Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Food struggles during an injury

Being out of commission kinda sucks, to put it bluntly and not at all eloquently. Not only am I frustrated because of the pain (which is getting better, but still oscillating between nagging/sore and medium/bad), but on top of that, I can't work out or rough-house with the puppies, or clean or do any of those things that help make graduate school more manageable mentally.

On top of this, I of course have concerns about weight gain. I have been quite active for the past year, almost year and a half. I really rely on being able to run and lift and then eat to support my activity. Part of what has helped me so much while dealing with the eating disorder is to begin to see food as fuel for my body. The better/more I eat (within limits) the better I perform both mentally and physically. Seeing the lifting numbers go up, running numbers go down seems to make up for the weight on the scale staying roughly the same. It's taken a while to get to that point, but I'm glad I got to it.



Fast forward to now. I haven't worked out "for real" in about two weeks, nor will I probably for at least another. When I get to the point that walking feels ok, I may start incorporating light jogging in, but it's going to be slow.

So, given that I'm not working out, what am I doing about food? I knew I would have this issue if I were to ever get very injured. It naturally begs a few questions:

Q-1). How do I start seeing food as fuel in general for normal body functioning and not just for training?

Q-2). If I cut back because I'm not training, how much do I cut back?

Q-3). How scared should I be that cutting back may send me back into a downwards loop of trying to see how low I can go -- at least for the time being?

Q-4). How do I deal with any possible weight gain I see on the scale?


So, I don't have concrete answers to any of this of course but here are my tentative answers the way I see them now:

A-1). I try to realize that recovery requires more work than just existing, that repair of damaged nerves and muscles needs rest -- but also fuel, and that the faster I heal the faster I get back to training.

A-2). I've honestly been trying to listen more to my body and just go with less than what I have been while training, but more than 1200. I usually hit 1300-1500 now...although some days this has been a struggle. I've also cut out more "junk" as in no ice cream on weekends after hard workouts and fewer less healthy snacks.

A-3). I think this depends on how long I have to do this for. However, trying to see it positively, this is good practice for any other future injuries or times when I need to take some time off.

A-4). Trying to do this now. It's harder than I thought **

** I have been taking Prednisone for inflammation. This is a steriod with one possible side effect of water retention. Now, while the "tiny" increase on the scale is most likely from that, I still get paranoid.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Long roads...

Long roads to recovery -- those seem to be the only type. I don't think I've ever had the experience of a "short recovery".  My shin splits in high-school turned to stress fractures because I refused to stop running on them. Those took a while to heal, thank you stubbornness. My shoulder dislocation also took a while to heal, and this new nerve pain/injury...it's going just as slowly.

For the past 7 days I have rested, iced, stretched, took meds, heated, repeated. And by repeat, I mean the whole or part of this processes every day 3-8 times a day. While the constant rest has probably helped the muscles relax a bit, it's still in a decent amount of pain sometimes and my mind is going crazy.


Despite how enticing laying in bed can be after a hard workout or a long day, laying in bed for 3-4 straight days is mind-numbingly boring...even with my physics textbooks and code to distract me.



Thankfully I will be seeing a physical therapist and my doctor again tomorrow morning! I have no doubt I will need to keep repeating everything I have been doing, but at least I will have more data to present and possibly new information to gather (like when I can actually start working out again and what to do to prevent this in the future!)


Friday, May 17, 2013

Injury Sadness :-(

It has been a while since I posted on here. I get very excited about writing about working out and fitness...but that requires actually being to work out. I have been cutting back recently due to the injury on my back from lifting (most likely).

History:

1). When I felt the initial pain in my lower back the first thing I cut out was deadlifts -- even though I loved them so much, they were putting such a strain on the lower back muscles.

2). The next thing I cut out was half of back day -- more the lower back half which included deadlifts, hypers, etc.

Ok, admittedly not just back pain keeping me from deadlifting this...

...but I still kept feeling pretty badly...

3). So, the next thing I cut out was most of leg day. Squats put a lot of pressure on my back, as did the leg press and glute bridges.

By this time the pain was in the lower lower back, also in the butt/glutes...and it seemed to be getting worse.

4). So I basically cut down to three lifting days a week (Arm day on Sat, Chest/Arm day Tues and Cardio/Upper back/shoulders either Sunday or Thursday). Needless to say at this point I was sad. I was disenchanted. I couldn't do some of my favourite lifts and even after lifting with other muscle groups my back/butt was still quite sore the next day.

The "bad day":

I've continues with this cut back routine for almost a month: until last Saturday.

Last Saturday was bad. I worked out (Arms and Cardio) in the A.M. and then went to volunteer at the shelter. I had the good fortune of being able to work with one of the timid dogs whom I like very much -- but she was a medium sized dog and I had to pick her up, carry her, put her down, repeat multiple times. I felt my back getting worse throughout the time, but figured it was just sore from lifting weight (squirmy weight sometimes!) from off the ground. A couple dogs I had also pulled quite a lot, which is usual, but seemed to bother my back more than it had every other weekend.  After this, we also did a bunch of housecleaning and walked our own dogs. By that night I could barely move. In fact, I had to get Ryan to help pick me up out of bed because everything was so sore.

I stayed in bed most of Sunday and Monday with little reprieve. Tuesday, the pain was so bad that I went to the doctor. I had a PT appointment schedule for the following week (in 3 days actually!), but I could barely walk, so I took the first appt. available.

So what is it?

The verdict: Sciatic nerve pain due to severe swelling of the sciatic nerve. In fact, it's so swollen its easy to feel and almost even see.



The prescription: The doctor gave me steroids (ha!) and pain meds to reduce the swelling. I have been taking those for several days combined with heat & ice, stretching, wonderful massages courtesy of Ryan, and puppy kisses, courtesy of the doctor doggies.

Doctor Q.


Guess at a cause: In researching this type of pain, I found at least 3 or 4 common causes, including herniated disks, slipped disks etc. I finally came across one that seemed the most plausible: Piriformus Syndrome. This is basically a tightening of the muscles in the butt/glute/hip joint. When these muscles get pulled too tightly (like possibly from overlifting, or lifting with poor form, or both of these combined with lack of stretching!) the muscles become inflamed. The problem is the poor little sciatic nerve runs in between these muscles and so, when the muscles swell, they pinch the nerve. This sounded like a likely cause.

When I was mostly a runner, I had very limber, loose, flexible muscles. When I started lifting 4x/week, not running a lot and not stretching, I felt all my muscles, especially those in my hip/back get a lot tighter. I would put money on this being the cause.

Ice, heat, rest, meds, stretch


The plan: Rest, ice, heat, stretch, take it easy...until I feel good enough for light activity. I will, of course, start with walking and running at an easy pace. I will also probably do arm and chest lifting workouts. Eventually, if I recover fully I will ease my way back into a harder routine.