Help!

I've fallen and I can't get up! Okay, not that bad, but I have fallen a bit off the wagon of late. The surgery and recovery are more than I expected and I guess I've been having myself a little pity party, plus the fact that I have absolutely no activity. I was able to finally put enough weight on the foot (once I took off this Frankenstein boot they've got me in) to get on the scale and I've gained about 6 pounds! Ughh! Really? Really? Well, okay, it was after all my morning coffee and breakfast, and a few other factors would affect it as well, which we won't get into other than to refer to the calendar. :) But still, the scale is definitely up higher than I'd like it.

So what do I do? Well, I pull myself up, dust myself off, dust off my tracker, count points, weigh and measure, and start fresh. That's what I do.

Good news is the cast is off, the stitches are out. I just wish I didn't have to wear this awful boot 24/7, but I'll do what I have to do to get back to running and skating. So get over it. That's what I'm telling myself tonight.

Baby steps

So this is my first post since my surgery 10 days ago. It's the first time I've had enough energy to do much. Amazing how much this surgery sucked the life out of me. I have truly had absolutely no energy. The last few days, I have slowly seen little changes. Last night I had enough energy to go out to dinner. Just felt great to get out.

This morning I got up and felt I had enough in me to stand at the stove with my crutches and make my own omelet. Of course, I had the chair right there to sit down, but I'm just so excited to have been able to do that.

Good news was there was no tumor, just a large mass of scar tissue. 6 days until the cast comes off and stitches out. Then hopefully I'll be getting around a little better.

So far, I don't think I've done too bad with eating, although I sure enjoyed a nice piece of chocolate layer cake last night but that's not the norm for me. Other than that, I've really been pretty careful about what I'm eating. In fact, hoping that tonight, with Hubby's help, I'll maybe be able to make a big pan of swiss chard for dinner. Craving veggies big time!

Out of Commission

Well, it's over. Had the surgery yesterday and it seems to have gone well. Waiting for results of pathology but surgeon feels that what he removed was not a tumor at all but probably just a mass of scar tissue, possibly for my skates. If that's the case, I'll have some questions for him when I go back, but for now, that's good news.

As for how I'm feeling, well, not so hot. The pain is there but the meds are taking the edge off of that. The problem, believe it or not, is my back. They say that they want me to elevate the leg for most of the week to keep swelling down, and to do that, they told me I basically need to lay on my back with my leg elevated above my heart. Well, what I didn't remember was that I can't lay on my back. I have an issue with lower back, left hip (maybe sciatic) and it causes pain to lay that way. When I sleep at night, I normally sleep on my side with a body pillow.

So needless to say, had a difficult night and got about 3 hours total sleep. Don't know how we're going to work this out other than maybe take the full dose of pain meds to help the back pain. Nurse is supposed to call today so I'll ask about it then.

Other than that, I'm going to try to watch what I eat while I'm in this recovery phase and just focus on getting better so I can get back to my new life of being healthy and active. Positive thinking, right?

The Big Day!

Well, tomorrow is the big day. Finally getting this surgery over with on the foot. They say the best way to go into surgery is with a positive outlook. Well, I was thinking what's so positive about it? A splint or cast, crutches, a boot, no running or skating? Hmmm. How can I think positive?

Well, I've decided to set a new goal. Yep, I did. I recently ran my first 5K EVER and I absolutely loved it. It was such a blast and I was on a high for about a week afterwards, and so proud. My next goal had been to get back on skis after about 20 years (yeah, it's actually been that long, wow). Anyway, looks like that probably won't be happening with this surgery and recovery.

So I've decided to set my sights on maybe running a 10K in the spring. Now, I don't know what I'm looking at recoverywise and when I'll actually get to run again so maybe 10K in the spring is getting ahead of myself a little but I figure if I've got something to shoot for, even if I don't quite get there, I'll get further than if I don't have a goal at all. So that's what I'm shooting for!

In the meantime, it's about trying to stick to my points, maybe be able to do some upper body strength training or something and try to stay at goal!

Feelin' Groovy

First of all let me just say that I wish, I wish, I wish we could go back to the 60's! I had such a blast putting together this costume this year. Well, it's the first time in many years that I wore a costume for Halloween, but I seriously loved dressing up as a hippie! What fun! And the 60's music too, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!

So what have I been up to? Well, just getting by, to be very honest. I'm feeling very anxious about the upcoming surgery (a week from today). I actually had a day last weekend when I did not track one bit of food that I put into my mouth (which was A LOT). I was out of control completely. Luckily, I got up the next morning, realized where I had gone and realized I needed to pull myself away from that old habit before it grabbed hold for good! But I am definitely struggling.

Since reaching my Weight Watchers goal, I have wanted to just take off another ten pounds to get to my personal goal, but those ten pounds have really become a challenge for me. I lose, I gain, I lose, I gain. I know, I know, I've been there before, the ups and downs, and eventually, I was able to break through, but this is so frustrating. And I am nervous that after surgery, not being able to run or skate for 3 to 4 months, I am afraid I'm going to see the number on the scale go up.

To top everything off, I have a terrible rash on my belly caused by.... BandAids. Yep. It's totally true. I remember having allergic reactions to adhesive from BandAids when I was younger but haven't had this type of reaction in so many years. I thought I had outgrown it, but obviously not. I tried treating it on my own, but nothing helped. So finally today I was able to get the doctor to call me in a prescription for a steroid cream that hopefully will do the job in a few days. Because of the location of the rash, I have not been able to run in a few days because the sports bras just irritate the area even more. Since running is my one big way of dealing with anxiety and stress, I've really got myself wound up. Not a happy camper.

Oh, and the Halloween candy....well, as much as I swore I wasn't going to touch the candy bowl, I did and then did again and then did again, it was BAD! But the leftovers are well out of reach now and I'm back in control.

So moving on and moving forward. Wish me luck next week with the surgery. I'm sure I'll be stuck in bed or on the sofa for at least a few days after surgery so I'll be doing lots of blogging next week. Until then, I'm hanging in and FEELIN' GROOVY!