Bayou Weather

The grey windy skies made a storm seem imminent. Dogs went to the park and back. My son got a ride to a weeding and mulching job so I went to the gym. It wasn't very crowded so so coming in later has been quite enjoyable. The a/c feels good until I'm so sweaty and hot that I need to stand still to cool down. The pull-ups are getting a bit easier and I'm surprised that the second set was slightly better than the first.

It's so hot and humid outside that the a/c is still running inside the Aerobics Room even though class ended over an hour ago. Yaaay! My sciatica woke me up this morning. Again. 

I have not tried the back doc's suggestion to take a half dose of children's Benadryl (diphenhydramine HCl) before bed when I complained that I could no longer use the minimal dose of melatonin (3 mg) or gabapentin (300 mg) without feeling hung over in the morning. Both give me severe brain fog if I take a dose for more than 2 or 3 nights. I suspect my liver might not be able to process these drugs properly, just as I don't handle alcohol well either. Unfortunately, diphenhydramine HCl is contraindicated for glaucoma patients as it increases eye pressures (IOPs) so there's that...

There's a woman in the Aerobics Room doing a series of movements involving exercise bands, dumbbells and weight plates. I've never seen her before, but then again, she's never seen me before either. I have discomfort in my left glute while doing planks, cat/cow and push-ups, but I can sit cross-legged again. The gym still isn't very crowded and I see how many pull-ups I can do before leaving. 

I have to be at my glaucoma doc's at 8:45 tomorrow morning (SLT for the right eye) so pups will be at the park super early. Hopefully, I'll be back in town to make the NYS Car Inspection appointment I made for my old Subaru. Which means no gym tomorrow. I plan to go Monday, right before I go for the dreaded "routine" colonoscopy that requires a full day of prep the day before, with no eating or drinking anything other than clear fluids that aren't red or purple in color. I'm worried about being soooo hungry, especially Monday morning... Thankfully, this annoyance should only happen every 10 years if everything's "normal."  

Online, I giggle while viewing a meme with Grogu bopping to music...

27 July 2023 11:18-12:39
Hot Humid Thursday w mild sciatica

Precor elliptical #1
Program 3
Time: 30 + 5 (5620)
Distance: 2.84
Cal: 316
Avg Hr: 156, 179 max

HGPU 17.5 easing back in

20 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
20 Hip Bridges
   Sciatica Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
   Just sore Sciatica Cat stretch 12
Fire Hydrants 30 x 2
Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose
Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2
   Sciatica Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25 (fatigue)
Upper body stretch
Eye yoga

HGPU 18

A Different Kind of Doc

Took the pups to the park before it was blazing hot out. Then hit the gym for cardio and core. Finally, made it to my doc appointment this afternoon to see a doc new to my GP's practice, an orthopedic surgeon. He certainly has a different approach: first giving me one of his books (for free); then recommending both traditional (let's schedule an MRI, physical therapy [PT] and here's an Rx for Celebrex) and holistic (read my book, you should get my newest book, it has links for meditation). 

I leaf through the book Keys to An Amazing Life: Secrets of the Cervical Spine and admire the illustrations. It's an actual hard cover book with chapters explaining the physiological and emotional aspects of nerve health. Okay, I'll try it although the raised-in-New York part of me is highly skeptical. But it's not going to hurt, so why not? I tell him that since I have an upcoming colonoscopy at the end of the month, I'll wait on the prescription NSAID and he's fine with that.

My sciatica isn't bad today, but it's the reason I don't get more than 5-6 hours of sleep. By 6 AM, my right glute is so sore it wakes me up and there's no position I can take that relieves the discomfort. Walking around offers the best relief. Sweaty cardio on the elliptical feels pretty good too. It's roughly noon and there's not a lot of people exercising. Planks, push-ups and cat/cow are much less painful today. The forearms might be slightly sore. 

I have to skip the gym tomorrow as I'll be waiting for the installer to come replace the glass panel in the storm door with the second replacement panel. At a cost of $97 to install and $136 for the replacement piece, it's still cheaper than ordering a new storm door. But the pups will go to the park first, regardless of the weather. It'll still be cooler early in the morning than later. Temps are forecast to grace 90F and that's just way too hot. For dogs, and people like me.

25 July 2023 11:10 - 12:35
Blazing Tuesday w mild sciatica

Precor elliptical #1
Program 2
Time: 30 + 5 (5602)
Distance: 2.84
Cal: 316
Avg Hr: 147, 188-87


20 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60 knees bent
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
20 Hip Bridges
Sciatica Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
Just sore Sciatica Cat stretch 12
Fire Hydrants 30 x 2
Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose
Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2
Sciatica Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25 (fatigue)
Upper body stretch
Eye yoga

Summer Colds

I joke that my nose is always runny, but last week vague symptoms of allergies graduated into a nasty sore throat (due to post nasal drip), a persistent dry cough (also due to that drip), and eventually, fatigue with burning eye lids. My eyelids always burn when I'm feeling run down. Not sure how or why. It just is. I'm definitely better today, with just the usual mildly runny nose. And my sciatica has almost receded into being annoying but not horrible. Of course, tomorrow is when I finally get to see someone about the sciatica. My toes aren't going numb while driving anymore (thank goodness), but I'm still going to that appointment. 

I think my lower back has a lot of instability and past efforts to strengthen it makes the left side prone to muscle spasms and aches. Weird because sciatica, when it's bad, is usually but not always on the right side. It'd be nice to finally understand what's going on with the spine and surrounding tissues so I can avoid things that exacerbate it, and add the movements that will help. Actually, I thought that's what I'd been doing for the past year, but clearly something's changed. Maybe it's just aging? After all, nothing in life is static.

The gym is moderately crowded for a Monday but no one's on the elliptical so I'm able to pedal as usual. I'm flushed and sweaty by the time I amble over to the Stretch Cage where I'm able to squeeze out 16 reps without undue stress on my forearms. Then off to the Aerobics Room which seems warmer than the rest of the gym. There's 3 other people stretching out and I recognize 2 of them by sight. 

My sciatica is healed enough that I can actually sit on the mat. When it's bad I can only  kneel. Planks, push-ups and cat/cow are still uncomfortable though, with a deep ache that dissipates once those positions change. I'm a little hesitant to do a second set of pull-ups, but push past the doubt. I stop at 15 without any noticeable forearm strain, but I won't know until tomorrow if there's soreness.

24 July 2023 10:21 - 12:18
Hot Monday w mild sciatica

Precor elliptical #1
Program 1
Time: 30 + 5 (5630)
Distance: 2.84
Cal: 316
Avg Hr: 146, 186-84

HGPU 16 easing back in

20 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60 knees bent
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
20 Hip Bridges
   Slight Soreness Sciatica Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
   Slight Soreness Sciatica Cat stretch 12
Fire Hydrants 30 x 2
Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose
Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2
  Slight Soreness Sciatica Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25
Upper body stretch
Eye yoga

HGPU 15

From Mom Taxi to Personal Assistant

I'm enjoying not getting up at 6 to get my son to the school bus. Instead, I wake up around 7 regardless of how many hours I've slept (I tend to go to bed too late) and get the dogs ready for the park. Then I can get myself ready for the gym afterward and it's surprisingly not too crowded. No throngs of teens draped over the equipment! Maybe they're not awake yet? I got to the gym later than I would've liked today because I had phone calls to make at 9, mostly concerning getting official transcripts sent from the various colleges (that credited my kid's HS college classes) to the university he will be attending next month. 

It's worth a substantial amount of credit that I won't have to pay for again, with 4 schools involved. And each school has their own system of student identification even though they all use the same transcript service, Parchment. I feel like a personal assistant, and I think my son would be lost if I wasn't there to ferret out these old emails from months ago purporting to include instructions and pertinent information regarding classes and grades. And that's only because I recently logged onto my son's email account and found he had over 19k unread emails. OMG! Gen Z does not read email unless absolutely necessary.

It's nearly 11 by the time I got on the elliptical. Today is cooler temp-wise but I still wish the a/c was stronger. I'm a bit surprised by people greeting me. I know them by sight from years ago, when I used to come at a later hour. I guess I'm memorable because there aren't any other small Asian woman at the gym. In fact, there aren't any Asians at all. I see a lot of familiar faces, and some new ones. But very few kids. I'm good with that.

I'm a tad better at pull-ups today, inching my way back! At first, I thought the discomfort under my armpits was from the seams of my shirt chafing my tender skin, but now I think it's soreness of my lats and the back of my triceps. Weird that pull-ups could cause that. My sciatica is receding but not gone. Yet. My appointment with the "back doc" is next week. It'd be funny if by the time I get to my appointment, my pain was all gone. But that's unlikely. 

I did go to the new dentist yesterday, and I was surprised and pleased by his pleasant soft-spoken manner. He reminds me of Mr. Rogers! Old-fashion dentist who does his own cleanings and x-rays. Everyone else I know has techs to do that. He measured the gingival pockets between the gum and teeth, and commented that tartar doesn't stick to ceramic crowns. Also that the cracked ceramic was cosmetic but that the teeth themselves were still fine and the metal caps intact. He ground down the rough edges and said that there wasn't any need to replace the crowns unless I insisted. Whoa! He literally just saved me thousands of dollars! 

There's still a lot of things I need to get done, like finding someone to install the glass replacement panel to the storm door, and getting my car inspected before the month is over. I'm thinking those pesky wheel bearings are going to wait a little longer. They don't make any noise until I reach 40 mph, and then my car sounds like the movie soundtrack to an old film on war planes. It could be worse...

19 July June 2023 10:52 - 12:18

Cooler Later Wednesday w sciatica

Precor elliptical #1

Program 3

Time: 30 + 5 (5634)

Distance: 2.85

Cal: 317

Avg Hr: 146, 195 maximum

HGPU 15 easing back in

20 Hip Bridges

Crunches 60 knees bent

Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch

60 Dead Bugs

20 Hip Bridges

Hurts Sciatica Elbow Plank 60s

Quick Child’s Pose

Hurts Sciatica Cat stretch 6

Fire Hydrants 30 x 2

Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose

Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2

Hurts Sciatica Push-Ups 25

Air Squats 25

Upper body stretch

Eye yoga

HGPU 15

Sizzling Summer

It's been over a week since I last hit the gym, not that I've been totally sedentary, although the drive to Buffalo was a good 6 hours. We did take a break halfway and stood outside Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse for an hour waiting for a table. Yep, it's a very popular place to eat. Walking around the University at Buffalo gave me roughly 11,500 steps for the first day and a bit more than half as much for the second day. In Canada, wandering through the Butterfly Conservatory was good for 5,000 steps and the Niagara Power Station Museum and underground Tunnel doubled those steps. 

We left right before our town got hit with over 8" of rain so we didn't know if our how our house fared. Friends sent pictures of a local park so flooded that people were swimming in it. Giant (2-foot plus) carp washed out of a local lake into the gazebo and picnic area. Roads were closed. Lake Mahopac got bigger. Our basement is perpetually wet with underground streams running through the property, so we have a sump pump. Our only casualty was some of the tall spindly milkweeds that are now secured to stakes to hold them upright. 

I was eating a lot of ibuprofen at the beginning of the trip, but eventually that started to upset my stomach and I stopped taking NSAIDs altogether. My sciatica, ever present, isn't nearly as bad anymore. It feels like it's been months when in actuality, as I check my notes, it's barely been a month. But a month is a long time to not be able to put your socks on without wincing and groaning because your glute feels like it's bruised and on fire. Getting in and out of the car causes a temporary limp but once I start walking around, everything is better.

What's really bugging me are the bugs. The teeny tiny no-seeum biting ones that make me scratch the skin off the top of my hands. Because it's hot (85F) and humid and any exposed skin is a tasty meal. Like my hands when I'm not wearing gloves. Or my face. My dogs might be getting fat at the pet boarding luxury spa. Well, not really fat. But they got baths and seem happy and not horribly stressed. I take them for a walk at 7:30 this morning, and then realizing how much hotter it's going to get with worsening air quality (thanks to Canadian wildfires--which weren't a problem when we visited just a few days ago), I take them to the park at 8. We leave before 9, and I can make it to the gym by 10. I feel so productive!

The parking lot is very crowded but I suspect half the cars belong to folks catching an early show at the movie house next door. The gym is moderately crowded but I can still access the equipment I need. And the a/c works but you can't tell that from my beet-red face after 35 minutes of cardio. Class is over when I get to the Aerobics Room, and unfortunately, the a/c has been turned off there. But it's pleasant enough to get all my core exercises done. Planks, push-ups, cat-cow all still bother my sciatica with a burning sensation from my glute down the back of my thigh. Otherwise, everything else feels okay. Except I'm feeling weak about my pull-ups. I can still do a dozen the first time. No strain in the forearms. But it's a struggle to do the second set once I get past 8. 8 reps! Ugh. I'm feeling old and fat. I guess I'll have to work back up to a reasonable number!

17 July June 2023
Been A Long While Monday w sciatica

Precor elliptical #1
Program 2
Time: 30 + 5 (5520)
Distance: 2.82
Cal: 312
Avg Hr: 146, 180 maximum

HGPU 12 easing back in

20 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60 knees bent
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
20 Hip Bridges
   Hurts Sciatica Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
   Hurts Sciatica Cat stretch 6
Fire Hydrants 30 x 2
Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose
Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2
   Hurts Sciatica Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25
Upper body stretch
Eye yoga

HGPU 12 (barely!)

Another Scorcher

Temps could be worse so I shouldn't be complaining. And it is July after all. But it's too hot for me at 89F. Too hot for the pups as well, although that doesn't stop them from wanting to go to the park. (It does feel cooler there due to the leafy tree coverage.) And I do take them, after I get back from the gym. I get to the gym late though and wonder what I should sacrifice to make up for the time I've lost. It turns out that roadwork delays add more time than I can possibly make up for. It's a good thing dogs can't tell time. And I'm glad I'm not the fellow standing in the roadway with the hardhat on in the blistering heat, holding the Stop/Slow sign.

I consider doing less time at cardio but ultimately stick with 35 minutes since it's unlikely I'll be at the gym tomorrow, and I don't go on weekends. Plus, we're driving 6 hrs to Buffalo on Sunday. Egads. Because I'm later than usual, I already know that I don't have time to use the Aerobics Room before the Body Pump class starts. At least the a/c is on throughout the gym! There's only one person in the functional gym area and he's moving between two opposing stations. I lay a mat down in the corner and do as much of my core routine as possible. 

Planks, push-ups, and the cat stretch are still unpleasant with me feeling a burning ache in the left glute. Previous bouts of sciatica didn't have this reaction, however they were more acute. So this time the sciatica symptoms are more and less disturbing: toe and foot numbness, burning and stretching pain in the glute area, throbbing ache when I sit. Usually, it's just deep radiating pain. Each year it's different and I can only guess that it's the shifting spinal discs and how they're impinging the sciatic nerve... Well, at least I can still pedal the elliptical and do air squats.

6 July June 2023
Short Thursday w sciatica


Precor elliptical #1
Program 1
Time: 30 + 5 (5480)
Distance: 2.80
Cal: 309
Avg Hr: 130,182-79

20 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60 knees bent
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
20 Hip Bridges
  Hurts Sciatica Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
  Hurts Sciatica Cat stretch 6
Fire Hydrants 30 x 2
Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose
Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2
  Hurts Sciatica Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25
Upper body stretch
Eye yoga

It's Really Summer Now

I had 4 days off from the gym so I really felt compelled to be there today. The parking lot was surprisingly empty though, as was the gym. Assuming a lot of folks just took the rest of the week off to go on holiday! As usual, I felt better after cardio. But since I had a bit of time, I attempted pull-ups and found my forearm to be tender enough to limit my reps. It's always something! I'm lucky just to get the even dozen today. 

It seems like my whole body is suffering from inflammation! In spite of eating ibuprofen by the handfuls. Okay, I'm kidding about that, but I am taking the limit for NSAIDs. My GP said I could take more (9 tablets instead of 6) during the long drive but only for 2 days in a row.

Class doesn't start in the Aerobics Room for a good 30 minutes so the a/c isn't on in there. However, there are two Gen Zers who are posing and prancing in front of the mirrors. The guy is all shoulders and arms, and really need to work on the lower half. The girl is strutting about in heels that click-clack all over the wooden floor, while she "flexes" and poses poutingly. "Fitness influencers"? She doesn't have enough muscle for a Ms Fitness pageant, nor is she lean enough. What they do have is youth and height. But they don't leave until V (who teaches the M and F Zumba or Body Pump class), arrives to set up equipment. It's mid-week so that means Boot Camp but I don't see Gym Owner anywhere in the gym today. And that means the a/c kicks on finally. 

It's been hot. Too hot for pups to run around in the park much, although tall trees shade the enclosure and there's usually a breeze. But not lately. The biting insects are voracious after all the rain. It reaches 90F today and we all take refuge indoors where we can flip on fans and a/c. I probably only have tomorrow to work out again since Friday I need to be at my eye doc's office at 8:45 for the laser treatment of the left eye. We'll do the right eye when I get back from Buffalo. I'm dreading that drive even though it'll be punctuated with stops along the way. Because with my sciatica, there's nothing more painful than sitting in a car.

5 July June 2023
Wednesday post Fourth w sciatica

Precor elliptical #1
Program 3
Time: 30 + 5 (5520)
Distance: 2.81
Cal: 311
Avg Hr: 135, 167-86

HGPU 12 left forearm

20 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60 knees bent
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
20 Hip Bridges
Hurts Sciatica Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
Hurts Sciatica Cat stretch 6
Fire Hydrants 30 x 2
Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose
Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2
Hurts Sciatica Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25
Upper body stretch
Eye yoga