Tag: PT

Daily Life, Health, Motivation

That’s Going To Leave A Mark

I remember the days when you never had to think about doing things. Jumping over fences, climbing trees, picking things up, and running were all activities you took for granted. You just did them. You didn’t worry about stretching beforehand, ensuring you’d eaten enough protein, or if you were using proper form. I think in my head I still feel like that person much of the time. Reality has a way of reminding you those days are gone.

I did what every old man should avoid. I spent a day picking up and moving heavy furniture. I actually felt pretty good doing it. I never felt like I strained terribly hard or had to struggle to lift something. I was tired at the end of the day, but was pleased with myself for the effort I put in. I went to bed satisfied with a good day’s work.

The next morning I did a sit up to get out of bed and a huge alien looking thing popped straight out of my abdomen. I immediately laid back down. Holy shit, what was that? I slowly sat back up and my abdomen had that same big bulge projecting out in an unnatural way. I gingerly pushed and prodded a bit to see if it would go away. I laid back down and closed my eyes for a few minutes. I had a pretty good idea of what happened.

I was in such denial that I ignored it for most of the morning and went about my business. It was approaching lunch time and I snuck back into the bedroom to lay down and see if it was still there. Crap. I knew I was going to need to see a doctor. I reluctantly called in Mrs Troutdog and showed her. She was understandably alarmed. “Oh my god, what is that?”, she exclaimed. That sealed the deal. Off to the walk-in clinic I went.

Long story short I’ve either torn or separated the linea alba. That’s the connective tissue that holds the abdominal muscles together. Sigh.

I don’t know what it means yet. I have a surgical consult next week to see what, if anything, needs to be done about it. The initial doctor said twisting motions should be fine, but don’t be lifting anything. I’m unclear if I can ride a bike, motorcycle, etc…

My prediction is that the answer will be lose weight, strengthen the transverse abdominals, don’t do crunches, sit ups, or deadlifts, and work with physical therapy for some number of weeks. But who knows? Maybe it will require a surgical repair.

My fear is that my new reality will be a long-term limitation to activities in some fashion regardless of the answer. It also means that getting serious about the weight loss, and proper strength training, are no longer optional. Will I have the discipline to actually follow through with it? It’s ironic – as an RN I lectured countless post operative patients that their quality of life will now be dependent upon how dedicated were towards rehab and PT. I’d give a judgmental look at a patient and just know that they won’t do anything to help themselves, and will show up with the same problem a few years down the road.

Looks like I’m finally going to have to eat my own words.

As Dirty Harry said in the movie Magnum Force, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” Clearly, I didn’t know mine.

Daily Life, Health, Motivation

I Don’t Understand How This Happens

Years ago I had a pretty good crash on the mountain bike. A broken rib and big-time shoulder pain. Being a dude, I never really did anything about it. Eventually (like a year+ later) the pain in my shoulder became unbearable. Every night after dinner I’d have to sit with a heating pad on my shoulder to calm the ache down enough to be able to sleep. Finally, I went in to have it looked at. An MRI confirmed what the doc suspected with his physical examination – a torn supraspinatus (part of the rotator cuff) and subsequent arthritis since I never did anything about the injury when it happened. Side note – the big-ass needle used to inject contrast dye deep into the shoulder hurt way more than the injury itself.

The doc said that the tear wasn’t large enough justify surgery and prescribed PT. I went for a while. I’ve mentioned before that the gym isn’t my thing so eventually, I abandoned any sort of structured rehab. Fast forward and the end result has been that my shoulder always hurts. Any sort of overhead pulling or pushing motion is a no-go, which has always been my excuse for not doing pullups.

Anyway, over the winter I started using a strength conditioning coach and we worked pretty hard on my shoulder. For the first time I started seeing progress. The pain was going away. My range of motion improved enough that I was able to slowly start working on the pullup motion. Hey, maybe this really was fixable! A pain free shoulder would be amazing.

Well, me being me… I’ve fallen off the workout wagon the last two months. Life, ugly weather, and the previously mentioned hatred of the gym makes it super hard to stay motivated. Yeah, a pitiful excuse I know. It is what it is.

So, three days ago I woke up, rolled over and tried to get out of bed. Intense shooting pain in that shoulder. Unable to even lift my arm type of pain. It’s the exact same spot and exact same pain I had previously. It’s gotten slightly better, but I still can’t lift my arm over my head without pain. It aches all day long.

I have officially reached the age where I manage to hurt myself sleeping. I don’t even understand how this is possible? How in the world do I sleep in a funny position for long enough that it torques my shoulder sufficient enough to re-aggravate an old injury? I mean, seriously? Who hurts themselves sleeping?

To make matters worse, I leave in a week for a three-day offroad motorcycle class. It’s guaranteed there will be multiple crashes and frequent picking up of a 500+ pound motorcycle. I don’t know how this is going to work if my shoulder continues to feel like it does right now.

Currently I’m vacillating between giving in to old age or resolving to spend two hours in the gym every day. Sigh… I’m not going to give in, but man it sure is hard sometimes to remain motivated.

Now I’m afraid to go to sleep for fear of what new injury I’ll wake up to.

Daily Life, Health

Injury Update And Big Boy Pants

It’s been just about a month since I injured my back. Today, I deadlifted at the gym. Not much weight, but a full deadlift. Zero pain. I can’t tell you how happy that made me. I’ve been super lucky through life and have had very few injuries. This was the first time I had to make a conscious effort to figure out pain management, and what to do to fix the problem. I honestly think this could have been one of those things that at my age, had I not been aggressive about PT/rehab, could have drifted into a chronic issue that limited my activities for a very long time.

But it didn’t. Because I put my big boy pants on and refused to give in. I continued to work hard with a good strength and conditioning trainer. I did mobility work on my own. I aggressively used heat and a TENS unit to stimulate the muscles. I think most importantly – I just kept moving. Hiking, walking, riding the motorcycle. With lots of warm-up, I did some mountain biking. Last week I was able to do some (slow) trail running again. I massively upped my protein intake. Continued movement, targeted strength work, and holistic pain management techniques and we’re back in the game. Four weeks of work and I think I’m at least back to where I was pre-injury.

I left the gym today with a pretty good endorphin high. I was just super pumped to be able to do a deadlift pain-free. It gave me all kinds of motivation. I came home and pulled out and dusted off the daily vitamin regime. Drank a crapload of water. What I realized driving home from the gym is that in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t take very long to make a change. Four weeks and I was able to rehab an injury and probably come out the other side stronger than I was before. That wasn’t much time.

If I put my mind to it, what else can I accomplish in the next four weeks? Last night I was listing to a Navy Seal talking about the initial six months of training. He laughed and said all that crap you seen on TV – BUDS, Hell Week, etc… are actually the easiest part of the overall training. He said that really all they’re looking for are people who can shut everything else out and just focus on the immediate task. The next ten feet. The next 5 minutes. People who can’t stop thinking about how much further or longer they have to go, fail. That’s it. It’s that simple.

It’s true. We step on the scale obsessively. The idea of going for a run every day seems impossible. I have so much else to do today, there’s no time to get a workout in. I have so much weight to lose, I don’t see myself every reaching my goal. I can’t run 3 miles without walking, how am I ever going to get back to what I used to be able to do? Too much focus on the macro picture, and you’ll fail.

So, what’s the lesson? I’m going to stop thinking about the weight loss number or running mileage. Instead, I’m just going to try to win every hour. Today I went to the gym early. I organized and took my daily supplements. I ate well. Now what? I’m just going to focus on what’s in front of me each hour. Water instead of soda. Intentional calories instead of snacking. Find 20 minutes this afternoon to do some mobility work. I don’t need a beer (or two) tonight. Water instead. Go to bed early. Rinse, repeat. My only goal for the next month is to keep focus on the task at hand. Hour by hour. We’ll see where that gets us in the next four weeks.

I put on my big boy pants, stepped up and paid the man this last month. Now, let’s pay him again tomorrow.