My husband orders one from Amazon as well as replacement wristbands. They arrive the next day! The only problem with after-market charging cables, is that they lack the tiny reset button on the side of the USB plug of the charger. There's no other way to reset the device! I charge the pebble and it awakens, only to tell me to download the app to my phone. Uh, I've already done that. I spend a few hours trying to get my phone and the app on it to recognize the pebble, but no luck. Finally, I get customer support online and they make a bunch of suggestions that don't pan out. This goes on for more than an hour. The pebble is useless. I need to send it back for yet another replacement, and this time the service rep also orders a new charging cable and wristbands.
I package and return the defunct replacement, and within two days, I get a newer replacement. And under separate packaging, I also get a charging cable. And wristbands. So three different packages! The charging cable works fine, but the wristband won't stay secured, and I almost lost the device in the parking lot when I took my dogs to the vet last week. Luckily, I saw the pebble on the ground before I accidentally stepped on it! And the vet's office had the errant watchband. Also luckily, I still had the 3rd party wristbands my husband had ordered, and those stayed on.
Today is cooler and I suspect many folks have taken the week off. There's literally no one at the park, not even those rabid pickle ball fanatics that come most mornings. School starts next week and school buses are doing practice runs. The dogs are frisky and seem to have their appetites back, although the one still has half a week of meds to finish. The gym parking lot is sparsely populated, as is the gym itself. And while I got decent sleep yesterday (7 whole hours!), I didn't last night (5.75 hrs). There's humidity and the air pressure is making me cranky with a vague headache. However, because I have access to my preferred elliptical, I get on and pedal for the full 35 minutes.
Not great, but so much better than Tuesday! I get a set of pull-ups. Also not great, but at least I managed to get myself up a few times! The step machine is vacant so I select 8 minutes, but decrease the speed to 5. During cool down, the machine automatically slows to level 2. I'm drenched and my nose will not stop running. Ugh! Thank goodness for paper towel dispensers! The next set of pull-ups actually goes a tad better with an even dozen. Then I go back to the cardio platform and climb on the cross-trainer. It's one of my least favorite cardio machines because it makes my feet go numb. I did manage to pedal backward for the cool down though. During all these cardio exercises, my sciatic pain is almost non-existent with the occasional bout of tingling that doesn't last more than a few minutes. Until I do my core exercises.
In the Aerobics Room, I skip the movements that seem to exacerbate the sciatic pain. The list keeps growing: all versions of hip bridges, bird dogs, and serious consideration against push-ups. I can manage the latter but there is pain in the right leg from it. My previous bouts of sciatica didn't suffer from bird dogs or hip bridges. If anything, those movements made the nerve discomfort better. Not this time. Something has changed. Not necessarily for the better.
In the past few weeks, my sciatica has devolved. It's not more painful than in the past, but more often than not, there's a disturbing tingling sensation in places that shouldn't really be affected, like the outside of my right hip. After all, the sciatic nerve bundle runs through the back/bottom of the pelvic bone, under the glute muscles, then down the leg to the heel and bottom of the foot. Sometimes, it's a clenching grip on the outside of the calf, or a buzzy numbness in the forefoot.
My next primary care appointment is in November where the doc will probably increase the dose of Losartan, because even I can see that while my hypertension is better, it's not considered well-controlled. Even with the beta blocker, Timoptic, it bounces between normal, hypertension level 1, and level 2. Ugh. If I still have sciatica then, I'll have to press her for a physical therapy script. Double ugh.
Tomorrow I'll probably go to the gym and look for an alternate bench to use for Reverse Flys because the remaining incline benches are just too big, too tall, too wide for a short person with chronic sciatica. Or find a different exercise...
