Back To The Pool!

Physical Therapy in the Pool
Well, I am back in the pool, and it was pretty good. Since I got in first thing this morning, the pool was really warm and so was the pool room. As cold and nasty as it has been, it felt great. Started out with stretches and then did some running on the wonderful underwater treadmill. It is pretty cool since there is a camera and a TV to allow you to see what your feet are doing. My running was at about 3.2 mph. Even for a pool that was not very fast. I am really having trouble getting a good plant with my right foot. At that speed, my heal should hit first and I just roll over my foot then push off with my toes. Because my leg is still stiff, I am landing flat footed on my right side. Not good.

The Surprise
Well, just about 15 minutes before the end of my session, my Pool PT was informed his next person canceled. So he asked if I need to be or go anywhere and I didn't. That gave me another 30 minutes of work out. So we did jumping, lunges, squats and more. PT these last few times have stopped being PT and have turned into 45 minute (or in this case) to an hour and 15 minute work out! It feels great, but I have some major things to work on while I get my fat butt in shape. But what am I to do with this ankle?

Dr. Appointment, PT, and Surgery Picutres

Pictures First
These are two picture from CT scans before and after surgery. So the first picture is before surgery. The picture is color enhanced by the computer. You are not actually looking at the blood vessels, but the blood inside. Green indicates abnormal blood flow. The second picture is after surgery. The stint may appear to be on the out side, but in fact it is inside. It appears that way because you don't actually see the blood vessels, but what is inside.

Doctor's Appointment
I finally had my appointment with my regular doctor. I still have blood work and labs to do, but everything went well. Nothing out of the ordinary. He is updated on my situation with my accident and I have a follow-up in January. I like my doctor and I feel confident about working with him.

Physical Therapy
Okay, PT has now changed from rehab to a 45 minute work out. I was so tired when I was done, but I sure need it. I will be back in the pool next week so I will be able to start running soon. As for my knee, the problem is not my knee, but inflexibility of my right leg. the more I stretch it, the less problems I have. So STRETCH!

What Next?
The holidays are coming up, so I want to make sure I don't eat too much. I will weigh myself after Thanksgiving and I will start aggressively tyring to loose weight from there. PT has cleared me to pull out my bike, so I will be doing that. I will keep you posted. PT has also cleared me to try and start running again. Now that doesn't mean I will be running miles at a time. I will probably run for 1 minute and walk for 4 minutes. do that for about 15 to 20 minutes depending on how I feel.

A Poll
In the next couple of weeks, I will be posting a Poll and I will ask questions about walking for excesses. If you have any ideas for questions let me know and keep watching for the poll. I want as many people to answer as possible, so spread the link to everyone! Keep watching the blog while I get my fat butt in shape.

I Am In Bad Shape!

The Visit
Well, this weekend I had my sister over. She had flown out to Utah to see family, flew in to NC to visit a Brother-in-law, then over to see my family. We had a great time and the entire family had fun!

Shin Splints
My sister has been complaining about shin splints. She gets them from walking, running, etc. Because of the pain she does not work out. Shin splints is the inflammation of the muscle and tendon (the posterior personal tendon) that runs down the front of your leg or shin bone. It is believed that this is cause from additional use of the tendon in running and walking. as you walk or run, this tendon and muscle are used to lift the front of your toe out of the way. With any muscle and tendon use, if you over do the work out, it will become sore and inflamed.

Oh My Gosh!
I showed her some stretches do do and a couple of workouts to help. Oh my gosh! I had a hard time doing them and a couple I couldn't do at all. I am in really bad shape. I have my doctors appointment tomorrow and I will talk with him about my progress. My incision site is improving but I am still really sore and have to be careful. I will especially talk to him about my knee. I am really concerned now since it is sore and stiff.

How To Treat Shin Splints
There are several ways to treat the problem. First we are going to assume that you do want to continue some type of work out, but this muscle and tendon need rest and can not be over worked. This is commonly called relative rest.

Relative Rest
Relative rest is a combination of stretches, exercises, and modified walking or running to help strengthening the muscle and reducing inflammation of the tendon. Doing the Soleus Stand stretch and the runners stretch are important. Check out these stretches also. Next proper exercise of the soleus muscle is needed. Find a step, place you toe on the step and you heel over the edge. then to toe raises, allowing you foot to fall bellow your toe, over the edge of the step. Last modify your running and walking. You can do this by running in a pool with a water belt, or substituting the running and walking with biking. Biking is a great aerobic exercise that builds muscle in the legs and DOES NOT have the impact stress of running and walking. slowly build back into running and walking and I mean slowly. Normally you would increase your mileage by 10%. If you suffer from shin splints, do not increase more than 5%, may even 2.5% would be better.

Time And Miles
It is difficult to translate an equivalent bike ride to walking and running. Generally speaking, 4 miles of biking is equal to 1 mile running or 2 miles walking. So if I run 1 mile, the biking equivalent is 4 miles. If I want to walk to get the same workout as 1 mile, I have to walk 2 miles.
For all of you pros out there, YES THIS IS NOT EXACT. THIS IS INTENDED FOR THE AVERAGE PERSON TO WALK OR RUN TO GET BACK IN SHAPE.
So walk 1 mile. How long does that take you? Lets say it takes you 15 minutes. then do your walking in a pool for 15 minutes. Generally I can bike twice as fast as I can run, So I would bike for 30 minutes on a stationary bike, setting the resistance level to feel like I am using as much energy as I would if I were walking.

Why Not....
I will probably get a lot of emails asking my why not use the odometer on the stationary bike, or why not do this or that or the other. when I was really working out and training for triathlons, I probably WOULD do this that and the other. If you feel that you are at that level, by a book on the subject relating to triathlon training or running. I don't have the time or space on this blog to do and explanation justice. Remember, this is for me and other to just get back into shape.

Last Thoughts
The best way to start is stretching and walking. Slowly build the amount of time or distance you walk. I will keep you posted on my progress as I get my fat butt in shape.

My PT Ran A Marathon

Here It Is!
My PT guy ran the City of Oaks Marathon. He finished 156th overall with a time of 3:45. Well done! With his permission, here is a link to see the picture.
Marathon Photos

PT - Not A Lot of Progress

Friday Re-Evaluation
Well, I went back to PT on Friday for a re-evaluation. No knee problems, but my ankle and right index finger are like frozen. He worked with both a lot and I really didn't feel any pain. They are just really stuck. But it went well. I finished off some lunges. Well, that I paid for the lunges. Other than soreness, I will explain later.

The Incision Line
Well, when the doctor cut on me of course there is an incision. The inner layers were stitched and the outer layer on the skin was glued. This new surgical glue is used because it has reduced infections by 90%. Hey sounds good to me. Now the incision should have healed by now. The problem is every little thing I do, it make a micro tear on that line. Now from picking up girls, laundry, bending over, getting hit there by the littlest child, etc, I have small tears all the way across the incision line. Of course they bleed like crazy, scab up, and the scab attaches to my underwear, and then when I get up and move or walk, it tears off and it bleeds again. To top it off, I am incredibly sore! My wife mentioned this to her mother and her mother said that it should have healed by now. No kidding!

More PT
I went to PT again yesterday and "oh my gosh!" I have no balance. PT was fine but my knee is not doing so good. It is sudden too. It felt fine and then just yesterday, I would get a sharp pain and it feel like my knee is going to dislocate. I have got to get that looked at.

So... That is where I am. Very little walking, some PT and now the knee problem is back. Leave a comment with any advice.

Today Is A New Day

The Doctors Appointment
I have been waiting for this for some time. A Day when the Doctor would say "Everything looks great, you CT Scan and x-rays look fine, you can't get back to exercising and stop taking that medication." Well, today was that day! I spent most of the day at the hospital. They took 4 x-rays and 4 CT scans. The doctor actually saw me quickly with little wait. He is even going to give me copies of all my CT scans and when I get them, I will post them.

Walking
I have started walking again. I have only been doing about 1/2 a mile to a mile. Last week I did 4 miles and so far this week I have done only 1. I hope to do 5.

Physical Therapy
I start back up on physical Therapy Thursday. I should be clear to do everything (ie walk, run, bike, and get in the pool) in three more weeks. I am still concerned about my right knee, but they are going to check it out at PT.

I Am So Ready
Without needing to take the medication anymore, I won't be so tired and will actually be able to work out and start getting my fat butt back in shape. I will keep you posted. Especially about my knee.

The Big Day - Surgery

My Last Day
I am not sure why, but my younger daughters were pretty concerned about the surgery. I did everything I could to keep things calm and act as if this were just a normal trip to go see the doctor. No such like. My second oldest had to have her picture taken with me, just in case, and wanted to spend the last day with me just in case. So we watched Chicken Little. As soon as I get the picture I will post it.

The Day Before
My sister-in-law came up for a couple of reasons. She is an officer in the Air Force and was going to be giving the "Oath of Office" to another officer at the Iwo Jima Memorial. She also came up to spend the night with the kids while I recovered from surgery. She would leave for DC upon my return. I think it worked out well.

The Wedding
That Saturday, after surgery, a young woman from our church was getting married. My mother-in-law, my wife, and my oldest daughter all had part in making sure the wedding went well. I was informed that with the friend taking the "Oath of Office" and the wedding plans, it would not fit into the schedule to also have a funeral so I was forbidden to die (jokingly of course.) I decided to not disappoint anyone and live.

The Joke
I mentioned this to several people, but first told it to my daughters. No-one thought it was funny though. I was having dinner with my daughters and of course the subject of the surgery came up. This time it was how they were going to put me to sleep. Anesthesia was going to give me an epidural. I explained that they would give me drugs in my back to numb me and they would operate that way. I left out a lot of details on purpose and as a joke. For example, there would be a sheet between me and the doctors so I would not be able to see the procedure. I told my girls that I would get to watch. Not only would I get the epidural, but they would give me a number of other medications to relax me, and allow me to sleep. I told my girls that I would be awake. So here is the joke. I told them that I was going to wait until the doctor started cutting on me, then at the moment he touched me with the knife, I would scream "OOOWW!" then just say "Sorry, just Kidding." My girls did not find that funny and listed the reasons why that was I a bad idea along with everyone else. I thought it was hilarious and would make a funny scene in a sitcom. I jinxed myself though.

The Big Day of Surgery
So I show up at the hospital at 8:45am with my wife and Mother-in-law. I fill out some paperwork then head to the waiting area for surgery. I check in at the waiting area and wait for them to call me back. They gave me a pager and wen it beeped I was to return to the surgery prep area and the beeper was to stay with my wife. That way if they need to her (i.e. when I was ready for surgery and done with surgery they could just beep her.) They beeped me I went into and curtained off area with a bed and a chair for my wife. They gave me a robe, a hair cover, and socks. I got dressed and waited for anesthesia. They came and asked how I wanted to be put under and I chose the epidural. (By the way, if you are ever going to deliver a baby, I say take the epidural asap! it was great.) They tested the epidural my placing and Ice cube on my arm and asked if it was cold, and of course it was. Then they placed it on my stomach near the surgery site and asked if it was cold. The first time it was. They gave me more medicine and then the second time, I could hardly feel that they touched me. Once that was ready, I met the surgery staff and we went over the procedure. We even wrote on the area to be operated on and designated what site to do the procedure and what side not to touch. Shortly there after, they wheeled me back for surgery.

What We've All Been Waiting For - Surgery
They wheeled me back onto the operating room and moved me off my bed and onto to the operating table. It felt really weird because my legs were numb. The strapped me down to the table, tapped my feet down, taped my arms down, and even put a seat belt on me. Then they place a drape between my upper body and the doctors. They gave me more medicine through the epidural that would allow me to relax and sleep, but they could wake me and ask me questions if they needed to. I fell asleep. All of the sudden I woke right up and screamed! I had not received enough medicine through the epidural and I have never felt such pain when they cut me open. See I jinxed myself with my joke. They gave me more medicine waited about 20 minutes then continued without any problems. Surgery was supposed to take about an hour. It ended up taking 4 1/2 hours. The plan was to put in one stint. It would block the lower hole in the aorta and flow would stop through the second hole and the first. Well it didn't work they way. When they blocked the lower hole, blood started to flow into the upper hole and form a new channel. They ended up putting to stints and each had a small extension, make 4 pieces of hardware in all. They woke me up to let me know it was over and wheeled me to recovery.

Recovery
I have had surgery several times and recovery was the easiest with the epidural. Shortly after returning to recovery I woke up and talked with the nurses. All of the sudden I felt dizzy. My heart rated dropped from 71 bpm to 31. I went pale, they laid me down, prepped some drugs, then it went right back up. I ended up staying quite some time in recovery. They monitored everything. I eventually got my own room.

Spending the Night
The only room they had was a one person room. They brought in one of those fold out chairs that turns into a bed, so Stephanie was able to spend the night. As usual every two hours they woke me up for vitals. I could not sleep. At about 2 am. I started to feel really sick so I paged the nurse. Took them quite some time to respond. The doctor (looked like a young intern) on call happen to come in to check on me. Because of the type of procedure I had, nausea is a really bad sign, so he ordered and EKG and blood work. I knew it was going to be bad when the nurse asked if she should call phlebotomy. That means she can't or is really bad a drawing blood and wanted someone else to do it. The doctor said that they weren't going to be around until 4 am and that the test couldn't wait that long. So the nurse drew the blood. Oh my gosh! Let's stick in the needle and see how much we can move it around. In, out, in, out, wiggle left, wiggle right. It was so bad, my wife had to turn away. I thought to myself "She has 5 seconds to get that in or I will asked her to get someone else to do it." Then I started to count. She got it in before I got to "4". My hand still hurts were she did it. Another nurse came in and did the EKG. The setp-up took longer than the proceedure and everything looked good.

No Sleep
The nurse left the heart rate machine in there and it started to beep because the batteries were running down. So I called to have them come and get it. No one did. It beeped for a half an hour before it finally died. Plus the constant come and checking in on me, I actually didn't sleep until I got home.

Going Home Well, were were told that the doctors would do rounds and if everything looked good, then I would go home. Doctors came by at 7 am and everything looked good. Then they wanted an ultra-sound before I went home. So we got it done. Then they wanted an x-ray before I went home. Got it done. Then the surgeons wanted to see me. They did. I finally got to go about 3 pm instead of 8 am like I was told. Oh well.

Home
I am very tired and I have a few incisions that are healing. The stitched up the inside, but they used a glue on the outside. I am still pretty sore, but I will be just fine.