Shower Test Run

Day 2 post-surgery

One of the things you get told post-surgery, is that you can't get water in your eye, because water isn't sterile. And mindful of the countless horror stories I've recently heard about eye infections, I'm determined to keep my eyes safe. However, I do need to shower! And being able to use the gym shower, with its abundant hot water and great water pressure, is one of the perks I enjoy with my gym membership. I also like the fact I can just step in to the shower stall, because our house has only the single bathroom with the shower in our tub. And when you tape one eye shut to protect it from water, you lose your depth perception. Not a good thing when you're fumbling around with shampoo and soap. Falls in the bathroom are a leading cause of accidental death and injury! Especially among the elderly. Not saying I'm old!

I taped the eye cup to my face last night and slept just fine. Getting the tape off took a bit of doing though. Then I ran a few errands and eventually got to the gym. It's not the first time I've been there just to shower, although that's normally because everyone's power is out and we all need showers. I admit it feels a bit weird not working out! My arm is still all bruised up from where I had the IV inserted. I had no idea that was going a leave a mark! But it's fading and by next week, it'll be gone.

Alcon was one of my clients when I worked
in pharma advertising. I did a lot of work
on their lens posters and collateral pieces.

I tape up my eye and gingerly make my way to the shower. But first I compulsively step on the gym scale. 109.6 lbs. I'm surprised! I haven't worked out since Tuesday so I actually expected to weigh more, especially since we went out for sushi last night! Hot and sour soup, and the soy, pickled ginger and wasabi contain a lot of salt, and I'm salt-sensitive! Today, my face feels a little swollen, but just around my eye. My vision, however, is loads better. I can read my computer screen with a little effort. There's still some blurriness, but this eye was the bad eye, the one with 20/25 vision. I'm hoping the vision continues to improve, but I'm under no illusion that my vision will be better than it was originally.

Showering is weird with just one eye. I spend half the time with both eyes closed because that's just easier, and less taxing on the facial muscles. It's also hard to soap your face when you have tape on half of it. I'm also not suppose to bend over so that makes drying off and putting my socks and shoes on a bit more challenging. Not as challenging as my friend who had hip replacement surgery and now seems even more limited because she can't bend over far enough to reach her feet. She claims the surgery shortened her muscles! She's been to weeks of physical therapy, but she's still unable to compensate. The surgery left her with one leg a good 1/2 inch shorter than the other, and the arrogant surgeon claimed the operation was a total success. Of course, I told her to complain, but she wouldn't, and that makes me so mad that this "doc who thinks he's god" is out there causing such misery and not being held accountable. Ugh.

Cataract surgery just to implant this tiny little device!

The only thing that's really bothering me is that sandy feeling like I got dirt in my eye, and I can't do anything about it except wonder if it's time to put in some drops. Drops sting at first, sometimes make the gritty sensation worse, then eventually everything feels better. My brother's been texting me because he had a retinal-tear scare. (He also suffers from glaucoma, but not as severe as mine. He says his pressures respond well to medication so that's a lesser worry for him.) However, he wears glasses (because his eyeballs are too small for contacts), and has already had to have retinal surgery to repair a tear a few years ago. This time it's just bright flashes of light, and massive floaters he says look like the hair clot you pull out of a sink drain. Ewww.

Eyes of Blue

Doesn't look blue to me

I had to wear the eye cup to sleep last night. Not so horrible. But as the anesthesia wore off, it was increasingly more painful to administer eye drops. Less so this morning. My friends drove me to my follow-up appointment. Everyone else in the waiting room was also wearing eye cups! Everyone else is older than me, because cataracts and glaucoma are traditionally old people diseases. Thanks mom.

However, the doc is surprised and impressed that my eye pressure is actually low for post-surgery. Normally, with inflammation and what not, especially bruising from having force the eyelid open wider than normal, eye pressures rise temporarily. Mine measured between 12 and 14, which is great. My vision is still horribly blurry in that eye. Thank goodness my good eye, the right eye is the dominant eye and sees just fine. It's pressure is still at 17, not great, but not an emergency-reading either.

My son and my friend both tell me that my left eye has a blue cast to it now. Weird. I can't actually see it because it's hard to focus on that, even with my good eye. My son takes a photo and shows me. I can see that the eye indeed looks different, but not actually blue. Oh well... The sclera on the outside is all red and my eye actually looks smaller than I'm used to, like it shrank a bit. Super weird.

My doc tells me she wishes she could install the stent in my right eye without resorting to cataract surgery because of my uncompromised vision. We briefly discuss the new MIGS, micro stents for glaucoma that are inserted without cataract surgery, but they're so new that she'd rather try them out with a patient with less severe glaucoma. I agree. I don't want to be the guinea pig! But I'm hoping to get this resolved this year so that my health insurance deductible will be fulfilled, and I won't need to worry about this particular health issue any more.

Meanwhile, my doc, knowing I'm on 6 different eye drops, decided to replace two of them to make my life easier. Three drops had to be administered 4X daily for the next several weeks. Now I only have 1 drop, an antibiotic with that schedule. Her office gives me 2 other drops that require only once daily, and twice daily. That's so much easier than 4X a day! Plus my other 3 glaucoma drops that are twice daily. But I have to mark each bottle and lay them all out on the table so that I not only remember which ones to take, but when to take them!

I keep testing my operated-on eye, hoping to get my vision back to "normal"... I can make out letters now, but not actually read anything more than titles on packages and street signs. Still, that's better than this morning, when everything was blurry! Looking at my computer with the left eye makes all the letters look like I'm reading Cyrillic. Ugh.

Not Quite As Expected

I survived my first cataract surgery for glaucoma. The doc even managed to install a micro shunt. But it was by no means, easy or pleasant.

Let's start with having to be there at 8 am. I had a girlfriend pick me up right after my son got on his school bus. We got to the hospital with at least 20 minutes to spare. There was some paperwork involved. I had to change into a gown with hospital skiddie socks, but I could keep my sweatpants on. I had taken my earrings out the night before, but insisted on keeping my wedding band, so the nurse taped it to my finger. I'm not sure how often people lose their wedding bands during ambulatory surgery...

I got eye drops administered every 10 or 15 minutes. They monitored my blood pressure and heart rate. Everything normal. No eating or drinking so I'm annoyed when they ask me if I've taken my vitamins. "Uh, no because they need to be taken with food and water!" Duh.

I'm not even cold. At first. But eventually, the hospital chill catches up with me. The nurses cover me with warming blankets. I have an IV in my arm for a mild sedative. They administer more eye drops. My doc is running between two ORs, and one of them seems to be suffering from a complication. It's taking a long time to get me into the laser room. Once I'm there, the staff realizes that it's going to be quite a problem getting the speculum to fit my tiny eyeball, especially since I'm a small Asian person with small eye openings. They try different types but none fit properly, and at least twice, my own eyelashes get in the way. The laser must be able to sit right up against my eyeball, and the speculum holds the surrounding skin away. I'm not so numb that I can't feel the instruments pressing against my eye, pinching my skin.

As a last resort, the doc injects anesthesia into the skin just outside my eye in order to relax all the lid muscles. Not quite but better. She injects more, and is finally able to stretch the skin enough to fit the speculum properly. They tape my eyelashes up and out of the way. There are two quick bursts. All I see are bizarre lava lamp blobules. Then they wheel me into the surgical theater next door where the doc removes my old lens and inserts the artificial one. I hear her remark about how thick the old lens is. She needs to clear space for the shunt as well. I have narrow angles which means so much less room, but she manages to implant the miniature device.

They tape a clear cup over my eye as protection. I can see light but my vision is all Right eye. With just the artificial lens, I can see color and shapes, but everything is blurred. Like I'm viewing the world through frosted glass. I hope it clears up soon! My girlfriend is skeptical that I'll be able to drive to my follow-up appointment tomorrow so she offers to take me. Meanwhile, the nurse is checking my pulse and BP. I'm surprised they're so low, but that's the sedation still in my system. I get to go home after I've demonstrated that I can eat, drink, walk and pee all on my own. Not a problem. My eye waters on its own, and when I blot my face, instead of clear wet spots, I see the faint yellowy pink that suggests plasma. Or pus. Ugh. I feel like I have sand in my eye, and the eye guard acts like a pair of bad reading glasses. I have additional eye drops to use four times daily for the next 4 weeks. I'm not even sure when I'll get back to the gym at this point...

In a few weeks I get to decide when and if I want to do this again, but with my good eye. Ugh.

Aw Heck...

I never quite trust myself, especially since I tend to find loopholes and worm my way through them. This morning, my hands didn't hurt at all and I decided that I'd whack the Nexersys after all, just not the one on the Left. It's not worth bruising the bones in my hands just to get some nice scores. I don't have that issue with the Right machine, the one with the non-functional Power Dig sensor. But since I don't really care about the scores (not really), then I'm better off using the other machine.

I do my warm up exercises and drop all my gear in front of my chosen machine. The only thing I can't fix is the glare. Even though it's earlier in the day, the glare is still problematic on both machines. I find myself ducking and bending oddly just to get a clear view of the screen. Ugh. However, I have a great workout and thoroughly enjoy myself. I can't figure out why the machines still think we're in May, and not quite sure what the Sparring program's arbitrary points mean... are those the blows it thinks I should be taking? I’ve easily surpassed those goals by nearly half.

I know I'm not going to whack the machine for a few weeks, not just because it's strenuous, but also because the punches can be a bit jarring. Some of those strikes actually transmit back through my arms and into my body, neck and head. The Left machine is worse in this aspect because the pads are so much stiffer. I can feel a good Cross rebound in the back of my skull. That’s probably not a good thing, so I’m pretty much done with the rehabbed Nexersys. I’ll just stick with the broken one.

There are a few regulars in the weight area, like The Mayor and Little R. Sometimes I see them in the parking lot or grocery, but I pretend I don’t see them. Because it’d be too weird to acknowledge someone outside of the gym, but totally ignore them inside. I don’t have that issue with women, but men are different. As much as I’d like to believe that we can all be friends, it’s the rare exception, and  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been wrong. How many times I’ve chatted with a guy as a friend, and how many times the guy had totally different intentions, or fears. Even Big R, as sweet as he was, had this underlying fear that we were attracted to each other. Nevermind the impossible logistics, or the fact that we never ever had a suggestive conversation ever.

So, I basically ignore guys unless they’re proven friends. Of course, sometimes that just leads to teasing. My hub’s friend looked at my feet the other day and asked if I was wearing cowboy boots. I replied, “Yeah, Ariart Fat Baby’s.” Because that’s what they are. He said, “Those are so cute. They’re so little. They remind me of Woody’s girlfriend in Toy Story.” What?! My footwear reminds him of Jessie the cowgirl doll? I suppose it could’ve been worse...

Tomorrow I have to be at the hospital at 8 am. My girlfriend will drive me there, and back because I’ll probably be in a lot of pain. My glaucoma docs says it shouldn’t hurt, but I recall having a metal cinder imbedded in my cornea in HS. It hurt like hell. Just a tiny speck that blew into my eye, and had to be removed by my dad’s doc friend. It seemed to hurt worse after he removed it. Wearing a big bandage over half my face, with my eyeball throbbing, and my dad taking me to the Playboy Club for lunch didn’t help at all. Because my parents used to do all sorts of ridiculously inappropriate things. Seriously. They were terrible role models. But of course, I thank my father for my ridiculously good vision (not really needing glasses at age 58), and my mom for my glaucoma.

Never mind that the doc says I’m going to need glasses after cataract surgery because I’ll be one of the few people that does not get improved vision with lens replacement. Hell, there’s nothing wrong with my lenses. Ugh. I’m having this surgery with extreme reluctance. At least I’ll still have my right eye, the good eye with better vision. I’m not planning surgery for that one just yet.

Whacky Tuesday 

10 elliptical
Calories 97
Miles 0.86
Average Heart Rate 157/191

T, Y & I Raises
3lbs x 15
5lbs x 15

Mid Band Pulls 15
High Band Pulls 15

Nexersys

7r Beginner 4FM 3Sp
7r Intermediate FM

HGPU 30

Some of My Favorite Things...

 I've been watching Glee on Netflix lately. I know the show is over, having run 6 seasons. The deaths of two cast members make watching all the more poignant because in spite of their demons, all these performers were amazingly talented. I'm enraptured by incredible singing, but I especially love watching the dance numbers. So far, my favorite has been the hallucinatory dream scene where Artie, aka Wheelchair Boy, ignites a flash mob to The Safety Dance (Men Without Hats). I've embedded it below. It's not the best copy (a bit fuzzy) but you can clearly see some amazing footwork and choreography.


Of course, I'm a sucker for things like this... When I'm really bored, I look up those fabulously synchronized K-pop bands, even though I have no idea what they're singing about. It doesn't really matter, because beautiful movement is what it's all about.

I only have today and tomorrow before my forced vacation from rigorous exercise. And I don't have a lot of time today because I still need to make it cross county to drop off a check at my glaucoma doc's office and get a few questions answered. Like why do I need to remove all my jewelry, not that I wear much. And how should I fix my hair, i.e., am I lying down so no hair clip, right?

I do Intervals because I skipped them last week. But only 20 minutes because I plan to push some weights. I'm not sure that 10 minutes really makes that much of a difference, but I'd rather have more energy than less to bench. The colossus bench is again in the Smith cage but I know better than to use it for Inclined Presses. Instead, I lay it flat for regular benching. I can just set my feet on the horseshoe arc of the front foot because there's no way I can actually touch the floor. I have my head where the seat is, careful to place my shoulders above the gap. It works okay and I'm able to get a decent bench session in. I only go to 110 lbs though. I know I can do 120, but I also know I'll probably hurt my right front delt doing it, so I don't.

Pressed for time, I run through my DB super sets fairly quickly. And I only do sets of 8 reps for the Rip Skulls because sets of 12 have me resting much longer between sets. I don't even stretch! The only thing that makes me slightly happy is that I got on my home scale this morning and weighed in at an even 110.0 lbs. Of course, the 16.1% body fat isn't great, but it's not the worst it's been either.

As much as I'd love to spend tomorrow whacking the Nexersys, my left hand is still sore and I'm worried about bruising the tiny bones in my hand. So maybe tomorrow's just an exuberant cardio day, because it's gonna be weeks before I can do this again. And I worry I'll be so out of shape, and out of breath that I'll be totally discouraged. I hope not.

Mayhem Monday

20 elliptical
Intervals
Calories 203
Miles 1.78
Average Heart Rate 140/188

HGPU 30
Spidermans 20
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Bicycles 50
Crunches 30/20

Smith Colossal Flat Bench
Bar (30) x 15
50 x 12
80 x 12
100 x 12
110 x 12
80 x 25
70 x 25

DB Laterals s/s Rev Incl Flyes
25lbs x 8/15, 10/15, 12/15 reps

Rip Skulls
40lbs x 8 reps x 3 sets

Trying to Get It All Done Before...

I got to the gym a bit before noon. It's becoming a habit to get as much done before I head out because once I get back, there's so little time before the next item on the list... My son has a Scout tent camping event. He's kind of burnt on camping, but tomorrow is Cub Scout Day and the older Scouts are suppose to volunteer to help Cubs with crafts. Which means I have to pack a dinner and lunch for my son because they'll be too busy to work on their own meals. Which means... grocery shopping. Of course.

Today is Cardio Day, but I'm actually feeling really tired and weak, like I'm not fully recovered from our whitewater rafting last weekend. Crazy, right? What I really need is a straight 8 hours of sleep and that's not going to happen until tonight. Because the hubs is in Boston, and I'll have the house to myself. But of course, I'll get distracted by something and get to bed waaay too late. Again.

I can't even think about Intervals, so I just do 30 minutes on the cross-trainer. And some pull ups. And spiderman push ups. 20 is my limit for those. But I can still do side planks and bird dogs. The crunches and bicycles are also okay. It's hot, and really humid so everyone's really moist. The mats are icky and I put my hoodie back on when I have to lay down. But I strip it right off again when I mount the StepMill. And then I try a new game on the Expresso Bike. It's not quite as much fun as Dragon Island. It's called Animal Adventure, but after pedaling around forever, I finally come across, well, dragons. It's suppose to have different climates, like Arctic and Safari, but it's still a more limited version of Dragon Island. What I discover though, is that you can bike right through structures, and sometimes there's coins or treasure boxes inside. That's cool!

A gal I haven't seen in months comes over to chat. She's finally fully recovered from breaking her foot. She's also decided to collect social security early since she just turned 62. Just as well, since the place she waitressed at just closed its doors. After chatting, I realize I'm no longer sweating, and fear for the worst. My muscles are cold, so am I going to be able to do pistol squats? A pair of lunkheads are barbell curling while standing on the Mats. WTF guys? Go stand in the gym area with all brand new black rubber flooring, not on the mats that people lie down on! Ugh. I hate stupid people. Seriously. I retreat to the vacant class room and proceed to do pistols while standing in place. Usually I walk the length of the room to practice balance, but I'm worried about falling over. I am really surprised and happy that I can do my pistols anyway, even feeling cold. No quad clenching either. I come back to the Mats, and the lunkheads are gone. Whew. Mat stretch and then a shower.

I'll be able to work out Monday and Tuesday and then not again for a good two weeks. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle this... Ugh.

Cardio Friday

30 x-trainer
Calories 242
Miles 3.63

HGPU 26
Spiderman Push Ups 20
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Bicycles 50
Crunches 30/20

15 StepMill
Steps 806
Floors 50
Calories 118
Level 6

15 Expresso Bike
Animal Adventure
Points 146,640
Miles 2.19
Calories 33

Pistol Squats
22 total

So Much Bigger Than I Want To Be

A lot of guys ostensibly work on getting bigger. Usually stronger, but always with showy mirror muscles in mind. I've had to break my hubs of that ridiculous mindset because it's not healthy. Bigger is not better. Unfortunately, I seem to be getting bigger, and that's not at all what I want, even though I enjoy being stronger. But really, what I want is for my clothes to fit properly and right now they're too tight. Ugh.

Again, I got to the gym around noon. I spent the morning doing household stuff, ordering a new "window handle" for our storm door and trying to keep my temper with a gal at my glaucoma doc's office. This young woman spends more time defending what she does (badly) than actually providing the services required. She's given herself a fancy title but seems to mess up everything she touches because she's not actually paying attention. Ugh. I like my glaucoma doc, but her staff is making me crazy. There's one competent person in her office, a seasoned senior tech. I wish they were all like that gal. She's friendly but very professional.

See the cracked screw hole?

The "window handle" cracked right where you screw it into the screen frame so amount of screen vs storm window can't be adjusted. I went to the Anderson® website, but it wasn't listed under parts available for that model number. When I call, the rep is able to find the piece and order it for me. It's within the 5 year non-glass, non-screen warranty so it's free, except for the shipping charge. $8.99 isn't too much to be able to adjust the air flow in your storm door, but really, these things shouldn't break from occasional usage! I'm sure in the ancient days before plastic, these things were made of metal. But of course, in the ancient days, we had to physically replace our screen panels with storm glass panels. I know because I did it for years.

Someone has replaced the colossus adjustable bench with the regular one so I do Smith Inclined Presses after my warm up. I feel weak today. Maybe it's the 14 rounds I did yesterday? My hands are still really sore, so that's not helping! I adjust the high rep sets downward slightly. I am surprised when I can add reps to the DB Lateral Raises though. But the following Reverse Inclined Flyes are hampered by the fact that I'm lying on the Inclined Breaker Bench. It's not a bad angle but the height adjustment peg underneath clashes with the bottom of the movement. Rip Skulls have me a bit worried since my hands are funky. But I make it without clonking myself in the head, so Yaaay Me. Not up to the V-bar Press Down though. Besides, there are too many old guys at the Cable Station. Yuck. I'm good with just doing the Mat Stretch to loosen my shoulders. They're tight again as I cool down, and that's annoying.

The gym scale tells me 112.8 lbs and that is soooo far from the 108 lbs I took for granted a year ago. I hope it's mostly water weight from eating salty, spicy BBQ... my hubs brought home lots of ribs and sides from BT Smokehouse in Sturbridge MA as he was returning from Boston. There's enough for another meal today!

While I’m in the car, waiting for the blue light on the dashboard to go out (signifying that the engine is warm), I get a call on my cell from a number I don’t recognize. They leave a message, telling me my number popped up on a phone that was just turned in to their office. My son lost his phone on the school bus yesterday and no one could find it. My hubs had not thought to turn on the Find My Phone app, but I tried calling it this morning, hoping it would ring somewhere and someone would find it. The odd thing was that the phone was at a school we’ve never been to. I drove over and dialed my son’s number. The lady at the front office got the phone and my face was smiling up through the locked screen. We figured out that my son’s phone got lost on the bus and then the bus was used by the elementary school kids, one who found the phone but didn’t turn it in. Instead, they took it to their school and left it on a desk. Then it got turned in! And because I had called, they had someone to contact about the lost phone. My son is sooooo lucky! And will be extra careful in the future. Nothing teaches like experience!

Push Thursday

30 elliptical
Program 2
Calories 292
Miles 2.58
Average Heart Rate 149/195

HGPU 30
Push Ups 60

Smith Inclined Press
Bar (30) x 15
50 x 12
70 x 12
80 x 12
90 x 12
60 x 25
50 x 25

DB Laterals s/s Rev Incl Flyes
25lbs x 8/15, 10/15, 12/15 reps

Rip Skulls
40lbs x 12 reps x 3 sets