climbing the recovery mountain
Nov. 12th, 2017 01:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ilanaramaI haven't posted here in a couple of months, mostly because I haven't done anything really worth talking about, and I can't imagine my whining about my stupid body being stupid is interesting to anyone. But things are looking up, and so I thought I'd write a bit of an update.
The last thing I wrote about was our eclipse trip in late August. What I didn't mention in that write-up was that I overdid the bicycling a bit - the problem was not so much the longish rides on dirt roads, but rather attempting to ride up a steep dirt road, and then having to push the bike, and that resulted in a setback. I bought a 3-month membership to the rec center and concentrated on just swimming and pool-running, along with a small amount of riding the stationary recumbent. And then in mid-September I caught a bad cold and couldn't do any exercise for two weeks. It was pretty clear to me that there was no way I could do our planned Telluride to Moab ride, so I stayed at home.
The upside of doing basically nothing for two weeks was that it gave my stress fracture time to really start to heal. I felt a lot better when I started up again with the swimming and stationary cycling, and I did a little bit of regular cycling, though I kept it as easy as possible, making sure I was spinning rather than pushing the pedals. October felt pretty good, though I still felt pain after ten minutes of walking, or if I tried to carry anything heavy. In late October, Britt went elk hunting and had his usual luck, which meant a long day spent mostly on my feet (or sitting on the edge of a high stool) cutting meat, and carrying things back and forth to the sealer and freezer. The next day my pelvis hurt so much! And I decided I'd better go back to the doctor to find out why it seemed to take so long to heal.
The x-ray showed a thick spot (callus) on the bone, obvious to even me, which is a sign of healing. The doctor said she thought that the pain I'm having is actually coming from my muscles and tendons, which apparently have been stressed in odd ways (or not stressed the way they should be) due to protecting the injury, and recommended physical therapy; I had actually found a set of recommended exercises and so I have started doing them, though I may go see the PT as well. She also reassured me that as long as I don't try to do too much too soon, I'm not going to reinjure the bone, and I should go ahead and ramp up my weight-bearing exercise.
So I've done a half hour walk (and as usual it started hurting after five minutes, but the pain stayed at a low level rather than increasing as it had before, which is good), and I've started mountain biking again (on routes where I don't have to carry my bike). Yesterday I used an elliptical trainer at the gym for half an hour - I could start to feel a bit of pain then - and then 20 minutes of pool running. I am hopeful that I can start running again soon!
I also had a bunch of blood tests for bone formation/remodeling markers, and a Dexa scan, which is a bone density scan. I had a Dexa scan six years ago after my metatarsal stress fracture, which found that I had good bone density, but since then I've undergone menopause. And the testing found that I've got significant bone loss over the past six years (hooray for having a baseline, I guess) and my bone density is firmly in the "osteopenia" range. The vertebra where I had a herniated disc a few years ago is the worst, edging onto osteoporosis. A couple of the blood markers turned up out of bounds as well, though that might be because my body's working on dealing with my current fracture.
Apparently being a skinny post-menopausal white woman with genetic predisposition to weak bones (my mom's got osteoporosis) is catching up to me. I've got an appointment next week with an osteoporosis specialist; I might be looking at meds, we'll see. Mostly I'm just relieved that things are healing, and that I can start doing more athletic things, just in time for ski season. (Which is likely to suck, because La Niña - oh, well!)
Okay, so that's where I am. And now it's time to head out and go for a bike ride!
(Photo from Friday's ride, which was the best ride ever, because glorious day and so nice to be out on my REAL bike instead of on the stationary one!)
The last thing I wrote about was our eclipse trip in late August. What I didn't mention in that write-up was that I overdid the bicycling a bit - the problem was not so much the longish rides on dirt roads, but rather attempting to ride up a steep dirt road, and then having to push the bike, and that resulted in a setback. I bought a 3-month membership to the rec center and concentrated on just swimming and pool-running, along with a small amount of riding the stationary recumbent. And then in mid-September I caught a bad cold and couldn't do any exercise for two weeks. It was pretty clear to me that there was no way I could do our planned Telluride to Moab ride, so I stayed at home.
The upside of doing basically nothing for two weeks was that it gave my stress fracture time to really start to heal. I felt a lot better when I started up again with the swimming and stationary cycling, and I did a little bit of regular cycling, though I kept it as easy as possible, making sure I was spinning rather than pushing the pedals. October felt pretty good, though I still felt pain after ten minutes of walking, or if I tried to carry anything heavy. In late October, Britt went elk hunting and had his usual luck, which meant a long day spent mostly on my feet (or sitting on the edge of a high stool) cutting meat, and carrying things back and forth to the sealer and freezer. The next day my pelvis hurt so much! And I decided I'd better go back to the doctor to find out why it seemed to take so long to heal.
The x-ray showed a thick spot (callus) on the bone, obvious to even me, which is a sign of healing. The doctor said she thought that the pain I'm having is actually coming from my muscles and tendons, which apparently have been stressed in odd ways (or not stressed the way they should be) due to protecting the injury, and recommended physical therapy; I had actually found a set of recommended exercises and so I have started doing them, though I may go see the PT as well. She also reassured me that as long as I don't try to do too much too soon, I'm not going to reinjure the bone, and I should go ahead and ramp up my weight-bearing exercise.
So I've done a half hour walk (and as usual it started hurting after five minutes, but the pain stayed at a low level rather than increasing as it had before, which is good), and I've started mountain biking again (on routes where I don't have to carry my bike). Yesterday I used an elliptical trainer at the gym for half an hour - I could start to feel a bit of pain then - and then 20 minutes of pool running. I am hopeful that I can start running again soon!
I also had a bunch of blood tests for bone formation/remodeling markers, and a Dexa scan, which is a bone density scan. I had a Dexa scan six years ago after my metatarsal stress fracture, which found that I had good bone density, but since then I've undergone menopause. And the testing found that I've got significant bone loss over the past six years (hooray for having a baseline, I guess) and my bone density is firmly in the "osteopenia" range. The vertebra where I had a herniated disc a few years ago is the worst, edging onto osteoporosis. A couple of the blood markers turned up out of bounds as well, though that might be because my body's working on dealing with my current fracture.
Apparently being a skinny post-menopausal white woman with genetic predisposition to weak bones (my mom's got osteoporosis) is catching up to me. I've got an appointment next week with an osteoporosis specialist; I might be looking at meds, we'll see. Mostly I'm just relieved that things are healing, and that I can start doing more athletic things, just in time for ski season. (Which is likely to suck, because La Niña - oh, well!)
Okay, so that's where I am. And now it's time to head out and go for a bike ride!
(Photo from Friday's ride, which was the best ride ever, because glorious day and so nice to be out on my REAL bike instead of on the stationary one!)
(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-13 02:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-13 03:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-13 02:28 am (UTC)Sorry to hear about the problems, but again glad to hear that you are on the mend.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-13 03:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-14 01:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-14 09:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-20 08:22 pm (UTC)Hooray, I guess, but what dumb news :/
Biking, need to get back into it - stop going the long way home when the weather turned - now it's pitch dark when I get off work, and cold, and I just want to get home :)
(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-22 12:15 am (UTC)Biking is a lot less fun in bad weather, for sure. I used to commute year round but I had lights and really good clothes for it.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-27 07:58 pm (UTC)