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Mild sprain/strain?
Monday afternoon/evening is when we do our tai chi fan and regular tai chi class. The Scientist and I have “learned” all the fan moves now so we are working on refining and consolidating skills. For me it’s a lot more of continuing to properly learn moves and some of the refinement. The class went really well yesterday and I was in a good rhythm for starting the tai chi class.
The regular class started out well enough with a good warm-up (second one since we also did one for the fan class) and then shiboshi set (set of 18 moves done together). After that we practiced tai chi stances and that also started off okay but at some point I landed on my foot wrong and my ankle started giving me trouble. I thought it would work it’s way out and tried a couple times to do some of the later activities but I ended up mostly watching and resting my ankle. It’s nothing really horrible so I am assuming it’s something like a very mild sprain.
I iced my ankle and kept it elevated last night and it was much better this morning even though I woke up to minor aches and pains during the night. Today it seemed okay to walk on and I was good for most of a moderate walk this afternoon. After that it was irritated again and I decided against trying to use the spin bike this evening. My new plan is to use the bike tomorrow before I go out and stay off my feet as much as possible.
Really, though, I have to laugh at the idea of spraining an ankle while doing a “gentle” exercise like tai chi. :DÂ It is a gentle exercise but definitely not immune from injury, which is part of the reason for doing warm ups…I just need to be more careful about my tai chi stances, I guess.
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Sore
A week after falling onto my overturned chair, I was feeling more pain than I had in the first day or two. Sunday night I hardly slept so I called my doctor’s office yesterday and got an appointment in the afternoon. Â Seems I haven’t done any serious damage but my muscles are having spasms so I need to rest my shoulder and arm muscles and medicate for two weeks. I saw my physio afterwards and she did a massage on my shoulder which was quite painful at the time but made me feel better afterwards.
It’s interesting how the pain is more obviously from the fall now than it was five days ago when it was harder to work out where it was coming from.
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I seem to have been wrong
I was under the impression that my back pain was caused by overdoing one exercise or another even though I couldn’t work out exactly where I went wrong. And underneath I still had some anxiety about heart issues even though my symptoms seemed to indicate otherwise. It was more the worry that I should have gotten checked out just to be sure. But now I’m not at all worried on that account because I remembered last night how I hurt myself.
Just to preface, I have a plastic garden chair that I’ve been using for a desk chair for several months since mine was taken by Game Fanatic because his broke and was irreparable. The chair was bought for me to use in the shower post-surgery and has always been inside. Anyway, some things had been draped across the back of the chair last Sunday night and I stood up to do something and accidentally knocked the chair backwards about the time I started to sit down. I didn’t quite hit the chair on that occasion and instead landed with bottom on the floor and my left shoulder and back against part of the chair. While the chair isn’t particularly strong it obviously is solid enough that I felt pretty battered by the time I righted myself that night. I figured at the time that some bruises might come out but I didn’t feel like there were any issues.
And then I seem to have forgotten all about that incident until last night. This seems to explain everything that’s been happening this week and totally rules out any worries about my heart. So when I went to exercise at the gym today I wasn’t at all anxious about working too hard and enjoyed myself a lot more than I have lately. I even gave the rowing machine a bit of a go and it went well. Still haven’t seen my physio so I hope I can get in on Monday and be sure I haven’t knocked anything around that shouldn’t be knocked around.
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It was bound to happen
Yesterday marked the end of the second full month of our memberships at the local gym. It’s gone mostly well and even the occasional off-days didn’t put me off much. I’ve had to take time off the rower due to struggles in the past week or so with stamina and pace. I’m sure it will be fine later on. After taking it easy for a couple days I decided to go for the spin “class” in the fitness on demand room. It’s essentially a video class but with the fancy equipment. One of the spin bike positions has you leaning across the handlebars in “aero” position and at this point I got a sharp pain shooting down my arm from my shoulder. Stopping and starting again didn’t help so I avoided that position and made a couple other adaptations to the exercise and got through the class.
I must admit to getting anxious about heart issues as I recalled something like this as a symptom of heart attack. I decided I’d just take it easy through the rest of my exercise and see how things went. Later on I worked out that that the issue must be my shoulder because each time I moved my arms in certain positions I’d get the pain again. Also there’s a very tender spot on the shoulder which reminded me I’ve had repeated injuries to the shoulder over the past ten or fifteen years and most were never properly treated. I’m trying to get in to see my physio and see what I’ve done this time. Meanwhile I will stick with safer exercises like the treadmill and exercise bike so some healing can occur.
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A few odds and ends
My temporary job finished a few weeks ago and a Kenyan-born Indian woman invited everyone to lunch at her house. She cooked a lovely vegetarian meal with a dry potato curry, a mixed dahl soup, rice, chapatis, papadums, raita, and a carrot halva for dessert. It had some beautiful spices that just burst forth as you continue to eat. It was all quite delicious although it was a bit heavy on the carbohydrate with the rice, potatoes and breads. It was a pretty healthy meal but the dessert was rather rich and filled with butter.
I got home late in the afternoon feeling a bit sleepy so decided I should do at least a bit of exercise. All was going pretty well until the last part of my personal training routine when I had to do an exercise where I lifted my knees repeatedly. Towards the end of that I think my left kneecap popped off track, causing some pain and discomfort. I took a short break and managed to complete the last couple of minutes of the program although it I had to modify one of the exercises a bit to complete it. At the time I thought it was just a bit sore but hours later I notice that knee is quite swollen and this after taking anti-inflammatory painkillers. Hopefully the swelling will go down tomorrow but I will probably need to switch to some other exercise for a few days as most of the exercise program includes lots of knee movement.
Last week Lego Lover and I went to see a doctor with regard to taking part in a medication trial on low-dose Prozac to treat certain autistic behaviors. I met this doctor many years ago when I took Game Fanatic to see him about anxiety issues. He still remembered us after all these years even though we only met him once or twice. He thought our boys had some interesting neurochemistry going on. We have to go through three pre-trial interviews and assessments before it starts so we are still in the early stages and don’t know for certain if Lego Lover will be eligible.
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Exercise
I’ve been trying to get back into some regular exercise but it just isn’t happening like I’d like. In the past week, I’ve managed some sort of exercise on three days. I walked earlier in the week and then again yesterday. Today I rode my bike for the first time since my minor accident in February. The delay in riding my bike hasn’t been intentional but pretty much a matter of procrastination. I’d intended to take it to the shop to have it checked out and have yet to do that. I rode it today anyway because my left foot was hurting from my walk and I was determined to get outside and do something. Unfortunately, I got home and within an hour I started feeling twinges of pain in my left calf muscle. It’s just a tiny pain but it feels much like the pain I’ve had in the right calf muscle before. It wasn’t a particularly hard ride…about 15-20 minutes each way to a local shopping center. Anyway, it’s very frustrating again. It was a bit cool tonight so my guess is that my muscle didn’t warm up properly…which means I probably should have opted for something warmer than the shorts.
On a more positive note, I also started doing some abdominal exercises on my own today. I’d been doing some of them on the Wii programs but had to stop because they were getting too hard too quickly. I had been really pleased at my accomplishments earlier in the year so hopefully I will get back to where I was before and continue. I’m mostly doing bicycle crunches, modified push ups, and plank exercises to start and managed at least ten minutes today.
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More grumbles…
Not a lot has been happening over the past week or so. I took it easy for several days and I’m feeling a lot better. I still have a sore shoulder/upper arm and upper thigh…I guess these must be bruises but it’s hard to see the evidence of them. I fell on a snow scraper in 2002 where I never saw much of a bruise but it was sore for ages. Even now I get the occasional pain there so I don’t know what that’s all about. My grazes are healing…the big one is still covered and the Flexi-something or other still hasn’t fallen off. It’s kind of bugging me to have it on but it looks nicer and probably is protective now that the itchiness is really kicking in.
I’m feeling like my body is truly failing me at the moment. I was into such a good exercise routine and that’s all messed up. So now I’m craving sweets again. I really think the exercise helps keep that under some control. I’d have started back exercising but the calf pain is just not getting better. I’m accidentally pulling that muscle quite regularly, just going about my business. I’m making decisions about whether to return to the physiotherapist I saw a few years ago or start with someone new and probably will see about an appointment in the next day or two.
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Bruised
It’s a couple days since I had my little bike accident and I think today was worse than yesterday. Yesterday I was a bit sore and uncomfortable but I didn’t feel the aches and pains. This morning I had the aches and pains. Just after my last post, I found the neck soreness was getting worse much faster than I liked. I was pretty sure it was just muscle and nerve stuff happening but I was a bit nervous about it so called the Health Direct line…which, as usual, said to go to the hospital. They say that for almost everything. I think there has been one instance when they didn’t tell me…actually two…Once was when I had a centipede bite, I think. Last time I called was when Lego Lover had the rash breaking out everywhere and I was allowed to wait until the next morning.
I managed to wake the Scientist in the worst part of his sleep cycle. There was very little traffic on the way to the hospital but there were middle of the night roadworks going on closer to our destination. It was a rather bewildering journey through the detours and orange lane divider thingies…used to be cones but these are much more upright. The parking lot seemed pretty quiet when we arrived. This could have been deceptive like the last visit we had. But fortunately the waiting area in triage was all but empty. I got in and was seen pretty quickly by a junior medical officer. The nurse came and asked the usual questions and then took my blood pressure as the doctor came in. My blood pressure was 160/95 or thereabouts, which is very high for me. The doctor said it was probably the stress of being there…fair enough. After some poking and prodding and heaps of questions it was determined that I was okay. Aside from soreness, I had felt okay up to that point…but then I started to feel a bit sick and woozy so the doctor had me lie down instead of sitting on the bed. At the time I thought perhaps it was hunger as it had been many hours since I’d eaten much of anything.
The doctor went away to check with the senior medical officer and to write a letter for my gp in the event I needed follow-up. Meanwhile the nurse came to do a proper clean of the graze that runs from my elbow halfway down to my wrist. I obviously missed a few spots of dirt when cleaning. It stung rather badly but I ended up with a bandage that covered the entire area, unlike what we concocted here at home. It seemed it was going to continue to sting and throb through the night but it did eventually ease.
About an hour after we had arrived, we were on our way home. By that time, the waiting room was a bit busier but still pretty quiet. When we got home, I checked my blood glucose and it wasn’t low at all. When it goes low enough the body will kick in so that it rises…Hard to know about that. I also checked my blood pressure because the high readings were of concern to me. My blood pressure was back to being pretty low at 100/60, I think. I checked it again to be sure and it was the same. So my theory on the wooziness is perhaps my blood pressure had a sudden drop, which made me feel ill. It’s kind of curious they didn’t check it a second time at the hospital, especially seeing they had left the cuff on my arm the whole time I was there.
I’ve taken it easy the past couple of day and this afternoon I had a headache so took some ibuprofen and went to lie down for awhile. I ended up dozing off and napping off and on for a couple of hours. I hadn’t expected that today because I’d gone to bed reasonably early last night. But I think my sleep was rather broken due to waking often due to discomfort from both the bruises and being overly warm. Last night the temperature was cool enough that the air conditioner hardly came on. But the humidity was high enough to make it feel unbearably warm at times. I’m hoping to be a bit more active tomorrow. Unlike yesterday, the aches and pains don’t seem as bad tonight so I’m hoping that’s a good sign.
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Curse of the newly resurfaced road
Back when I was a kid, I only three or so bicycle accidents. I don’t remember the first but apparently I ran into our mailbox while going down our driveway. That was probably when I was new to the bicycle. The two I do recall both occurred pretty much in the same place on a newly resurfaced road. I’m not quite sure why the road had to be done twice in close succession…but I had a spill while going around a bend on the road.
Fast forward over thirty years…this evening I had another spill while trying to move from a newly resurface road onto a newly replaced footpath/cycle path. I had moved to the road to go around a couple who were walking and didn’t turn enough when moving back to the footpath and went flying…I’m now sporting some lovely scrapes on the left arm, hand and knee. My neck and shoulder have started hurting more recently and seem to be getting worse rather quickly…So will leave this for now and go rest the battered body.
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Viscious cycle of injury
A few weeks ago, I managed to injure myself in the form of a mild calf strain after several weeks of exercise. I dropped my exercise back to just walking for most of the past couple weeks. I also cut the number of sessions back so that I had more rest between sessions. After taking it easy on the exercise for a couple weeks, it was much better and seemed to be pretty close to being healed as of Friday. At least, I felt it was just about healed because I no longer experiencing any pain.
I guess I was wrong though. Friday afternoon, I had an earache and had gone to lie down after taking an ibuprofen. After I’d been resting a while, there was a knock at the door so I rushed to get to the door. That’s when I felt another popping sensation on the back of my leg and had to hobble, or perhaps hop, my way to the door before the person left. Turns out it was the delivery of the board games I’d ordered a couple days earlier. I signed for the package, then had to hobble back to the bedroom where I could collapse.
This business of injuries is very frustrating. When I exercise, I try to take care by warming up and cooling down. And yet, I seem to struggle with minor injuries. Sigh…
I felt a bit more mobile today so thought I might try to go for a walk this evening. The weather has cooled down enough that it’s quite pleasant in the evening. I had to put that idea out of mind because I am simply not up to it. The Scientist had already expressed doubt as to whether it was very advisable this morning, but I found out the hard way after a trip into Perth. Lego Lover and I had met up with a friend and her young son for lunch at Annalakshmi (a vegetarian Indian restaurant in Perth where you pay what you want). The area was a bit of a mess because they are setting up for the Perth International Arts Festival and streets were blocked off in various places so that regular parking wasn’t possible. I was driving down past one parking area and the road was blocked, well past the entrance to the paid parking lot, so that cars had to make U-turns to get out of there as it had stopped where the exit to the parking lot came out. Anyway, I ended up going back in the opposite direction to find free parking and we had to walk a fair ways to get to our destination. Every time I tried to hurry to cross a road I’d end up in pain from straining the muscle further. The walk back was much easier because we weren’t in such a hurry to be anywhere and could take advantage of benches and rest occasionally as we walked alongside the Swan River. I think I’d had enough exercise for one day by the time we reached our car. In hindsight, it would have been worthwhile to pay the parking fees and limit myself to a shorter walk.
I’m contemplating seeing a physio to help figure out a better plan before I do any further damage. And this time I might actually do it…