I actually slept okay last night for the first time in a week. I'm taking so many pills, it's like Easter candy spread across the table. This morning I decide to add lysine to the cocktail because if it's good for cold sores, which is a herpes virus, then maybe it's good for shingles as well. It can't possibly hurt. There's the giant horse pill to take with 3 ibuprofens that I wash down with coffee this morning. I'll take my vitamin mix when I get back from the gym. And another vitamin mix with dinner (because I'm suppose to take 4 Optic Nerve vitamins daily but spread out through the day).Then I have to remember to take the acyclovir and ibuprofen this afternoon, and before bed. At bedtime I'll add the gabapentin. I forgot the ZMA last night and my bowels aren't very cooperative today. Or it could be totally the gabapentin, because side effects include both diarrhea and constipation. Oh joy. The last thing you want with sciatica-like pain emanating from your hip/glute area is to strain.
Cross-trainers are busy so I get on the elliptical and tell myself I'm going for a leisurely pace. I punch in Program 1 and turn up Billy Idol. Stretching at the Cage, I look at the roof bars and wonder if I can do pull ups with my hand further apart. At my Physical Therapy appt last week, the fellow told me that my delt muscles were very strong, but the smaller inner muscles were weak. It's the muscles that contract when you squeeze your shoulder blades together. Pull downs and and wide grip pull ups work for that. Ugh. He gave me a green plastic band to do two exercises twice a day with. I wedge one end into a doorjamb and pull my arms to my sides with elbow bent, concentrating on squeezing my shoulder blades together. 15 reps in the middle jamb, and 15 reps from over the top of the door, twice a day. Okay, I can do that.
I save the pull ups for later. Instead, I do knee-ins for lower abs, then push ups. Crunches and planks follow. Okay, time for more cardio. The cross-trainer I like is free now so I do 30 minutes there, calculating in my head how many miles I need to break 6. Because I'm competitive with myself. I don't really feel my leg. But my toes have gone numb. The knee is only noticeable when I stretch, almost as if it was swollen. The rest of me feel fairly limber though.
Moment of truth. I take a deep breath and position my hands a foot apart on the Stretch Cage roof bars and see if I can pull myself up. Again I have to arc my body so I don't smack my head into the Cage. I can meet the edge of the roof with my chin. And my body hangs straight down without flailing so that's good. I get to 21 before my elbows complain. The left one felt tender like it'd been burned so I'm cautious. Burning and tingling are signs of nerve damage. It's my left side that's got the shingle flare-up. Bad enough it has gotten my hip to my ankle. Don't need it running up my upper body as well. But I'm supremely happy that I can do a reasonable amount of pull ups at 12 inches. The plan is to work my way to past shoulder's width apart if I can do it without injuring my joints.
Tomorrow I'm either dragging my son off to the Humane Society for volunteer work (he needs 8 hours of non-Scout charitable volunteer work for his Citizenship in the Community merit badge), or we're going to the gym. There's no school next week due to the Easter break. But we have a full week scheduled. Or at least I do.
Saturday
6.41 total miles
30 min elliptical
Program 1
Calories 284
Miles 2.53
5070 steps
Knee-Ins 50
Push Ups 50, 30, 20
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Crunches 3 x 50
30 min x-trainer
Calories 143
Miles 3.88
Average Heart Rate 155
HGPU 12" apart 21 reps
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