I have to change my mindset in order to make my exercise routine more palatable. There is nothing more depressing than realizing all the movements you have to avoid just to prevent exacerbating injuries. It doesn't help when the push to incorporate weight lifting and other activities is everywhere, especially in the goal to attain "healthy aging." I went to the gym yesterday, got there late but did my cardio on the elliptical. Skipped pull-ups, did a bunch of sets of low, low weight at the Seated Cable Row and had my right ear clog up. Back to circulatory congestion in the right shoulder and neck. Ugh.
The Aerobics Room has a new crack in one of the mirrored walls. No doubt some idiot decided to watch themselves swing a kettle bell. I don't understand why people insist on performing their movements a foot away from the pile of mats and other equipment, as if no one else needs access to it. Is it insecurity? Is that big pile reassuring? It's damn inconvenient for the rest of us, but a lot of people have "main character syndrome." Yes, that's a new term I recently read about, and it seems very accurate.
After crunches, I tried out a few Dead Bugs just to see how they felt. The first set of 20 was okay with alternating limbs. The second set with parallel limbs had my toes go numb. Okay, that's enough. I could've done three more sets, but that ran the risk of having my entire foot go numb or worse, and I didn't want to deal with that. I also skipped push-ups again, choosing not to aggravate the wonky shoulder. I have no idea what's wrong with it, and eventually, I'll test it by doing a few pull-ups or other shoulder-depending movements, like DB presses or BB skull crushers.
Today is Tuesday and I actually got everything on my "to do" list done, like fix my broken mailbox post, put a block of solid foam insulation in the empty basement window frame, cut back most of the dead milkweed stalks and leaving the few still green stems with seed pods ripening. I bought Joe Pye weed seeds as well as Butterfly Bush and Swamp Milkweed, and fully intend to start seedlings in March-April for next year.
Meanwhile, I'm watching the four Venus flytraps I have outside begin to acclimatize and prepare for winter dormancy. Still, I'm surprised at the insistence of yellow jackets in investigating these plants. The bees have been frantically visiting the few wrinkly remaining jewel weed flowers. Most have gone to plump, explosive seed pods. But no bees visit the flytraps. I still have blooms on the butterfly bushes as well clover and flea bane. The flytraps now have spicy yellow jackets as last meals... I won't put them into the unheated garage until temps stay low. Right now day time temps are in the 60s so that's actually decently warm.
Yesterday, at the grocery, I noticed a hapless very large dragonfly trapped inside the vestibule, beating its wings trying to escape the glass it didn't understand. Another woman also stopped and offered to hold my empty shopping bag, but I just dropped it on the floor, cupped my hands around the creature (it was a good 5" long) and stepped outside. At first, it clung to my fingers, and then it took off toward the low Western sun (yes, it was late afternoon). Yaaay! The woman grinned. A tiny life saved...
My collarbone was throbbing and woke me up this morning an hour before my alarm was set to ring. What's more disconcerting is that I was asleep flat on my back, not twisted into some odd pretzel shape to alleviate sciatic lower back discomfort and calf pain. Actually, my sciatica hasn't been horrible the past few days. It's definitely present, just not horrible. The right shoulder, on the other hand, has been sporadically terrible, taking great offense at turning my steering wheel while backing into the driveway, or twisting to slather cream on my backside, or untangling myself from dog leashes as we walk along the road.
I've had issues with this shoulder for decades but "frozen shoulder" or "mouse shoulder" was never really treated by an actual orthopedic doctor. It's had limited mobility but never actual pain until lately. I already know there's too many stray blood vessels snaking throughout the neck and shoulder on that side and yes, I am physiologically very asymmetrical. There might've been an untreated labrum tear or maybe this is bursitis? The symptoms fit except for having pain while laying flat, but I'm an anomalous person...
I went to the gym but decided to baby the shoulder. Unfortunately, there's not a lot things you can do without utilizing your shoulders. After cardio (slightly better than last time but still pretty awful), I skipped pull-ups cuz that was much, much too painful to try again and decided on a super lightweight cable row. It was literally just two bricks on the stack, totaling a measly 30 lbs. The close grip handle was heavy (there's a lighter pair floating around but I didn't want to waste time searching for it) but slowly rowing the cable back was easy. At least for the first ten reps. Then it got harder, but only because that pesky right shoulder started to complain.
I took breaks and hoped that the shoulder would relax after warm up reps. Mostly, that worked, with the joint complaining near the 20 rep mark for the remaining sets. It wasn't anything of a challenge for the rest of me: back, biceps, well maybe forearms but only because I have a problem with gripping for too long: my fingers spasm and yeah, I guess Raynaud's takes over at that point.
I don't do a lot in the Aerobics Room because what can you do that doesn't involved a whole shoulder, or a whole lower quadrant? Not a lot. Crunches, hamstring stretches, cat/camel, fire hydrants, air squats... that's pretty much it. I guess I'll have to look at another orthopedic doc for my shoulder. I'd really like to see someone local instead of driving an hour to another town in another state.
The weather has been dry and sunny and a bit cold in the evenings. I finally had to call a new fuel oil company and fill my oil tank cuz winter's coming, and no one expects prices to drop. Meanwhile, the fall foliage has been stunning, and the milkweed pods are starting to burst open and let float away those downy seed carriers.
Meanwhile, I saw a very intense movie yesterday with a friend from the dog park. We were the only two people watching the matinee show of The Heart of the Beast. But first, I had to check the reviews to make sure the dog doesn't die cuz I hate those. It's such a well-known preference among dog people that the movie itself starts with the dog standing in the road and then flashes back a week, removing all doubt that the dog, Odin, does indeed survive. Because the human, Brad Pitt, does not, we are gripping our seats wondering when that event happens. And there's a lot of catastrophic events. It feels almost mythical, like a hero's travel through the underworld to reach the Elysian Fields...
It's beautifully shot with New Zealand standing in for Alaska. Those of us familiar with survival skills whether through Scouting or other adventures will recognize a lot of the techniques and equipment used throughout. (My friend had to ask me about the fire starter kit and those fluffy white things. Yeah, those are cotton balls and you squirt some vaseline on it and it helps start your damp kindling.) This is a movie that sticks with you long after you've watched it. I can't recommend it enough, but fair warning, it's really not for little kids even if some say it's a "family film". It's not Mary Poppins. But it's well worth seeing, especially on the big screen.
Last Monday was a holiday and I went to the gym since half of everything was closed. I didn't work out. Instead, because my sciatica was acting up from Saturday's photo nature walk, and my shoulder was inexplicably throbbing for no reason (except maybe that I hauled a couple of bags of garden soil from Tractor Supply back to my garage)... I spent 20 minutes in the sauna. I haven't been in there since it got repaired over a year ago. It hits 198F so it didn't take too long for me to be done and need a shower.
As I was dressing afterward, I noticed weird red lace patterns on my skin in irregular patches on my thighs and arms. I've seen this before, but usually on people exiting freezing cold swimming pools. This is usually associated with Raynaud's Syndrome, where blood vessels in the extremities spasm and contract, usually painfully. This blotching is livedo reticularis, and can be related to a reaction to cold or autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, blood clotting disorders or certain medications.
What's weird is that these blotches appeared a good 30 minutes after the steam room, long after being overheated. They faded and didn't hurt or itch. They're just weird and will probably happen again. But it didn't happen in the eucalyptus steamroom at Mohonk Mountain House last week. So, it's a mystery.
A dog park friend raved about a CBD cream she uses for back pain. That encouraged me to finally visit the local new CBD shop in town. They offer creams, oils, gummies, vapes, nutritional supplements, and therapies such as massage and yoga. I bought a CBD cream that does not have any psychoactive THC, but does contain arnica and MSM. It actually might be more effective than the OTC creams I've used like Penetrex and Voltaren. My appointment for a cortisone shot isn't until mid-November a good 30 minutes away. I'm hopeful for more complete pain relief.
I've been fighting excruciating fatigue all week, mostly an hour or two after my second round of eye drops, which is a beta blocker. But excruciating fatigue is not on the list of side effects, and the other symptoms seem standard, like dry eyes, burning, stinging, itching. Those are akin to allergies... Of course, I'm chronically sleep deprived and lately, the fatigue has been winning. Yesterday I fell asleep on the sofa and honestly, that's the most comfortable position for my sciatica, where I can sleep slightly upright but without any pressure on my right hip or shoulder.
I was again tempted to skip the gym due to lethargy but the chill, rainy weather helped motivate me. Once I get moving, I can push past the brain fog and desire to hibernate. I got to the gym late but the gym wasn't too crowded. Elliptical for 35 minutes. My worst time and mileage in a long time. Today, the sciatica wasn't as problematic as the shoulder. It was the shoulder that really hurt pull-ups. (It's the shoulder that's twinging as I try to snap my seatbelt in the car, and that's a new distress.) It'll be the shoulder that causes problems with my light weight but high rep DB routine.
I dropped reps on the triceps portion of the routine but maintained the other sets. It's true that you can only focus on one point of pain at a time, so while my shoulder worried me, my sciatica was relatively quiet. In the Aerobics Room, I did the minimum and skipped Dead Bugs because I didn't want to find out if doing them would be a mistake. I didn't try push-ups because even arm circles promised pain. When your body says Nope, you should listen.
Meanwhile, I'm divided between loving and hating a new horizontal hair clip. The problem with traditional hair clips is that they stick out and push your head forward when there's a headrest, like in a car. These new ones have a flat lower profile because they clip from the side. They're great like that, but not as easy to disengage so it became inconvenient for weight lifting when I'm constantly moving between laying flat on a bench and standing for DB lateral raises, when I don't want my hair or my earbud tethers stuck to my neck.
Meanwhile, have you all caught all the vids of Danny Elfman performing on stage? He is rocking an amazing bod, especially for someone in his 70s. Who is Danny Elfman? Only the lead singer to Oingo Boingo, and the composer to well-known Nightmare Before Christmas, and other Tim Burton films, the theme to The Simpsons and other popular TV shows... No drugs, no alcohol, claims to work out light weights, high reps. Eats a very disciplined diet. Of course, that hair is definitely an unnatural color, but he seems genuinely nice.
I had the odd thought to look up side effects for tryptophan and discovered that it is implicated in vascular spasms of the extremities. Which might explain the stabbing pain toes on my left foot have been experiencing. I'm still reluctant to label these Raynaud's since I don't suffer from color changes (extremities turning blue or white) or that these spasms occur during temperature changes. I have very small bony fingers and toes and they are ridiculously sensitive to cold, but honestly it hasn't been cold enough for that.
I don't do well with heat either but that's more a function of the ichthyosis vulgaris. All this means is that I'm skipping the 500 mg tryptophan capsule I was taking before bedtime with 100 mg of chelated magnesium glycinate. The bottle dosage calls for 2 capsules, but 200 mg is too much for my system. There's a reason magnesium is used as a laxative.
I had to rearrange my morning schedule because the boiler repair fellow was supposed to show up between 8-10 today. But he didn't and I took the dogs to the park super early for no reason. They missed playing with doggy pals but we'll meet up tomorrow. Then the repair fellow said today between 1-3 and I decided I'm going to the gym and not wait. As it turns out, he got super busy and didn't make it today. Now he's coming next week.
At Mohonk Mountain House
Tomorrow I have my first appointment with the pain management doc. I don't know how these things work, if it's just a consult, if he'll want newer x-rays, or if I'll actually get a steroid shot to the lower back. I wonder if I'll still be sore from the deep tissue massage I got on Tuesday. My husband & I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary by scheduling a spa day at Mohonk Mountain House about 1.5 hours north of us. We had our knots worked out of shoulders and necks. And I asked my masseuse to spend time on that recalcitrant right calf. It made me a bit squirmy but definitely worth it.
I did make it to the gym today making this twice in a week. The elliptical sucked pedaling forward, was infinitely better pedaling backward and was thankful to make it barely past 5000 steps. Stepping off the machine leaves the top of my right foot buzzing and the tips of several toes tingling. The Stretch Cage is challenging, but I manage a skosh over a dozen so I felt a tiny bit better. It's not like I've completely lost the ability to pull myself up. Yet.
The flat benches are lodged between the bench/squat cages so I roll one out to the middle of the weight area. There are benches in front of the DB rack but none lay flat properly since they're basically adjustable reclining seated benches. A distinctly Eastern European type woman grabs the 30 lb solid BB for clean and jerk movements.
I can improvise and grab the 20 lb BB and slap 2.5 lb disc magnets to each end. That's good for warm up sets. The other woman is done after a few quick sets so I'm able to swap out my BB for the standard 30 lbs when I'm ready. My sciatica doesn't bother me much, not even while doing Lateral DB Raises while standing. Weird. It's great when I'm not in pain, but I can never tell when I'm going to feel okay doing something.
I was the only one watching today
The Aerobics Room is empty and slightly cooler than the rest of the gym. Because the doors are all open, there are also flies buzzing through. I'm still skipping everything that's been aggravating in the past: Dead Bugs, Bird Dogs, Push-ups... I feel pretty decent. In fact, I decided to stick around and watch a film that I'd just read the reviews on this morning.
It was the last day for this film at the local cinema and I hadn't known anything about it, but the reviewer liked it a lot and sort of gave a quick spoiler alert -- which is fine considering I hadn't even thought to see this movie. At least afternoon movies are relatively reasonable here at $11. They're $7 on Tuesdays.
It's Tom Cruise's latest film, Digger. And if I hadn't seen the review, I would've have been thoroughly perplexed. But it is a good film, although a bit depressing, even though it's meant to be cathartic at the end, in any event. It's a bit like Don't Look Up, or The Apprentice, both which didn't do well at the box office.
I've been lax about getting to the gym lately. In fact, it's been a week. My sciatica has been persistently aggravating, and I've been consumed with overwhelming fatigue, the type that people on beta blockers complain about. Wait... I'm on a beta blocker: it's one of my glaucoma meds but I've been on my meds for months so it seems weird that suddenly I'd be suffering side effects. I also got my senior dose (extra strength) flu shot along with a Covid booster, cuz I'm the person most likely to contract the flu for no apparent reason. It's also highly unlikely that this fatigue is a side effect from the booster shots I got last week, but anything is possible. At least I'm not sick.
My shoulder, however, has been difficult and seems to be losing mobility. It's been problematic for decades, literally since the 80s. Which is why, when I finally dragged my butt to the gym today, I skipped the pull-ups. Not only did I already know it was going to aggravate my already aggravated sciatica, but it wasn't going to do my shoulder any favors. I was already tempting fate by pushing some DBs about after doing cardio. And cardio really hurt today. I knew it was going to hurt because I hurt just limping into the gym.
I cut my cardio short by 10 minutes, tapped in 20 minutes at Manual which meant I controlled the elevation, and of course, there's 5 minutes for cool down. Pedaling forward was always more painful than backward. Pedaling at low elevation was also more painful than high. I felt slightly guilty not even attempting pull-ups but honestly, I was in too much pain and too tired to put myself through that ordeal. The shoulder was not happy with the triceps workout, especially at the beginning. Normally the complaints stop after the joint warms up, but that never happened. The shoulder was twinging the entire session.
I did the first set of DB Lateral Raises as a seated warm up. It's a lot harder to do this movement sitting on the bench. But because I've babied my sciatica this entire workout (by not aggravating it with pull-ups), standing for DB Laterals with the slightly heavier DBs didn't hurt the way it has in past workouts. At least I didn't suffer any toe spasms at the gym.
Yes, a new, incredibly sharply painful thing is happening to my left big toe: horribly debilitating spasms. I'm guessing they're vascular spasms but the internet has no reasonable explanations except to point me to Raynaud's Syndrome, and this is definitely not that. Nerves don't spasm, muscles do, but that doesn't seem to line up with the actual sensations. It's a mystery that I hope dissipates soon because it is mysterious in its origins and nothing good can come of it.
what I ordered
I've been advised by the monarch butterfly community to plant more native butterfly feeder plants. Milkweeds are not enough. I bought two butterfly bushes a few weeks ago and only put one in the ground. The other one got a large pot. I have bad soil, all clay and rocks. The potted one is doing a lot better and has been visited by a very tattered Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly for the past week.
These are the butterflies that arrive just as the milkweeds bloom in late June, dancing and flirting and mating. They're not known to migrate, or even use milkweeds for their cats (caterpillars). Still, I'm happy to see it with its torn and frayed lower wings. I'm thinking I'll get a few more butterfly bushes and hope they overwinter okay.
clearly not my order
Meanwhile, I ordered an actual butterfly cage just to have just in case. It arrived today from Walmart and I was quite excited, until I opened the box and saw that they had shipped me a completely different butterfly cage. I would keep it except it's worth half the amount and I've been charged for the original cage and it's a lot smaller (with an 8" diameter). Which means I have to trek to Walmart to return it and maybe an exchange but it's doubtful they have what I want in stock. Ugh.
Taking NSAIDs daily caught up with me with an irritated stomach so I stopped taking them. It was actually not so bad for a few days. Then my sciatica woke me up at 4 AM this morning and I popped three ibuprofen tablets just to go back to sleep. The week has been hectic, especially when the shower handle broke and we had to turn the water off to the entire house for a few days. While we're experienced Boy Scout campers, not having indoor plumbing gets old really fast. Luckily, the plumber was able to replace the faulty section. It wasn't cheap, but being able to flush the toilet and wash your hands right afterward, run the laundry, and wash the dishes are all things that are so much more difficult to do without running water.
After
In my yard, a lone chrysalis promised to eclose during the nor'easter so I snipped the stalk and brought it inside. Butterflies are relatively fragile when newly emerged and we didn't know how hard it would rain, or how wild the winds would be. (We got a lot of rain and the wind knocked leaves and branches down, but we were relatively unscathed.) This is the only chrysalis I've ever witnessed in all the milkweeds I've planted for all the years I've planted. Since I hadn't expected to host a newly emergent monarch butterfly, I was ill prepared. I ran out to the local grocery to buy a pop-up net laundry basket and covered the open top with a large net laundry bag. Perfect.
The monarch emerged sometime during the night which surprised me. It's probably a female based on the lack of distinctive scent spots on the lower wings. I put a slice of watermelon at the bottom for nutrition since there aren't really any flowers to offer it. I read that if the temps are below 60F, the butterflies will not be able to fly so I've been waiting for this cool spell to pass. Tomorrow will be in the 70s and I can send this late season creature on its migration journey.
I got to the gym late but still managed to pedal the elliptical, attempt some paltry pull-ups (my right shoulder is really messed up), push some DBs, do minimum core work and stretches in the Aerobics Room. I attempted kneeling push-ups and found myself sliding across the mat which was frustrating. Then I did a few regular push-ups and it wasn't the sciatica that hurt as much as it was the shoulder. Pushing those DBs earlier really aggravated everything. I feel better having exercised but it's alarming how many body parts are accumulating damage that isn't recovering in a timely manner if at all.
The local Job Lot has some interesting items that sometimes persist for weeks, like Preserved Quail Eggs, or things I hope never to see again, like Tobacco Syrup. Honestly, I've never seen tobacco as a flavoring agent, especially considering that nicotine is considered a potent insecticide. (My grandmother would buy a cigar, soak it in water and then use that water in a spray bottle to kill the aphids on her houseplants.) I can't imagine what you would use this for... something nefarious?
29 September 2026 1:07-2:58
Sciatica Tuesday
Precor elliptical #1 (1:45)
Program #1
Time: 30 + 5 (5144)
Distance: 2.70
Cal: 292
Precor HR: 137, 180-109
Google Health: 46-130
(Foot numb / calf clenched )
HGPU 13 (right shoulder/sciatica)
Skip right leg lunge stretch
(1:55)
Incl DB Press s/s Lateral Raises s/s Alt Seated DB Curls
Yesterday I stopped taking the daily dose of NSAIDs that I've been using to tolerate the discomfort from my sciatica. For weeks my sciatica would wake me at 4 AM because my leg and glute ached from being in bed. I'd pop several ibuprofens and go back to sleep for a few hours until I had to walk the dogs. Then I decided to take the meds before bed as a prophylactic, hoping to not wake up at 4 AM every night. That worked for a while. Then I read that taking a combo of acetaminophen and ibuprofen worked better for lasting pain relief: one drug affects the brain pain center and the other reduces the inflammation causing the nerves to be triggered.
That worked for a while. Not well, but well enough to proceed with daily life. The only problem was that eventually, my stomach started to complain. And in response, I started to snack more. A lot more. My stomach still complained. It would gurgle and ache to feign hunger and I would comply with snacks. That worked at first, but then my stomach would complain even louder and angrier. I kept searching for the perfect food to appease it... something soothing and creamy? Or chewy and dense. Yogurt, buttered bread, cheese and crackers? Hours later it would gurgle and I'd be surprised. I'd speak to it like it was a wayward pet, "you can't possibly be hungry again!"
garter snake
The rest of me has noticed and my clothes are getting a bit tight. Time to give up the snacking. Also time to stop taking the NSAIDs and hope for the best. Worse, I've noticed for the past year or more that my right hip seems larger when I look down at it. Maybe an exaggeration from the slight scoliosis I have? It's nowhere near as bad as my glaucoma doc. She showed me her x-ray yesterday when I went in for a follow-up and to tell them I've was going to get a steroid shot for my sciatica. She says they work great as she has had several due to the spinal stenosis (apparently more common in the population than I realized) due to her severe scoliosis. Egads, her spine is literally serpentine when viewed from the front.
It's the first day of Fall, the Autumnal Equinox. After the park, dogs and I stumbled across a large garter snake traversing the yard. They didn't know what to make of it. There's a lot of yard stuff to do. Like fixing the tarp on the basement doors before I left for the gym, and while I was doing that, my phone fell out of my hoodie pocket and I didn't notice. I also wasn't wearing my FitBit watch because it desperately needed to be charged and kept buzzing me angrily. Which meant I arrived at the gym feeling a bit disoriented because I had no phone and no watch, no camera, no notes, no weather update, no shopping list, no texting or emails... I'm glad my earbuds and iPod worked!
It was weird pedaling the elliptical without being able to log anything. Instead of the usual 3 programs, I decided to choose the manual option and change the elevations myself. I cut the time down to 30 minutes and changed direction every 5 minutes, forward then backward. Some elevations loosened my muscles and others aggravated the sciatica. When I got off, my foot was numb and my right glute ached. The Stretch Cage was daunting and I initially tried to start with the left foot but that felt so unnatural that I switched back to the right leg to push off the platform so I could grab the overhead bars. Pull-ups were ugly.
The free weight area was already full of kids and I had no desire to plant myself in the middle of them. Plus, I felt disoriented without my phone. Weird, right? Instead, I just limped off to the Aerobics Room and did basic movements to make my sciatica feel better. The tech at my glaucoma doc's office suggested knee pushups when I was complaining about all the exercises I had given up. He's in his early 30s and already has disc degeneration. I looked at him and said, "High school and college sports?" and he nodded. I've never done knee-push ups without feeling dissatisfaction with the movements, and pain on my knees. I have bony sensitive joints and I'm basically a princess in that I can feel that pea even under 20 mattresses.
Monarch chrysalis
When I got back to the house, I found my phone in the grass, right where it fell out of my pocket. I also checked the lone chrysalis in my yard full of milkweeds. Inexplicably, I'd found a small snail on the same leaf inside the seed pod bag. I removed the bag and flicked the snail away, then replaced the bag. I noted that a juvenile (5th instar) stinkbug had been lurking near the bag opening. Later, I came back and saw that the stinkbug had made it inside the seed pod bag so once again I removed the bag, removed the offending visitor, and replaced the bag, but this time pulled the drawstrings much tighter.
The chrysalis is now in its 8th day and looks good. Temps have cooled so the timing for the butterfly to emerge (eclosure) might be longer. If temps had remained in the 80s, this monarch might already have been born. Now I worry about the nor'easter forecast for this weekend. Not sure if I should bring my outdoor flytraps indoors or let them weather this storm. Maybe I'll just take them off the planter full of water inside wire cages (to keep the cats and squirrels away) and put them on the ground?
fleabane
Meanwhile I saw an interesting video on Fleabane, a plant I have growing in spades all over the yard. Butterflies don't much care for it, but the bees are okay with it. A "forager influencer" claims that fleabane flowers make a great tea, and have other medicinal purposes, but you'll have to subscribe to his channel to see what that would be. Uh, naw. That's okay... It is interesting to learn though, that the "petals" are each considered flowers, as is the yellow center bits. Yes, another bit of interesting but kinda useless knowledge.
