Saw my Doc this morning...
Nov. 4th, 2013 05:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osodecanelaGood news - I just crossed the 30 lbs mark, 11 since I last saw her 2 weeks ago. Would appear the first plateau I hit was relatively short lived.
Bad news - left ankle is flaring up from overuse. Not the inflammatory arthritis, but more from walking too much on a previously damaged joint. I did do a 5 mile run on the elliptical on Saturday, plus two hikes of 3 and 1.5 miles on Wednesday last.
We talked about the changes in life and what active choices I'm making. I shared that I'm taking the stairs up at the hospital, but the elevator down. I'm concerned about not taxing the left ankle by stepping down on it too hard coming down the stairs. She countered about increasing the use of my right quad to cushion the ankle going down. I cross countered I had increased the incline on the elliptical to provide more resistance and build the quads more for just that reason. (That part of the interchange almost felt like fencing.)
I'm open to telling her what I'm not enjoying and what I have to force myself to do. Love the elliptical. Don't love lifting weights and resistance training for the upper body. Have gone swimming, and I suck at doing laps. (She of course pointed out that my ankle will love the water.) I almost went into the Zumba class at the gym on Saturday when I got there, but not knowing it was going on, I got there 10 minutes after it started. I watched for a few minutes and decided to hit the elliptical instead, as the room was PACKED. Maybe next week. IF the ankle isn't still complaining. It doesn't seem to bother me much after the elliptical. Walking on open ground seems to be harder on it after the second mile. I'm also not liking walking out where we live, due to the footing. The roads are not well paved and paths are often very steep, and being that it's rural, street lighting is minimal after dark. I worry about falling or twisting an ankle and given my childhood klutz factor, I did that way to often as a kid/teen, not to mention that I've fractured each ankle once during my mid 20's (the first one dancing at my sister's wedding and the other three weeks later trying to maneuver down a flight of stairs in a cast and crutches, at LJ's old apartment buidling.) (Did I mention I'm the reason south-paws are thought to be accident prone?)
My cardiac conditioning is surprising both of us. My resting heart rate is now in the mid 50's again, which is were it was in college and med school when I was bike commuting.
It's way too early for me to be thinking about how it will feel when my avoirdupois is gone, to wonder what I will look like and what it will be like to be an average sized person in society, but there have been moments where it feels that someday in the next couple of years, that will be a reality for me. It's beginning to feel tangible.
I have packed up some of the clothing that has gotten too large for me to wear. No, its not freakishly large on me, but why wear something too large when I have appropriately sized things hanging in the closet? It reaffirms the positive changes. Further, boxing up the large stuff frees up room for me to see what is appropriate for me to wear. However, I'm not yet in a place, where I'm ready to get rid of it. Why?
Fear.
My testing for celiac disease was negative. Not everyone tests positive. After going onto the gluten free diet, testing should revert to negative after a while, although the month between when I got rid of the wheat and when I tested would be shorter than typical. I've had remissions of my arthritis before, though never both the arthritis AND my psoriasis simultaneously. If I go another 6 months with no flare of the arthritis or my psoriatic skin disease, I think I'll be more trusting that this is my new normal. Until then, I have plenty of room in the garage for boxes of large clothing.
Besides, I have 1/2 dozen unopened shirts that are now too big for me. Time to think about eBay. Well, maybe in the spring. After all, they are light weight shirts.
Bad news - left ankle is flaring up from overuse. Not the inflammatory arthritis, but more from walking too much on a previously damaged joint. I did do a 5 mile run on the elliptical on Saturday, plus two hikes of 3 and 1.5 miles on Wednesday last.
We talked about the changes in life and what active choices I'm making. I shared that I'm taking the stairs up at the hospital, but the elevator down. I'm concerned about not taxing the left ankle by stepping down on it too hard coming down the stairs. She countered about increasing the use of my right quad to cushion the ankle going down. I cross countered I had increased the incline on the elliptical to provide more resistance and build the quads more for just that reason. (That part of the interchange almost felt like fencing.)
I'm open to telling her what I'm not enjoying and what I have to force myself to do. Love the elliptical. Don't love lifting weights and resistance training for the upper body. Have gone swimming, and I suck at doing laps. (She of course pointed out that my ankle will love the water.) I almost went into the Zumba class at the gym on Saturday when I got there, but not knowing it was going on, I got there 10 minutes after it started. I watched for a few minutes and decided to hit the elliptical instead, as the room was PACKED. Maybe next week. IF the ankle isn't still complaining. It doesn't seem to bother me much after the elliptical. Walking on open ground seems to be harder on it after the second mile. I'm also not liking walking out where we live, due to the footing. The roads are not well paved and paths are often very steep, and being that it's rural, street lighting is minimal after dark. I worry about falling or twisting an ankle and given my childhood klutz factor, I did that way to often as a kid/teen, not to mention that I've fractured each ankle once during my mid 20's (the first one dancing at my sister's wedding and the other three weeks later trying to maneuver down a flight of stairs in a cast and crutches, at LJ's old apartment buidling.) (Did I mention I'm the reason south-paws are thought to be accident prone?)
My cardiac conditioning is surprising both of us. My resting heart rate is now in the mid 50's again, which is were it was in college and med school when I was bike commuting.
It's way too early for me to be thinking about how it will feel when my avoirdupois is gone, to wonder what I will look like and what it will be like to be an average sized person in society, but there have been moments where it feels that someday in the next couple of years, that will be a reality for me. It's beginning to feel tangible.
I have packed up some of the clothing that has gotten too large for me to wear. No, its not freakishly large on me, but why wear something too large when I have appropriately sized things hanging in the closet? It reaffirms the positive changes. Further, boxing up the large stuff frees up room for me to see what is appropriate for me to wear. However, I'm not yet in a place, where I'm ready to get rid of it. Why?
Fear.
My testing for celiac disease was negative. Not everyone tests positive. After going onto the gluten free diet, testing should revert to negative after a while, although the month between when I got rid of the wheat and when I tested would be shorter than typical. I've had remissions of my arthritis before, though never both the arthritis AND my psoriasis simultaneously. If I go another 6 months with no flare of the arthritis or my psoriatic skin disease, I think I'll be more trusting that this is my new normal. Until then, I have plenty of room in the garage for boxes of large clothing.
Besides, I have 1/2 dozen unopened shirts that are now too big for me. Time to think about eBay. Well, maybe in the spring. After all, they are light weight shirts.
