Working that 'Bow

Sometimes I feel like I am limited on things to discuss here now that running (and even most lifting!) are out of the question. I don't want to turn this into a food blog (I am a terrible photographer) or a baby blog (although you will definitely get your fill of pictures of her once she is here!) so I am just biding my time and doing the workouts that I CAN do until I have something more interesting to discuss. I suppose my PT workout should suffice?

Yesterday was my 4th official PT appointment with Carmen. Brandon (one of the other therapists - they all help each other out) came and got me started because Carmen was stretching someone. It seems they use e-stim on some people and physical touch on others. Because of the baby, I am a physical touch person, which I like. Brandon sat me down at the pulleys for my warm up and set the timer for 5 minutes. The pulleys are basically a rope dangling from a hook on the wall with a handle on each side. I use my left arm to basically pull up on my right arm and work on straightening it out.

SourceThat is all that it is, but I love it, and I always feel like my exercises go better after 5 minutes with it than they do at home, which tempts me to buy a stupid pulley for $8-ish for my house. But then by the time it arrives, will I be done with PT? I have no idea.

After the pulley, I typically head over to the wall to do my work over there. I do wall v's and wall walks with my right arm, just trying to work on the extension. 1 set of 15 of each of those. Then they give me the bar, completely unweighted (basically PVC pipe with ends on it) and do 15 bicep curls really to focus on the bend, and then overhead raises to work on my extension some more. I use my left hand to help encourage the right to do what it it supposed to. Since having the surgery, my back feels really crunchy. Does that make sense at all to you? It like makes creaky crunchy noises as I do my curls. I get to do two sets of 10 wall pushups now, which ALMOST makes me feel like myself again, but they are HARD and hurt the bow.

After that, I head over to the table to do some weighted exercises. They work my wrist and forearm, which I have learned definitely affects my elbow indirectly. I also have to do a grip exercise. As I mentioned in a previous post, my grip was much more effected by this than I thought it could be, so I do some grip exercises using this lovely little tool.

Source
I basically do the exercises that is being shown here. It is called a Power Web or a thera-web (it depends on who you ask!) I start with my fingers spread out in the holes and try to pull it together. I also start with my finger tips in the holes to spread it apart. The second one is even harder for me because I have double jointed knuckles. So my hand/fingers sometimes lock into place and that is awkward. After a few more things (that vary from session to session) I sit in my stool and Carmen rubs my elbow and works on manually straightening and bending it. This is painful to me as well. But I know she is pleased with my progress, so I just grin and bare it!

At the end of my appointment (AKA after about 45 minutes of torture), I get iced down for 10 minutes. I truly LOVE this part of my appointment and look forward to it every single session. Like I said one day last week, ice is magical!

Have you gone through PT? If it was an arm injury, did you do some of these exercises?

Weekend Recap - A Good One

I always feel guilty when my weekend gets away from me and I don't blog and I don't even take any pictures with my phone. I didn't even take any pictures of the fun stuff I did this weekend, which is really lame, because there were things! I guess I will have to settle for telling you about the weekend rather than showing you, since there is absolutely NOTHING to show!

Friday was my third day of PT and the day that I was looking forward to all week, because that is what you do when you work a Monday-Friday job! PT was late in the day, so I planned on just going home after it and finishing out my work day there. I do feel like I am making some progress while I am there, which feels good to me, but at the same time, I can tell that I have a really long way to go. My mobility is definitely not there yet, as much as I am trying and working hard to get there. I know that the swelling that I still am experiencing (although it gets less and less every week!) does not help.

Friday night, J and I had a date night. We went to the Mexican place pretty close to our house. When J offers Mexican, I feel I always need to take him up on that offer. Because after all, he is not a real big fan of it, and I love it.  So we went there and we even sat outside, which was great. J usually picks the bar where there is a TV, even at the Mexican place, so when he suggested we eat outside, I was thrilled. We had a nice dinner where we talked for the meal rather than playing on our phones and watching TV. I kind of feel like that is a pretty big deal for us!

Saturday started off early with J's alarm going off because he had plans to play golf. I took the dogs out and fed them and then we hung out in bed while J got ready. I went downstairs when he did though to hammer out a quick half hour on the treadmill. Yes, I only walked two miles during that time, but I was still glad to get some time on the treadmill. After that, I hit the road to run a few errands. I started at Target returning a few things that we really did not need. Baby things that we had randomly received (isn't this why we have a registry? So people will buy us the things that we really want/need?) needed to go back, even though I did not have a receipt. Out came my driver's license and I walked away with a store credit (all I really wanted anyway!)

I purchased a few things that I needed, a few things that I wanted, and a few gifts (to round out J's Father's Day gift, as well as some cute new collars for Teek and Zeus that we will give them when the baby comes so they don't feel sad. - I have no idea if a new collar works like that, but I am hoping so!) After that, I went to Kroger. Now, there is a Kroger pretty much next door to Target, but I went to one about 15 minutes away so I could go to the Little Clinic while I was there. I knew that I needed to get my T-Dap (aka whooping cough shot) and that I could get it there.

I did my grocery shopping first. This may have been a mistake. I stopped at the Clinic and got all registered and then took my groceries (including ice cream) out to my car. Then I hung out in the waiting area until I could get my shot. The shot itself only took a second and then I was on the road again. My frozen things were a little melty, but I tried not to worry about them too much. The afternoon was spent doing some cleaning and some relaxing. I was not really in the mood to do much, so the fact that any cleaning at all happened is a win in my book!

We had some friends over to cook out later that night. They arrived at our house around 7 pm. I had been looking forward to this cookout for at least a week because I had purchased stuff for s'mores and convinced J that making a fire in our firepit (which we have only used one other time!) was absolutely essential. So we ended up having a really great time, with delicious food. Everyone else was having some beers, but since I can't have any right now, I made up the missing calories in marshmallows. I think I won that round.

Yesterday was Father's Day. I didn't get to see my dad, but HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to him from across the state!

(My brother Joe, Dad, me and Matt at Rachel's wedding last summer)

We did get to celebrate with J's dad however.

J and his dad have the same smile, don't they?

Have a lovely Monday!

Strength, Bootcamp and Simple Walks

Friday. The day everyone waits for all week long, including (especially?) me! This week is no exception, as it has been a really rough one, working hard to get a little bit of movement back in this crazy elbow. The other day, J asked me to show him how far I could straighten it. I did. He seemed shocked. He wanted to know why I couldn't straighten it further, and was it just because it was hurting me? I explained that no, I could deal with some additional pain, that will subside as I adjusted. I literally CANNOT straighten it further than that. This has increased through the week already, but I am not there yet, and I don't think I will be for a few more weeks. But I will keep doing my exercises, keep icing, keep working hard to get myself back into full working order soon!

In other news, I have signed up for the next round of Tina's Best Body Bootcamp!

Yes, it is 100% unlikely that I will be participating in the workouts right away, but I will have them. I am getting access to everything that I will need to get back at it 100% after the baby is born. I am glad that I made the decision to sign up anyway, even knowing that I could not complete the majority of the work. I am going to start a folder that holds all of my BBB workouts and information and I will use that to pull from when I am looking for workouts to do.

Thanks Tina, once again, for hosting!

I have been putting plenty of pressure on myself to make sure that I am getting my walks in every day. It is kind of tough stuff as a general rule, and maybe I should relax a little, but I definitely have some anxiety if I do not get it all done every day. So I figure by walking, I am taking it easy on my body, and I am getting in enough activity to keep my anxiety levels down, which is just as important! If I have high anxiety, then I will definitely do additional harm to myself as well as potentially to the baby from just a high heart rate, etc. So nice, easy long walks it is!

If you have been pregnant, what were your workouts like?

My Grip (on reality? No, literally) is Not so Good

If you are in the midwest, you will know that we are dealing with some nasty weather. Right now, in Blue Ash, where my home and office is located, we have some serious darkness going on, along with a lot of thunder and rain. It is pretty bad here. We managed to escape a lot of the severe wind and stuff that other parts of Ohio (including my hometown!) suffered from last night, but right now things are scary out. The most surprising part is that when I got here this morning, it was actually quite nice out (although very humid) even a little bit sunny!

I am exhausted today. I think with all of the walking plus physical therapy plus staying up late to either watch hockey or basketball is catching up with this 32 week, 3 day pregnant lady. In reality, I should probably try and spend a few days relaxing, but I cannot at this point. I need to keep up with my PT, especially, since I am hopefully less than 8 weeks from baby arrival and I want to be back to full strength for her. And trust me, I have a LONG way to go before I am back to full strength, I think.

As an example of strength that I have lost that I didn't even KNOW about.... at my first PT appointment, Carmen asked about my grip. I told her that when my hand was super swollen it was not good. I mean, I was dropping my phone all over the place and stuff, but now that I am out of my sling and working on getting back to normal, things seem to be ok. She checked it anyway. I am able to produce 28 lbs of pressure with my left (not strong but non-injured) hand. My right hand cannot even produce 2 lbs of pressure. That's amazing, right? It sure seemed strange to me! Yesterday she added two exercises to specifically address this.

There's the love bug and I this morning. He was feeling extra snuggly, which is good because I am so sleepy. Having a sweet snuggly puppy with you always makes you feel more calm and better about everything. At least, my snuggly puppies do. And yes, I realize that it is obvious that Zeus is my favorite child. But that is because Zeus just loves everyone. Teek just loves J and she could take me or leave me. So I might as well love on the puppy that loves on me back!

Honestly, I am ready for the baby to get here now so I know what life is going to be like! But she better keep cooking. I want her nice and strong like momma when she gets here!

Incision Update, Workouts, Work Stress

Another day has come and gone, and yesterday was a day filled with appointments (4 weeks post-op doctor appointment) and lots of work. I am starting to work on preparing my duties for someone else to take over for approximately 2 months (plus one month while I am training him) and that is really difficult for me to wrap my head around. I am not excited about training my own replacement, I was not excited about interviewing a large group of people (we interviewed 5 people!) and I am VERY insecure about leaving for 2 months, give or take. What happens when I come back? How does that work? Will it be hard for my replacement (even though he is temp) to leave? What if he is BETTER than me?

As you can see, I have some work issues on my mind, so believe it or not, there is something going on here other than pregnancy, no running/just walking and my elbow! I am sure that is hard to believe for some folks (potentially even my husband) since talking about work other than "it's going pretty well" is not common for me.

Yesterday at the doctor, he ripped off my steri strips. I have had them changed several times since my surgery, and I guess yesterday I had enough.

The first picture is immediately after the removal of the strips. My arm had not been washed or anything. The second is this morning, nearly 24 hours later, after a shower and 2 workouts. Interesting and painful thing...  sweat stings. I sweat a lot these days, and when sweat ran down my arm when I was walking this morning, it hurt a little! So yes, my arm definitely still looks a little bit banged up, there is a bruise on the joint for sure, but things are progressing, little by little!

I head back to physical therapy today for day 2 of official torture. I put myself through the torture yesterday (including the icepack of awesomeness) but today it gets to come from someone else, even though it will most likely be the exact same exercises. I am not sure if we will do measurements every session or not, but I guess I will see when I get there. My appointment is at 10 am.

Workouts have been progressing as planned. I have been hitting my 4 mile goal pretty consistently. One thing that I have found since I stopped running is that my appetite has gone down to much more "normal" proportions, at least as far as I am concerned. Initially, I was fairly certain it was just a post-surgery/on-meds things that was going on. But now, a month later, I realize that the change in my workouts has led to a change in diet and it feels good and comfortable. I am not worried at all about the eating less than I have been doing as the doctor has been very insistent that things are right on track for me, so I am starting to feel comfortable with the way things are progressing in that manner.

This week (starting Monday) I have gotten in 3-4 mile walks. I am at 12.14 miles so far. I will likely squeeze in a few "around the building" laps later on today as that seems to relax me when I am feeling stressed out about something. So by the end of the day I will probably be closer to thirteen for the week. I am feeling good about it, and I know that the walking cannot hurt me or Addie, unlike running at this point. I still have all of my post Addie running goals (and am thinking about adding "Run Like a Mother" to my amazon shopping cart!) but I am learning what I need to do right now, and doing it.

Runners - if you took an unexpected break - how did you find your appetite changing? Drastically, like mine? Not at all? Somewhere in the middle?

June Promotions for DietToGo!

As a Diet to Go Ambassador, I want to fill you in on a few AWESOME things that they have in the works for the month of June! There is a lot going on with this great company right now, and I think ANY of my readers might like to become involved with this company and their products.

First of all, "LIKE" Diet to Go on Facebook. By doing this, you will be eligible to enter their sweepstakes, where you can win FREE meals!

You can win up to a whole MONTH of their delicious food, and 5 runners up will receive 1 week of meals!

Have you heard of Diet Bet? Diet to Go is sponsoring one! Here is how it works. It starts on June 28th. You put in your money to enter (for DietToGo's bet, it is a $25 entry). It lasts until July 25th. You weigh in weekly and post pictures for proof on the DietToGo Diet Bet website, and if you lose 4% of your weight in that 4 week period, you are a winner! You will get your $25 back, along with a share of the pool that is made up of those who did NOT reach the 4% goal. In addition, for DietToGo's bet, DietToGo is offering $50 gift cards to their winners in addition to the pool funds. And all runners up will receive 25% off of a meal plan from DietToGo!

DietToGo also has a Google+ Community Page. Go here for their latest blog posts, happenings, offers, and for informative articles about health and nutrition. The title of the Community is Common-Sense Healthy Living, and I believe it is perfectly embodies what DietToGo has to offer. Check it out and feel free to join the community for lots of great information!

Diet to Go will also be hosting a twitter chat later in June. I will post details on this once we get closer to the date. Participating is fun and easy!

Disclaimer: As a DietToGo Ambassador, this is a sponsored post.

The Awesomeness of Ice and Other Tales

One month. One month ago I fell on the concrete and changed the way the remainder of my pregnancy was going to be. Instead of focusing on trying to continue to run (as slow as I may be getting) and staying healthy to grow a little one, I need to focus on staying healthy, PLUS just regain strength and mobility on my strong side so I can at least hold and take care of this little one. Workouts have changed A LOT as stated yesterday, but I am definitely still trying to keep them up, at least a bit!

Yesterday, I got in the 4 miles that I am basically requiring of myself to get to the 20 mile/week goal. I did 3.5 on the treadmill in the morning, and then added another 2 loops around my office at lunchtime to get to the full 4. I always feel like I have accomplished a little bit more by getting in a full hour of workout, versus less than that, especially now that I am not running, so I am not getting as much distance in a given amount of time. So one hour just feels about right to me.

Since I am pretty much obsessed with getting my mobility and strength back to my arm, I am going to follow the directions of my physical therapist (Carmen) to a T! I had my first session yesterday. It was not great. My mobility was QUITE limited, especially in the straightening department (despite all of my work toward getting it to straighten out last week). But I learned my exercises, got my measurements done, and then got iced down for 10 minutes after my arm workout. It was kind of awesome, and I am super proud of myself for working hard at it.

PS - Carmen is the perfect PT for me. She is a runner with a 9 month old baby girl. This means - she gets it.

This morning, I did the exercises on my own for the first time. I am used to doing 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps of exercises. This is 1 set, 15 reps with a 30 second hold in certain positions (like a flexion or extension, using my left arm to hold it). It is a bit painful, and after about 15 seconds my hand usually starts to shake, but I am working hard not to push too hard. Afterward, I took the advice of Carmen and broke out my ice pack for 10 minutes before eating my oatmeal.

It felt pretty awesome, and made me wonder why I have quit icing since those first 5-6 days after surgery. Ice is amazing.

Accomplishments are happening, even though I didn't meet my arm straightening goal.

For instance, see that topknot/pony? I put that in myself. And felt like it looked good enough to wear it to work. My first self-done pony since my injury. In addition, that is my 32 week belly shot.

All righty, elbow update tomorrow!