My Last Session In The Pool

Oh, Glorious Day
I am finally done with PT all together. I did my last pool session and it was great. A really good work out. I am not nearly as tired today as I expected especially since I ran and walked yesterday. I may run and walk again tomorrow. We will have to see.

About This Pool
The pool used by the Physical therapy place I go to is called a Hydroworx. Have you heard of swim in place pools? Well this is essentially one of those, plus it has a treadmill in the floor. Plus there is a jet and hose that actually will give you a really good underwater message. I only mention this because they have more features adn are cheeper than other swim in place pools I have seen. Great for rehab or athletes. check them out at www.hydroworx.com.

The Challenge
I was actually pretty good during Thanksgiving and did not eat too much. Now I need to keep it up and be good during christmas and New Years. New Years may be easy since my wife is do on New Years eve and I will be in a hospital. Not much free fatty food floating arround there. But I really need to make sure to get my fat butt in shape. I will tel you when I think I'm ready for my first 5k.

My First Real Run On A Real Road

Let's Do Some Running!
Okay so it was walk and then run and then walk some more. There is a loop near my house which is close to a mile all the way arround. At my last PT session, I walked and ran on a treadmill and did 1 mile. So today I got out on the road. I walked 3 minutes and ran 2 1/2 minutes alternatively for 1 mile and a quarter and it took about 15 minutes. It felt good. I was a little sore after but I felt good.

Stretch
Yes, I stretched before and after. It made a lot of difference and the movement in my right ankle seems to be improving a lot.

Small Incramental Steps
Now I will increase next week by 3 minutes. I will probably add it to the Wednesday walk. So monday will be 15 minutes and Wednesday will be 18 minutes. I will then figure out how I should be increasing the amount of time I run and shorten the amount of time I walk. Then I can get my fat butt in shape.

LAST PHYSICAL THERAPY SESSION

Final Evaluation?
Well, I had PT today and we did the last evaluation for PT. Anthony took measurements, discussed how much has improved, what problems are still present, and what to do next. As I have mentioned before PT has become more of a Work Out than therapy. That is a good sign I need to start doing things on my own. Mostly I need to get out on the road and run, bike, and get back in the pool and swim. So I have one more scheduled pool PT Friday and one follow-up and I am off.

The Problem
First I still have tremendous ankle problems in my right ankle and much of it is permanent. If I were a professional athlete, my career would be over. But since I'm not, all is good for the most part. Running will get that back into decent shape.

Plan Of Action
I actually ran on a treadmill! Whoo-hoo! a wamping 4.8mph (yes, I know. While in the Marines I could almost walk that fast in full gear.) So I walk for 3 minutes and run for 2 1/2 minutes for a total of 15 minutes, twice a week. The next week I increase this by 10%. Since I am more concerned about time than distance right now, I will increase the next week by 3 minutes, then by 3.3 minutes, then by 4 minutes, and so on until I am at a half an hour for each work out. Then I will reevaluate what I am doing. I will also be decreasing my walking time and increasing my running time. I will keep you posted on how I decide to do that.

What Else?
I need to get back on my bike. I can bike to work, to the store, and other places close by. I still have my gym membership so I will get back in the pool. Last, I still have my Core Performance Book and I will start the basic (highly reduced to start with) workouts.

When Will I Race?
We have our President's Day Freedom Run coming up on February 14th, 2009. I am not sure how much work I am going to have to be doing, but I would like to run it this year. My PT suggested on January first, even if all I did was run walk it, so My goal of February doesn't sound to bad. Now all I have to do is get my fat butt in shape.

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.

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.