February BP

Fitness Man

On Monday, I joined Planet Fitness in the valley. I went last week with Shelley from work. She's been a member there for over a year. 

I decided to go and check it out and I found it agreeable. It's clean and the equipment is first rate. 

So far, my workouts have consisted of 20 minutes on a cross country elliptical. I'm hoping to work up to 30 minutes. I'm not even paying attention to distance or calories burned. I just want to get better than where I am at, which is really really out of shape.

Okay, part of the reason for my lousy condition is heart related and for that reason, I'm not pushing myself very hard. But I need to be exercising and I've done pretty good getting workouts in this week. I was there Monday, Wednesday and today.

Planet Fitness is opening a new location on N.W. Blvd., very close to home. That's another reason I decided to join. It's only $20 a month, so I'm hoping to get it down to a dollar a visit.

Repercussions

Sunday was our first day of skiing for the season. Consequently, I was not feeling very spry yesterday. My gout knee was not happy about the activity. I thought I would be okay since I had a pretty full range of motion without too much pain. But my knee thought otherwise,

With six runs in the bag, my knee was feeling every turn, mogel and jolt I gave it.

Yesterday was a day of slow motion and sore muscles.

I joined Planet Fitness yesterday. They have a gym out in the valley and they are going to be opening a new one in the old Albertson's building over on N.W. Blvd.

I got on the treadmill last night for 25 minutes to further punish my body.

I bring this all up to say that I feel pretty good this morning. Today was the first day in a loooooong time that I was able to put on my underwear and jeans by balancing on one leg at a time. I haven't been able to do that with the gout. In fact, at the height of the gout, getting dressed below the waist was quite a chore.

Unfortunately, as I was putting on my undies, I put them on backwards so I had to do it all over again. I guess that's my sub-conscience making me practice.

I'm just about to head out the door to work and it is gently snowing. It's pretty close to 32 degrees so I don't expect this one will stick much. 

With all the rain and warmish weather we've had lately, we have almost gotten rid of all the snow on the ground. My deck is almost snow free. My front yard continues to have about 8 inches.

Unadulterated Me

I am back at work today and feeling more or less fresh and rested.

I am attempting to make changes in my life that will hopefully benefit me in the long run. Case in point, my coffee.

I have a horrible sweet tooth which has not served me well over my lifetime. I totally change the chemical makeup of coffee in order to make it palatable to my need for sweetness.

It was recently pointed out to me that coffee is a flavor. If you don't like the flavor, you probably shouldn't be drinking coffee.

So I'm going the whole week drinking black coffee. My hope is that by the end of the week, I'll have acclimated myself to coffee and no longer require the adulterated version.

However, on weekends at home, I will still be adding Bailey's Irish Cream to my coffee.

Recovery Guy

I am waiting for a technician from CenturyLink to show up. My appointment window is from 8:15 to 12:15. I just checked on-line and the window has been narrowed to between 9 and 10. 

All this is very nice in theory but I have yet to see it work out in the real world.

I am home again today recovering from my surgery on Wednesday. I could have gone to work today but I wanted to be home for the CenturyLink guy.

And so I wait.

Ablation Guy - Round Duex

We are leaving shortly for the quick drive over to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho so I can check in at the Kootenai Medical Center and go under the figurative knife for my second Ablation. 

I was originally told to check in at 7AM and we thought it would be nice to drive over last night and stay in a hotel room. But yesterday, they said to check in at 10:30AM. So we decided to stay in town and save 90 bucks,

I will update when there is something to say. Of course, if you see no further updates, you can just assume the operation did not go well.

7:26PM: I am back at home which means things went well, even though they didn't go well.

The Doctor's were not able to make my heart make the extra heart beats, the PVC's, that it has been making. Therefore, there was nothing to ablate.

So they sent me home, made me stay home for tomorrow and we'll see where we go from here.

Gout Alert

I am currently experiencing the worst outbreak f gout I have ever had. It is at least, one of the worst. The only other time it's comparable to is the first time I got gout in my left big toe. That has to be close to 18 or 20 years ago.

I have called in to work and left a message that I'm staying home today. I have called Dr. O'Connor's office to ask for an appointment or at least a prescription for Cholchrys. Amazingly, they can get me in at 11:30.

I didn't sleep much last night as it was impossible to find a position where my leg wasn't causing me great throbbing continual pain.

Driving to the doctor is going to be a challenge because the gout is in my right knee which is attached to my driving leg. The added fun obstacle is all the snow that has fallen over night and continues as I write.

I am going to lie down for a while now and then somehow, try to get dressed to go to the doctor.

1:18PM: I have returned from the doctor and the adventures in the snow successfully. It took me a while to get back home because I had to pick up the prescription and it wasn't ready.

It was very uncomfortable driving because of the placement of my leg. My knee throbbed the whole time I was out.

In any event, I'm heading up to bed now. Going out took a lot out of me. I am noticing that I'm walking differently, shifting weight where I'm not used to because I have to be gentle on my right leg. As I said, it takes a lot out of me.