges, uppercuts, and single-arm bicep curls.
Saturday’s workout was a power day, and I was feeling truly miserable. I have never left class in the middle of class, but there were so many times I debated if I should just leave. I was in so much pain and had such severe nausea. The only good thing was that this was the least pain my heel was in all week. But it really didn’t make that much of a difference because I was hurting so much and I really struggled.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks. And in every block, the main focus was doing 45-second push paces. In the first block, we had 1-minute base paces. In the second block we had 75-second base paces. And in the last block we had 90-second base paces. And each of those blocks ended with a 30-second all-out. I really tried to limit my breaks to the base paces, but I can’t help it sometimes when the pain or nausea hits me really hard. But I tried and I know that for this workout, that’s all I could do.
The floor also had 3 blocks. Each block started with a 45-second all-out row that we only had to do once and then we moved to the floor for the rest of the exercises. The first block had push-ups and rollouts on the straps, the second block had pull-ups on the straps and single-arm low rows, and the last block had deadlifts and step-downs. I had to do a lot of modifications for the exercises. For the pull-ups, I did high rows on the straps. The low rows were supposed to be while planking on the bench and I had to do it just bent over. And the step-downs were swapped for lunges. And just like with cardio, I took a lot of breaks during the floor. I hate doing that, but I also knew that if I didn’t things would get worse. And considering how many times during the workout I debated about leaving, I’m just glad I made it through the entire thing.
This week might be another tough week for me. I really don’t know how long the pain and nausea will be bad each month. Usually, when it’s really bad to start it gets a bit easier as the week goes on, so I’m hoping that will be the case this time. But I won’t know until I get through the week and see how I feel. But fingers crossed that I will have a week of even less heel pain and minimal pain and nausea.
Posted onJanuary 31, 2022|Comments Off on Not The Workout Week I Expected (or I’m Craving My Workouts)
From the time I started at Orangetheory, I was always doing at least 3 workouts a week. But more often than not, I have done 4 workouts a week. This has been my regular schedule and I rarely have things happen in my life that prevent me from achieving this. Even when I was working out at home, I was still getting in my workouts on my own. I have been sick in the past and needed a day off, but that’s pretty much the extent to my absences from my workouts.
Until this past week.
Because of the procedure done on my foot, the only workout I was able to make it to was on Monday. I was planning on going to all my workouts last week and I even asked the podiatrist how many days would I need to rest. I knew while he was cutting into my foot that I would have to take the next day off, but I really thought I’d be able to make it back at some point in the week. But when he told me it would be probably a week or two before I could fully put weight on my foot, I felt defeated.
I said when writing my goals for the year how my workout goal was going to be the easy one for me. But taking a week or two off would possibly prevent me from getting there. But I know if I don’t allow myself to heal, I could cause some issues that would last longer than taking the recovery time. So I had to accept that I would only make it to one workout last week and be ok with that.
But every morning I woke up last week and knew it was supposed to be a workout day, I was sad I was missing out. I wasn’t expecting to need this time off (like I was planning for my liver surgery that was canceled). I hadn’t mentally prepared for it. I wasn’t depressed, but I was in a funk when I was thinking about how I should be at my workouts at that time.
For this week, I’m honestly not sure what will be happening. I took today (Monday) off because I know I can’t really put my weight on my heel. But I have made progress. I am using the cane I got for my hip and not my crutches. And over the weekend, I slowly have been trying to put a little more weight on my heel instead of walking on my toes. And as I change the bandage, I can see that it’s starting to heal and close up. I wasn’t told an exact point where I could start putting weight on my heel or working out again. I was told I would know when my body is ready. And I know today I’m not ready yet. I’m still not in a normal shoe and I still am very hesitant to put my heel down. But I’m hoping that I will make it back at some point this week. I just don’t know if I’ll make it for 1 workout or maybe 2 workouts. I really doubt I will make it for 3 workouts.
I just have to wait and see what happens. I know I’m still upset about missing workouts and I feel like my body needs them. But I also know my foot isn’t ready to do what I need to do in a workout. So I’m going to keep working on recovering, testing how much I can do, and as soon as I can go back I will be back!
Posted onJuly 21, 2021|Comments Off on It’s Another Short Post Type Of Week (or Sorry About This)
I wish I had an amazing post to share today, but I’m really not doing so great right now. My mental health is fine, so that’s good. Although I guess exhaustion can count against mental health. But for physical health, I’m having a hard time.
It’s like right now everything is working against me. It’s very hot here in LA, so I’m dealing with those issues and I’m trying to stay as cool as I can. It’s oddly humid here, which we aren’t used to and makes the heat worse. But I think it’s also affecting my hip because I’ve been in a lot of hip pain lately. And I’m dealing with my monthly pain and nausea. And while it wasn’t so bad last week when I thought it might be, this week has been brutal. My medications don’t seem to want to work right now. The pain is maybe dulled a bit, but I still have horrible cramps that stop me in my tracks. And the nausea is always tough to push through. It’s a general feeling of seasickness all the time and I don’t get relief even if I do get sick. And because of the nausea, I’m not sleeping much. I wake up a lot in the middle of the night afraid I’m about to get sick. And it takes me forever to get back to sleep.
Even though I try to go to bed early, I’m averaging under 2 hours of sleep when I’m in bed for 6 1/2 hours. I’m not doing much else besides work and dealing with how I’m feeling because I don’t feel the need to take more on. I can’t avoid all responsibilities, so I limit them where I can.
So as much as I’d love to have a nice and well-thought-out post on here, right now I just want to share how I’m feeling and then go lay down since I’m done with work for the day (I’m writing this on Tuesday).
Hopefully, this is the peak of it all and I start getting better tomorrow.
Posted onJuly 5, 2021|Comments Off on Working Out With New Pain (or I Just Never Make It Easy On Myself)
Just after getting over a week of bad nausea and pain, I was ready for this past week of workouts to be much more like my usual self and I was happy to be able to push myself again. I hate when I have to go easy on myself and I’m always grateful when I can go really hard in my workouts again. This has always been true, but I think it’s even more true since going back to my workouts after the shutdown. But just like anything I am planning on, things didn’t go the way I planned this past week.
Monday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. I was feeling normal again so I was ready to push myself in class and see what I could do for each section. I’ve been playing around more with what I can do on the bike, and it’s been tough to push myself enough without overdoing it. But I’m starting to get better.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks. All of the blocks had progressive hills for 3 minutes. The first block was increasing, the second block was decreasing, and the last block was our choice to increase or decrease (I went with decreasing). I didn’t know we had these hills when starting the workout, so I started the class with a slightly higher resistance level for my base to see if I could do it. And I might have been ok without the hills, but when we were increasing the resistance levels, they started to get too high and I had to go back to my normal base level. But the hills were good and I’m glad I did try pushing myself more.
On the floor, we also had 3 blocks and every block started with a 200-meter row. After the row, we had 3 exercises on the floor. The first block had chest presses with the straps, chest presses with weights, and push-ups. The second block had low rows with the straps, low rows with weights, and seated low rows with weights. And the last block had 3 types of sit-ups that I had to modify a lot to be ok for my hips. The idea with each block was to burn out a specific muscle group, and I really felt that! I was sore in the best way at the end of each block.
Wednesday’s workout should have been another day I was feeling amazing, but I had my appointment with my dermatologist on Tuesday afternoon and didn’t think about how sore my foot would be after having something frozen on it. I was struggling to put my heel on the ground and I knew I would have to modify a lot in this workout. I did give my coach a heads up since I didn’t want him to worry if he saw me limping. And I’m glad I told him because there were a lot of things I had to work through.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had intervals of push paces, base paces, and incline work. And the second block had short intervals of base paces at inclines followed by an all-out. I thought I’d be ok on the bike since my heel wouldn’t be pressing down on the pedal, but the way my foot moves and stretches while pedaling got very painful. I had to take random breaks to take my foot out of the pedal to stretch a bit and let the pain subside. But I’m so used to so many types of pain, so this was just one more type I had to work through.
On the floor, the first block had single-arm low rows, lunges, in and outs, hollow hold chest presses, and burpees. I had to modify things to work with not putting my heel down, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been (like if we had a ton of squats). And the second block was timed with the treadmills and we had rounds of single-arm shoulder presses and 30-seconds of rowing. The rowing was very difficult since you have to press your heel into the footplate to be efficient at rowing. I couldn’t do that so my rowing was a bit weak.
My foot was feeling a bit better for Friday’s workout, but I was still sore and having to modify things. But I was glad I was doing better and that I could do a bit more.
The workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and each of the cardio blocks represented one of them. The first block was endurance-based and it was rounds of 1-minute intervals of base paces and push paces with an all-out at the end. The second block was strength-based and it was 1-minute intervals with flat base paces and base paces with incline/high resistance levels. And the last block was power-based and we had 1-minute intervals of all-outs and recoveries. I wasn’t able to pedal perfectly, but it was much better than what I could do on Wednesday and my heel wasn’t hurting quite as bad.
And on the floor, every block started with a row. This was still a struggle for me, so I didn’t worry too much about how long it took me to do each row. The first block had a 600-meter row, the second block had a 300-meter row, and the last block had a 150-meter row. After the rowing, the first block was all mini-band work with forward walks, suitcase squats, and torso rotations. The second block had goblet squats, sumo squats with front raises, and bird dogs. And the last block had bench sit-ups to squats, lunges, and mountain climbers. It was a lot of squats and other things that I had to keep my heels on the ground, so that was tough. But I took the breaks I needed to when the pain got bad and just picked back up when I could. The one thing that did help was knowing the pain was not because I was harming myself. When I have hip pain, it can be because my bones are hitting, which is not good at all. But this pain was just soreness, so pushing through it wasn’t the worst decision.
Saturday’s workout was my only 3 group class of the week (I do wish I had 2 of each type, but I’m glad I have a little variety) and it was an endurance day. I was still dealing with a little pain, but I knew it was significantly better and I needed that since I was going to have a lot of rowing in class.
For cardio, we started with a 2 1/2-minute push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace. Then we had a 75-second push pace with a 1-minute base pace. We repeated that again and then ended with one more 2 1/2-minute push but we were supposed to try to end with as close to an all-out as we could. I got really tired during this since we had no real recovery time. But I also wanted to make my best effort so I could know I pushed myself a lot. I still took a few breaks (to drink water and to let my foot rest), but I know this was the best I had on the bike in a while.
For rowing, we timed things a bit with cardio. When cardio had their 2 1/2-minute push, we had a 2 1/2 minute row. When they had their base, we had a rest. And when they were doing their 75-second push pace, we had lateral hops, front and back hops, and squat jumps. I had to modify the hops and squat because I couldn’t land on my heel too hard. So I did lighten the hops a bit and I did squats with calf raises and didn’t go too deep in my squats.
And on the floor, the blocks matched cardio and rowing. In the longer segments, we weren’t timed but just had regular blocks. The first longer block had shoulder presses and hip hinge low rows. The second longer block had bicep curls and push-ups. And the last longer block had a bear hold until fatigue and then a squat hold until fatigue. For the shorter blocks, we had timed core work with hip raises, bicycles, and toe touches. I did modify those since my hips don’t like hip raises, but I did try to keep moving the entire time and my muscles were burning by the end of each block!
While it was annoying to have 2 weeks with pain back to back, but just like the week before, I’m glad this week had 1 really bad day and then it was getting better each day. I think my foot is finally better now, but I know I might still have some extra soreness for a few more days. But I am hoping that I can keep pushing myself more this week and finally have a week with minimal pain!
Posted onMay 28, 2021|Comments Off on Really Tired of Feeling Awful (or For Some Reason This Month Is The Worst)
I write about having monthly pain and nausea on here all the time. It’s an unfortunate and annoying occurrence in my life that I deal with every single month. Sometimes I will have a better month, but I haven’t had a month without dealing with this since I had to stop taking continuous birth control. And while I have medications and other things to make me feel better, sometimes it’s just not enough. And this month, it’s one of those months where things just aren’t getting better.
Most months, I deal with this for about 10 days. Sometimes it’s a little less because I feel almost normal earlier than I expect. When I first got off the pill, it would occasionally last for 2 weeks, but that rarely happened and almost never happens now. But of course, this month looks like it may be a month I have pain and nausea for at least 2 weeks.
I’m still in the middle of things, so there is a chance it will get better sooner. But honestly, I’ve been pretty miserable since the middle of last week. The pain can be unbearable at times, even with being on constant painkillers. The nausea isn’t as unbearable, but it is more annoying because I never can tell if I will end up throwing up or not. I’m lucky that my body seems to know when I am in public and not able to be sick, but that’s still a fear I have all the time.
But besides the pain and nausea, I just hate not feeling like me. The bloating is bad, but it’s worse when none of my clothes fit and I have to convince my brain that it’s not because I really gained a ton of weight. Being crabby and irritated isn’t my natural state and I sometimes have to work hard to not take that out on other people. I’m trying to be more social now that it’s possible, but right now I just want to curl up on my bed and nap. I try to force myself to not do that, but sometimes I just can’t find the motivation to do anything else.
And even though this is my blog and I can write about whatever I want to, I hate that I’m complaining about this. I know that things can be better (and they were for so long and I miss that time), but I also know that things could be worse. Having regular cycles is a sign that my body is still working the way it should. I know there are a lot of issues that I might not know about even with a regular cycle, but it is still a good sign. It would be worse if I was constantly going through medical tests to figure out what is wrong with my hormones or body, and I have several friends who have to do that. Hearing their stories of various tests and procedures does make me grateful that my issues can be planned and scheduled around.
As much as I try to be positive and think that maybe I’m being dramatic and my body will surprise me, I have to be prepared for it not to be that way. And even if I felt completely normal again tomorrow (unlikely, but you never know), the past week has still been one of the worst times I’ve had and it’s been a real issue in my life and trying to be able to do anything.
Posted onMarch 12, 2021|Comments Off on Only Knowing Some Of The News (or Several Rough Nights Of Sleep)
I like to think that I’m pretty informed about what’s going on in the world. I know what’s happening with politics and what’s going on with the pandemic. And I pay attention to other news stories as well. But I don’t really watch the news anymore. That used to be a part of my routine in the past, but I haven’t been sitting down to watch the news in the morning in a while. Instead, I tend to get my news from social media. I have a list of news accounts I follow and I can easily see what they post and stay on top of things. And while I might watch some tv news from time to time, it’s not a regular habit.
I probably should be a bit better about knowing the news, especially some local news that I might not see on social media. But I just have been a bit burned out on news over the past year, so I haven’t wanted to add more to my life.
But by missing out on watching the news, I also miss out on a few things that do affect my life. Even though I’m staying home and inside almost all the time, the weather is important for me to know. The actual temperature isn’t that important because my house has poor insulation (so it can be freezing inside my house when it’s not too bad outside for example). But my hip issues get worse when it’s about to rain, so I used to make sure I checked the weather regularly so I could be prepared for that. We haven’t had rain in a long time, so I guess that slipped my mind lately.
But I had been having some really horrible nights of sleep this week. I struggled to fall asleep and when I did fall asleep, I woke up a lot. I have been having a lot more sleep issues over the past year than I normally do, so I assumed it was connected to that. And even though I had some hip pain, that’s not too unusual for me either. I didn’t think about if there was a possibility of rain causing the issues until I woke up the other night and it was pouring rain outside.
I am grateful for the rain because I know we really need it, but I hate that it causes me so many issues. And I hate that because I haven’t been paying attention to the weather and that part of the news that I was unprepared for dealing with this over this week. If I had known it was going to rain, I couldn’t have completely prevented all the pain, but I would have taken steps to make it a bit easier for me. I also just hate the feeling of being unaware that something was going to happen. So little in my life is in my control, and this was just one more thing that was out of my control. And it was my fault that it felt that way.
I know I’m probably overreacting a bit about all this. The pandemic out-of-control feeling is making my hip pain out-of-control feeling that much worse. And the rain looks like it’s done for now, so my hip pain should be getting better over the next few days. And soon enough, I’ll be back down to my regular pain level.
I also know I’m overthinking all of this. I am informed about what’s going on in the world, just not everything. And not knowing the weather isn’t the worst thing. Even when I was going out and doing things, I wasn’t always super aware of the weather. And I don’t know if I need to add another thing to my daily list to check in on. I guess this was just another thing to keep me on my toes during a time when life feels very repetitive and boring.
Posted onJanuary 22, 2021|Comments Off on My First Doctor Appointment In A While (or Not Everything Can Be Done Over The Phone)
Last year, I didn’t go to a lot of doctor appointments that I was planning on having. Because of the pandemic, I didn’t want to have to go to the hospital more than I needed to. And while some of my appointments were regular ones, the ones I skipped weren’t urgent and I knew I could put them off for a little while. If any of my doctors told me I had to go to an appointment, I would have gone. But nothing was needed and I think all my doctors understood why I was postponing them.
One of the appointments I skipped was with my dermatologist. That appointment was going to be for a regular annual checkup and most of what is done at those appointments are things like skin checks for skin cancer. Since I didn’t really go out in the sun at all last year, I didn’t think having my skin checked for sun damage was really necessary. I also had some other questions I wanted to ask my doctor, but again, nothing was urgent so I was fine putting it off.
But then my autoimmune condition flared up really badly and I knew that I needed to get some more help than what I can do on my own. My dermatologist wasn’t the one who diagnosed me (that was another doctor), but he was the most recent one to discuss treatment options with me so I figured he would be the right person to reach out to. I started with just an email to my doctor and he wanted to set up a phone appointment to talk about what’s going on. I was hoping somehow a phone appointment would be enough for me to get some help even though this was discussing something with my skin.
I had my phone appointment the other day and it went ok. I discussed the pain I was in and what options I knew I was ok with and what I wasn’t ok with (there is one medication I could try but it would make me immunocompromised so I don’t want to do that). But like I suspected, this type of appointment wasn’t really able to be done on the phone and my doctor said I needed to come in.
Fortunately, I was able to get an appointment for next week, so things should be better for me soon. And I am lucky because my dermatologist is familiar with my autoimmune condition (it’s not something that all doctors understand or have experience treating). He wants to go over a few options that I have for treating things and he didn’t seem too worried about my concerns with some medications. So I’m hopeful that after next week I will have a good idea of a treatment plan I can work with.
I’ve had this issue for a long time and have tried a few different treatments in the past, but I’ve never really worked with one doctor who was very familiar with it and was willing to work on a long-term plan with me. I’ve had other doctors who wanted me to temporarily try one medication or another to see what it would do, even though the studies say those medications don’t work. That’s why I never have stuck it out with one doctor or a treatment plan. But now, I feel good about going forward with this and I’m hoping that in a week or so I will have a better idea about how I can get out of pain and maybe make it so I don’t have to deal with this as often as I do. I know it’s not likely to be resolved right away, but feeling like I’m on a path to figuring it out will be helpful.
I am a little nervous about having to go into the hospital for this appointment, but the medical offices are not the same building as the main hospital. So I won’t be around as many people and those who are going in for more serious things will be in a different building. And I’m sure there is some sort of plan so that there aren’t too many people in the waiting room at one time.
Even if I feel totally comfortable after this appointment with how things go at the hospital, I still think I will be waiting on some other appointments for a little while. Unless I have something come up where I need to be seen sooner or my doctors tell me they want me to come in, I want to wait until I am vaccinated and the case numbers are a bit more under control. And then I can go in and take care of everything I skipped.
Hopefully, next week goes just as smoothly as I hope it will be and I will have a good treatment plan in the works and out of the pain that I’ve been in for a while.
Posted onJuly 29, 2020|Comments Off on Needing To Take Care Of Myself (or Not Ignoring All Pain)
Pain is a daily thing for me. It’s not fun and I wish my life wasn’t this way, but I have learned to deal with it. Most of my pain is related to either my hips or monthly cramps. I know what to take to try to make them better and I know that it’s nothing to worry about. Pain is just a way of life for me and I have accepted it.
But because I deal with pain every day, I also think that I ignore some other pain my body has from time to time. I don’t want to obsess over every ache and pain that I have and I’m pretty good at not paying attention to it. But at the same time, when I have pain that doesn’t go away, I don’t want to ignore it and realize things might be getting worse. And that’s something that I have been dealing with for a little while.
I had some weird pain in my elbow for the last month or so. And it just started out feeling like I might have bruised something or pulled a muscle. I didn’t think too much about it and figured it would go away. But it hasn’t been going away and it’s been getting worse. Now, there is a constant pain in my elbow and forearm. And when I wake up, my arm is hurting so much that it takes a few minutes before I can really move it.
I know this probably sounds a lot worse than it is, but it’s also not something to ignore. And based on my symptoms and where the pain is located, I’m pretty sure it’s tennis elbow. This is good because it’s not serious but not so good because there really isn’t much you can do to make it go away.
But there are some things I can do to make it better and easier to deal with while it gets better. So I’ve ordered some things like an arm brace that is supposed to support the tendons in my arm better so they don’t hurt. And a supplement that was recommended by people I know who have had the same issue. These things are supposed to arrive today so hopefully, they start to make things feel a bit better soon. But I also know it might take a month or so before I really feel like things are improving.
I guess this isn’t the worst thing or the worst timing. I’m not doing much so at least the pain isn’t affecting my life too much. And I have the time to rest and take it easy. But it still is unfortunate that I’m in pain because even though I’m used to it it’s never a fun time.
Posted onJuly 22, 2020|Comments Off on Sleeping Away The Day (or Sometimes The Pain and Nausea Are Just Too Bad)
Every month, it’s not a surprise for me when I have to deal with pain and nausea. It’s not fun and I wish I could change this about my life, but there aren’t really any options for me that are reasonable at this moment. I could try birth control pills again, but those will likely make my tumors grow again. There’s a small chance that it won’t do that, but it’s not worth the risk for me right now. The other option is to have a hysterectomy. I’ve actually thought more seriously about this lately, but I’m not ready to take that step just yet. So until then, I just have to deal with the pain and nausea every month.
I’ve said to many people that I feel like there is a set amount of pain and nausea I have to have each cycle. Just to explain it, let’s say I have to get 100 points of pain and nausea. Sometimes, it’s 10 points for 10 days. Sometimes it’s 20 points for 5 days. But that’s a general idea. But sometimes, I feel like I get almost all the pain and nausea in just one or two days and it’s close to unbearable.
That’s exactly what happened on Monday. I had mild nausea for the few days leading up to Monday, but Monday was just the worst. The pain was making my vision go white from time to time (like what my hip pain can do at times). The nausea made me want to live on my bathroom floor all day. I honestly don’t remember having a day that bad ever, but I’m also sure that if I have my mind blocked it because it was so bad. I tried to work out and that kind of failed (more about that in my workout recap next week). I had to get some work stuff done and I did it, but it took me significantly longer than it should have because I had to keep stepping away.
And when I was done with all the stuff I had to do, I went to lay down to try to feel better. And I ended up sleeping away almost the entire day. At least when I was asleep, I wasn’t feeling the pain or nausea. I’m sure I needed some sleep because I haven’t been sleeping well lately, but this was mainly sleeping to make the day go by faster and easier. And it did do that, so I’m grateful for it.
I’m writing this post on Tuesday and I’m still pretty miserable. It’s not as bad as Monday was, but it’s still pretty bad. I’m planning on resting in bed for most of the day while medicating myself and having heat pads. I might end up sleeping the day away but I also know doing that can mess up my sleep schedule a bit. But sometimes, that’s all I can do for the day, and the best self-care that I can do is to not have to deal with the day.
Not What I Expected From This Appointment (or I Have Some New Accessories For Now)
