What’s Going On?
Man, I’ll be honest with you peeps, it’s been a roller coaster month again. Â It started out pretty good, pain-free for the most part. Â I rode too much over the weekend of April 9/10 (see previous entry for details) and has some soreness after that. Â It wasn’t actually all that bad; mostly muscle pain.
Over the past week, though, I’ve been in a world of suck. Â It’s back to feeling injured — the swollen deep core pain that I haven’t felt since getting the epidural. Â Fortunately it’s tapering off a bit, and I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s tied to monthly hormones and thus transient instead of an actual injury, but I won’t sugarcoat — I’ve been damned frustrated over the past week or so.
I’m resolved to give it another week before I get really pissed off at the universe, though, because today is admittedly much better than yesterday. Â Perhaps I can get away with shaking my fist and giving the universe the stinkeye without having to actually get angry with it. 😉
So, what’s the plan?
- I see my back doc on Monday but am not expecting anything other than an offer to do another epidural injection.
- Peter and I are starting a six-week program (one class per week) next Tuesday at the Esther Gokhale Wellness Center. Â A coworker recommended the class to me; he took it a few months ago after having back surgery. Â Peter and I went to her free introductory class last month and were very impressed, so we signed up for the “real” class. Â It seems to be part posture, part “learning to move”, part anatomy. Â I’ve got her book and am trying to incorporate some of her posture advice into my daily life.
- I saw my general practitioner for a checkup a couple of weeks ago and she mentioned the Stanford Pain Clinic. Â I may look into this a bit more; it seems like it’s primarily for people with substantial pain (like, “I can’t function without heavy narcotics” pain) but it would probably be worth investigating.
- Melinda has a coworker that she says has a knack for figuring out what’s wrong with people. 😉 Â She’s going to give me his info and I may make an appointment.
- I’d like to try acupuncture; not sure if I’ll get to it this month.
Exercise.
- I switched this month from daily stretching/exercise to doing the stretching routine only after my gym workouts. Â I think this is reducing the muscle pain I was having as I’m now only really stretching after warming everything up.
- Inversion table probably 3x/week on average.
- I’m using the foam roller and its ilk at least 3x/week.
- Still weekly training with Melinda.
- I’m currently in Week 6 of Couch to 5K, and it’s going great. Â A single workout is now about 3000 steps and I’m able to walk at a brisk pace for 20 minutes straight (no pain during or after).
Motorcycling.
- The motorcycling is going well in general, though 50 miles seems to still be about the tipping point.
- I learned my lesson this month — do EITHER 20+ miles OR ride two days in a row, but not both. Â Sigh. Â This injury has had too many lessons. Â I’m sick of learning things; when can I just ride the damn bike again?
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