The Start of A New Week

First - A Shout Out!
I would like to give a shout out to my Physical Therapist Anthony! So when I start doing Triathlons and running marathons, you can blame him.

Surgery?
Okay, I was talking to my wife about Surgery. For a number of reasons, Surgery would be best soon. And it is easier to schedule now and cancel later than to schedule later. So right now surgery is is scheduled for OCTOBER 1ST.

Walking So Far
This week, I have only done 1.5 miles and that was yesterday (Monday). I still am try to keep up a brisk pace. I was going to try and walk today but, PT was enough for the day, then It rained, and my sister-in-law and family came in. They are a lot more fun then walking. Besides I had to get the house clean.

Physical Therapy
We started out with a warm up on the stationary bike. Then we moved on to the stretches. Today we did something new. We used a trampoline! I did some running in place, jumping forward and back, left and right, then hopping on each foot. It was a lot harder to keep my balance than expected, and it was a good workout. I am still having trouble with my right index finger. It is better than it was, but I am afraid I might be in a permanent point.

So I Am Having Surgery?
This is the deal. I have it scheduled for October 1st. I have an appointment with the Doctors, September 25th. I have one last question for them and this is it: "You had me NPO (no eating) in the ICU at Chapel Hill for 3 days. You looked at a ton of Cat Scans and x-rays. You decided NOT to do surgery then and that we would wait. NOW you want to do surgery. What has changed to make you want to do Surgery now?" Then answer will hopefully be enlightening.

A Lot Of Miles and New PT Treatment

A Word About Walking
When walking there are two general ways of classifying your pace. There is walking and then there is aerobic walking. Walking is what I do with my kids on Sunday when we go to Grandmas house. Aerobic walking is walking at a pretty brisk pace for at least 10 minutes. If you walk briskly for less than that, you really never get your body into the aerobic mode. Aerobics is the way your body fuels its muscles and not whether or not your winded. I am trying to get in a minimum of 3,000 aerobic steps or 20 minutes of Aerobic walking. That is about 1.5 miles of walking briskly. I want to get 10,000 steps a day. We will get to that in the near future.

The Walking Miles For The Week
I walked 7.7 miles at an aerobic pace. The problem still is that after I am done walking I need to take a nap. That medication is killing me. I see the Doctor next Thursday.

Walking In The Pool
I had Physical Therapy on Tuesday and Wednesday. These two days I did pool work. There is a pool with a treadmill in the floor and I did some walking and running in the pool. What the pool does is reduces the impact of the walking and running, but provided resistance by moving through the water. I still can't run on land. It was a good work out and I felt muscle work out through out my legs. I was very tired when I was done, but it felt great to actually run again.

The Aneurysm

Questions From My Friends
Okay, people have been asking about my aneurysm. Technically, in my case, it is called a dissection. The aorta has several layers of walls to protect it from damage and to contain the blood when blood pressure levels change. There are two holes in the inner wall of my aorta. Blood is running into one hole and has formed a channel inside the wall of the aorta, then running out the other.

Danger!
My dissection measures about 3.75 cm. The danger zone is anything over 5 cm. After it reaches 5 cm, the aorta has a high probability of blowing within 6 months.

Now Or Later?
When first discovered during my accident, the doctors decided to wait and watch. Now after a few months they want to operate. They tell me I could wait, keep monitoring it as I have been, but the doctors want to take care of it now. What was the change? I am not completely sure. It has been determined that the blood is flowing into the bottom of the wall and flowing in backwards up the aorta then out the second whole. At the time the doctors told me they wanted to operate, we decided to ask around, think about the situation, and then make a decision. I have not made one yet.

To Run or Not To Run, That Is The Question
Well, I am on heart medication to keep my blood pressure down. Not that it was high, the doctors just want it low. The problem is the medication makes me super tired and I sleep all the time. So, even though I am walking, I don't get enough exercises so I am gaining mega weight. With additional weight, my blood pressure is getting higher. It all seems quite counter productive. I also want to get back to running, but my right ankle is just not there yet. I still need more mobility before I will be able to run on it. The doctor says running will be no problem. Though your heart rate increases a lot during exercise, your blood pressure has a very small increase as long as you are not over exerting yourself. So first chance I get, I will run!

Question Of The Day
Do I operate now or Later? Stay tuned and find out what I decide!

Weekly Milage Count

This Week's Walking Miles So here it is. I walked 7.5 miles this week. That is roughly 16,800 steps. That only includes walking for exercise and not the normally moving around the house. Next Week Total miles for next week (staying with the 20% rule) is 9 miles. Also I am going to start other exercises to get into a better state of fitness. Any Problems? My left ankle has been really sore today. I have met my mileage (thanks to shopping at Walmart last night) so I am going to take it easy today. Did You Drowned? Nope. We survived Tropical Storm Hanna. Lot of rain and water, but that is it. I pretty much slept through it.

Walking For Fitness

A Lot Of Miles Well, I walked 6.5 miles this last week. It was a lot more than I had planned. The Rule Of Thumb Remember that rule I mentioned before about not exceeding 20% of miles in one week. Well, I broke that rule. Now I am really tired. I am lucky I didn't hurt myself.

More Physical Therapy

Another Appointment This time I didn't do the standard get on the bike for a couple of minutes for a warm up. We did it at the end. Did my stretches again. But this time my therapist did a lot more work on my ankle. there was a really stiff band right down the middle of the back of my leg. He also did a lot more work on that knuckle of my index finger. The Alphabet While the therapist was working on my joints, I was supposed to draw the letters of the alphabet with my feet. Boy, that was more painful than him working on me. I am sure I was grimacing, but it was not because he was hurting me, it was the alphabet. The Bike At the end of Physical Therapy I road a bike for 7 minutes. It was set so that I could see how much power I was exerting on a scale of 1 to 10. The target was 4. So I kept it at 4 until I had 1 minute left, then I jumped to 5. With 30 seconds left, I jumped to 6. With 10 seconds left, I jumped to 8. oh my legs felt like jello when I was done. Ice Good thing they ice down my joints before I leave or I would really be in pain.

The Beard

I thought You Had a Beard!

Everyone has been asking me about my beard. Since all of my pictures are of me and my beard many people thought that I still had it. But I don't.

You Shaved?

Probably about a month after I got out of the hospital, I decided I need to get rid of the beard. So, Stephanie shaved me and my Dad video taped it. The video will be on www.youtube.com/larsen0966 pretty soon. I will let you know when the video is posted. Until then, here is the latest picture.