Cardio Cure for the Blahs

Having 6 different eye drops to administer requires time management and organizational skills that start to lapse as the day wears on. I went to bed much too late last night. Consequently, I had a dull headache this morning and found myself to be less than enthusiastic about hitting the gym. Plus, it was downright cold at 50F (I packed a flannel shirt to change into once I was done).

My eye looks loads better, with just a fraction of redness. But it still aches a bit and itches after I do my drops. Worse, it's difficult to clean all the sleepies out of your face if you can't splash water on it. The clear eye shield leaves edge indents on my skin no matter how lightly I tape it to my face. I'll be glad when I don't have to do this every night.

I'm tired and depressed when I get to the gym. I'm wearing a different green shirt though. As I pedal the recumbent bike, I can feel my mood lifting. I'm trying to pedal as fast as I can without exerting myself. I even manage to get warm enough to unzip my hoodie. On the treadmill, I decide to increase the speed and level angle until I'm just at the edge of being breathless. I'm definitely busting a sweat now, but it feels good and makes me happy. I'm light and bouncy, and mouth all the lyrics to my iPod tunes. With the body of the machine angled up 12° I'm able to comfortably grab the end of the handles (heart rate sensors) for a few minutes. That's just enough time for the machine to register it. My hands will fall asleep being raised to face height for extended lengths of time!

White orb on lower right is glare
from the overhead lights!

Under normal circumstances I would stretch and do a bunch of pull ups and then push ups. But I can't just yet. It's been 10 days and I'm not suppose to exert myself for at least two weeks and maybe longer. Ugh. I can't resist stretching in the Cage, but at one point I forget my caution and pull myself up slightly while inside. Knots in my upper back and shoulders feel better when stretched out with a bit of body weight. But I instantly regret my foray because my eyeballs ache a little. It could just be the "lack of sleep" headache I woke up with, or it could be eyeball pressures. I don't know and I really shouldn't be risking a great outcome for this surgery by doing something stupid, like pull ups. Ugh.

I get on the Step Mill for 10 minutes and only go to Level 3. I'm so used to doing the fast-paced Level 6 that I almost don't know what to do with myself. But climbing stairs will definitely raise your heart rate! I see mine shoot from 125 to 140. And I'm warm enough to be sweaty. I get off the Step Mill and do a few leg and hip stretches, then a few shoulder rotations. For each move,  I have to assess whether there's a face-down component. Bending down increases optic pressures so my stretches are extremely limited. But still, better than nothing.

In the locker room, I tape my eye shut, but I'm still not happy with my fear of shower water infiltrating my closed eye. I also need to spend time exfoliating since having icthylosis vulgaris means going more than a week becomes unpleasant and somewhat embarrassing, with all the dry flaky scaly skin not quite peeling off... there's only so much that an alpha-hydroxy cream like Amlactin® will cure with a mere application. (When I get to the grocery store, I buy a few waterproof band-aids to see if those will work better in the future.) I hold my breath when I get on the gym scale. Inexplicably, it reads 109.0 lbs. So weird and unexpected since I'm eating normally. All I can think is that I'm losing all my muscles and getting fat, because I weigh less but my clothes fit the same. Ugh!

I have a follow-up appointment with my glaucoma doc on Monday. My vision has returned to normal in the operated eye. But I wonder about my eye drops, because the antibiotic label says it's a 2.5 mL bottle and I can refill 2.5 times. What? Is the pharmacist going to dispense a half bottle? The accompanying anti-inflammatory is in a 5 mL bottle and I can refill it 5 times. I need to administer both these medications 1 drop 4 times a day. This is a bit baffling. Ugh.

I'm not ready to do my right eye. Not yet. I'm still sporadically queasy and my eye itches like I've got allergies. Sometimes it waters for no apparent reason. Weirder still, when I viewed the treadmill screen today, the left eye gave me a normal image, but the right eye had bizarre glare distortions. I'll have to mention this to my doc 'cuz it's definitely weird.


Bored Out of My Mind Friday Workout

15 min recumbent bike + 3 cd
Level 1 Manual
Calories 81
Miles 2.78

30 min treadmill
Speed 2.9
Incline 10 – 12%
Calories 246
Miles 1.33
731 ft climbed
Average Heart Rate 128

Cage Stretch (uh oh!)

10 min StepMill
Level 3
Steps 356
Floors 22
Calories 56
Average Heart Rate 140