And back to the real world

This post was originally published at Get Fit Chicks. It may refer to posts on Get Fit Chicks that no longer exist. Please email me if you run into any of those and I will break the links. More information about the reposting is available here

So, my last two posts (one which showed up a week after I wrote it and actually comes before the other one) talked about how exhausted I was after being up all night with a small child.

Well, it gets better. Trying to get fit while taking care of a toddler is not an easy task.

I swam whenever that was a long time ago. Then thought, Thursday will be a good time for a second swim. But the small child, well, her ear had other ideas. And at 11:30 I was on my way home from work to take her and her leaking ear to the doctor. Oh, ruptured ear drum.

And then we get over the ear drum and we’re back at the doctor’s again, thinking her ear is hurting her again. Nope, it turns out to be H1N1. Again on a day where swimming was actually programmed into my schedule.

It’s been hard, but most days I still manage to get a 4-5 km walk in, if nothing else. The past five days were horrible because she was essentially quarantined, so we didn’t leave the house much. But now she’s back at day care. I’ve walked about 4 km already this morning and I actually don’t feel too bad, especially considering the lack of sleep last night.

Exercise really does make a difference but getting it in around a toddler’s schedule is the challenge!!

Swimming is on the agenda for Wednesday, so let’s hope (for all kinds of reasons) it doesn’t get sabotaged. by toddler illnesses.

Jumping in with both feet

This post was originally published at Get Fit Chicks. It may refer to posts on Get Fit Chicks that no longer exist. Please email me if you run into any of those and I will break the links. More information about the reposting is available here

So, even though I was utterly exhausted again yesterday, my day planner said I should be at the pool at 11:30, so at 11:15 I unhappily dragged myself across campus to get wet. Yuck. The entire walk I was thinking that I really wanted to be dry and not wet.

I needed a new swim cap and I thought about just ditching the whole swim because I needed a swim cap and didn’t really want to walk the extra (200 m) distance to the bookstore. But it was in my day planner. So I went. And I muttered to myself about how much I hate swimming. And didn’t want to get wet. And would rather be sitting, dry and warm, at my desk.

And then the girl at the front desk at the pool was super friendly. And off I went to swim.

And you know what? My body? It was not happy with me from the moment my big toe touched that water. And you know what it was yelling at me? It was actually cursing me. Cursing me because I haven’t been in the pool since I was 8.5 months pregnant.

And I had a great, albeit short, swim. And I went for a bit of a detour walk before I got back to my desk. Which means I did an extra 2.8 km yesterday, more than my goal! And even though I had next to no sleep the night before, I felt SUPER all afternoon.

And today, today I knew I’d had a swim, but I wasn’t regretting it.

So tomorrow, at 11:15 I’m off to the pool again. And it’s in my day planner and now on the blog, so, well, there’s no room for excuses!

Back in the slow lane

I've been saying for a while that I'd head back to the pool, but when the morning sickness hit there was no way I could even think about the pool, all that water swishing around made me queasy! Then I felt better but the pool was closed for its annual maintenance and there is no way you'll catch me swimming in the outdoor pool. NO WAY!

But today I went swimming with a coworker. I'm slow, although not 600m/hour slow, but that is to be expected since I haven't been in the pool for way too long and I'm just a little bit pregnant.

As always there was one person who drove me nuts in my lane (well, two actually). There was the lady who should have been in the middle lane because she was swimming as fast or faster than most of the middle lane people and running over the slow lane people and there was the sloooooooooow girl. She was there to flirt with a boy...they had a splashing fight, she whined about not getting her hair wet (Hello, why are you in a pool and without a swim cap if you don't want to get your hair WET?!?!). She also should have been swimming in the non lane next to the slow lane. She was using a a kick board (no problem there, I'm a huge kick board fan myself) and instead of swimming she was pulling herself along the lane rope and about four metres from the wall, she'd stop and turn around and start floating back the WRONG WAY.

Ahhhhh...the joys of a communal pool. Maybe in my next life I'll have my own personal lap pool at my house and I won't have to share. Cause there are some things I'm just not so good at sharing!

Oh, and the cub. The cub likes swimming. It kicked up a fuss when I first got in, but I think that was probably because of the cool temperature (or maybe it could feel the difference between water and air?). I hate the bath tub at the pink palace, so the cub has never had a bath, just a shower. But as soon as I started swimming it stopped karate chopping and it stayed still for almost two hours after the swim. If only I had that lap pool and could swim a few laps before bed!

Soldier-Zipper-Airplane

So, after forcing myself to go to the pool as often as possible over the last six or seven months, I now find myself dragging in the afternoon if I don't go for a swim. This is good news since I loathe swimming and spent the hours between waking in the morning and climbing out of the pool at the end of my swim psyching myself up for the day's laps.

Now instead of the running commentary being along the lines of:

"You need to go swimming because your back will hurt later. You need to go swimming because your back hurts now. You need to go swimming because it's good for you. You need to go swimming because you don't want to have to go back to physio. You need to go swimming because if you do have to go back to physio, you don't want to tell the physiotherapist that you've stopped swimming and that's why you're back. etc etc over and over again"

All I need to say to myself is: "You won't make it to 3:00 this afternoon if you don't go swimming and then you'll end up putting in two or three hours of work at home tonight because you'll be so slow."

And it works. I like the way I feel after a swim. I like that I sleep a million times better at night, even though I'm alone. I like that my back feels good. And I like that somehow I get all kinds of extra energy and get way more done in the afternoons when I swim!

But I still don't really like swimming. I'm getting much faster and my endurance is way better. I've come a long way since February and March when I first got in the pool. Okay, so I was still on a regular schedule of super strong painkillers, I was using a cane, and at that point I was seriously wondering if life was ever going to be "normal" again (what exactly is normal?!?!), but I was only doing a whopping 100 metres in five minutes.

I still need to talk myself through the workout. I got bored of the 1-2-3-4 rhythm. And I got bored of the nursery rhymes I was singing in my head. They both keep me going, but I needed something else.

And then today, today I remember the elementary backstroke from my backward swimming lesson days. So I swam soldier-zipper-airplane and even when I was swimming some other stroke, my brain was chanting soldier-zipper-airplane. It's a good rhythm.

soldier-zipper-airplane
soldier-zipper-airplane
soldier-zipper-airplane

Twelve Steps might help me kick the Crackbook habit...

but I'm not ready yet...

Sigh...you may have noticed, I certainly have, that I'm not posting anything very often at all, here or over there at p365 where I am still taking the pictures, it's just taking me forever to post them. I'm blaming that on two things. Crackbook which I joined under duress from peer pressure ;) and swimming. The pool reopened this week and I'm so smart I thought, hey, I haven't been in the pool for a month, so I'll just PICK UP WHERE I LEFT OFF...dumb dumb dumb...So now I'm tired.

To make up for it, although my guess is most of those who read my blog are probably also addicted to Crackbook, I posted my movie list...yeah...that's it, it's to make up for me being lazy...nothing to do with my obsession with lists.

On that note, I see the sun is out, so I'm off to take advantage of it before the rain comes back...

ps...I'm not ready to kick the habit, but I've done the first step...I recognize I have a problem!

No, don't go away yet...

Sunita moved to Florida a few months ago to do some post doctoral work, but she's back in Vancouver for a few days and we all went out for dinner last night. And we all agreed it felt like she'd never left. Stacey and I were plotting ways to keep her here, but I guess we just have to wait out her two year contract and hope she decides to come back to Vancouver when she's done.

Or maybe we'll just have to go to Florida to see her...ooooh...I see a trip coming.

Hey Alex, wanna go to Florida?

Besides Girl Guide meetings, I mostly notice that Sunita isn't here when I got to the pool. When I started at UBC, Sunita and I used to go to lunch regularly, but she also got me to go swimming with her at lunch. Now when I go swimming, I feel like something is missing.

LIFE!

First day of school...

Well, that's sort of what it felt like. Today was the official beginning of life returning to normal Chez Shanalex. Life has been progressing to this point for some time now, what with the rejection of the walker and wheelchair, the discarding of the bath bench, and, on Saturday, the return of all equipment from the Red Cross Equipment Loan Program.

Today was the first day back at work. While it was a tad bit overwhelming and there is much to do, well, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. It almost felt like I hadn't really been gone...I mean, the calendar is stuck on November, so really, it must just be the first week of December, NOT twelve weeks later...

Seriously, can we go back to the first week of December? I like Christmas. I'd like to experience Christmas 2006 NOT in a drug induced stupor...

In any case, life is back to normal. The drugs are long gone which means I've quit scaring Alex by asking him innocent questions like:

• Why am I sleeping in the guest room?
• Why does my back/hip hurt?
• Did I hurt myself?
• What's going on?
• Who are you?
• What are you doing in my room?
• Where's Alex? I want Alex. I don't know you. I want Alex.
  
• Do I know you?
• Why does it hurt when I try to sit up?

I did ask him each and every one of these questions...true, the drug induced stupor was at its peak at that point, but I unintentionally scared the poor guy a whole lot...he must like me though - he's still living here and I still have his ring ;)

It's been twelve weeks since I took my little tumble and it's been an experience for sure. The way I see it, while it was a not fun accident, I learned a whole lot.

• I learned not to take things for granted.
• I learned exactly how far my patience can stretch, but also how far the patience of others will stretch for me.
• I learned that my body is both stronger and weaker than I thought it was.
• I learned that as much as I don't like swimming laps, sometimes it's actually an okay way to spend part of an afternoon.
• I learned that some people really lack manners when it comes to people in wheelchairs and with other obvious (or not so obvious) disabilities and ailments.
• I (re)learned how wonderful the people around me are. My family (the little one and the extended one), friends and the Guiding community were so generous with their time, food, conversation, assistance, and good wishes. Alex was super supportive and helpful and did all kinds of great things for me.
• I decided that I need to slow down and enjoy life more, even if that means saying no more often and changing my priorities.
• I learned that if you can laugh about it, even big, bad problems won't seem quite so horrible.
  
• I learned that even though the grocery store is only a block away, a block can be a long way, especially if you buy a jug of milk.
• I learned to ask for help more often, because even if it is hard to ask, usually people are more than happy to help out.

And that's just some of what I learned...

Today life took on a normal glow and I think I enjoyed it...I got up, showered, got dressed in work pants (NOT sweat pants...yay, I can tolerate a "normal" waistband for short periods of time now), went to work, did work stuff, went swimming, took the bus home, stretched and did back exercises for an eternity, did some more work...except for the rehab type stuff, life really is getting back to normal. And yes, it will be forever recorded that I insinuated that I actually enjoyed going to work...

ahh...the normal life...

Before I get too used to my normal world again, public thanks are also needed.

Big, big thank yous need to go to (sort of in order of how things happened):

• Alex, who called 911 and stayed with me until he dropped me off at work this morning, who got up at all hours of the night to help me use the bathroom or take more painkillers, who was there when I needed him (and when I thought I didn't need him, but really I did) to do everything and anything.
• Our landlady K. who sat with me while Alex talked to the dispatcher and brought the paramedics to the basement.
• The five paramedics, who managed to keep me calm even though I was in excruciating pain, move me without making it hurt too much, and somehow get me up the narrow stairs and around the tight little landing without too much jarring or bumping (although the morphine might have something to do with that).
• My aunt, who met us at the hospital, and stayed all night, sharing meal breaks with Alex and being my spokesperson when I was too tired and too drugged to fight for myself anymore.
• Al, the nurse who drew my blood without me feeling it and the next morning very gently removed the IV.
• The doctor who finally figured out what was wrong with me.
• The physiotherapist who showed me how to stand and walk and climb stairs.
• My aunt (the same one) who came back to the hospital after three hours sleep and my uncle who took the day off work so they could take me home and get us some groceries and pick up all the Red Cross equipment.
• My boss, coworkers, and HR representative who pitched in to look after my job for three months and made sure my time off and the transition back to work were as painless as possible.
• My Mom, who spent weeks with us, cooking, cleaning, comforting, grocery shopping, and making me walk.
• My Mom and Dad who got me home to k-town early for Christmas and kept me longer, got up with me in the middle of the night for more pain killers, made sure I got my afternoon naps, worried about me, and took very good care of me, even when I was being a pain-in-the-butt, grumpy patient.
• Kelsey who spent a week with us, making lots of food for the freezer, vacuuming and doing endless sinks of dishes.
• Rebecca who took me shopping in the wheelchair, made vroom vroom noises, and was a fairly tolerant babysitter.
• Heather and D, Fiona, Tony D, Stacey, Sunita, Mike, Kelly, and Jack, Amy and Ellery, Ann, Debra, Julia, Chandra, Michelle, Sarah Brown, Rita, Lizzie, Kristine, Heather, Megan and Hans, Theana, Paula, and the many other friends who stopped by to say hi, brought books and movies, called to see how I was doing, sent emails, flowers, cards, and care packages, and generally took good care of me.
• Andrea, who decided that it was time I had a family doctor is this city and made it her mission to find me one...a big thank you for that!
• My aunt, uncle, and cousins who babysat me one weekend when Alex went away and I still needed fairly constant care.
  
• Liz, the homecare physio, who helped me regain my balance and my confidence.
• Gail, the physio down the road, who got me into the pool and moving again.
• My "big" family, who called to see how I was, made sure my Christmas presents were things I could use, and made me laugh a lot (I needed that!).
• Alex's family who checked up on me regularly.
• Any number of people who stopped to hold doors, open doors, wait an eternity for me to cross the road, or help me out in some little way...it was a big deal for me!
  

And of course, I'm sure I'm missing someone...I apologize if you're reading and I've missed you - thank you too!

So...thank you everyone...I hope that's all about my back for a long, long time (it's not that interesting, really!).

okay, now I'm going off to my "normal" life...

(hope I didn't jinx it!)

Smells like chlorine

That is, I smell like chlorine.

I went to the pool for my 10 minutes of swimming and 20 minutes of hot tubbing this afternoon. In 10 minutes I managed to swim four whole lengths...sigh...I used to swim much faster; I used to get to swim in the moderate lane.

But my pathetic 600m/hour swimming rate was faster than at least one person in the slow lane. I actually passed her. So I wasn't the *slowest* person in the pool.

After 10 minutes in the pool I was pooped, so I hobbled off to the hot tub. I only managed 10 minutes...it's so warm in there. I think next time I might start with 10 minutes in the hot tub, then swim for 10 minutes, then have 10 more minutes in the hot tub.

After my little swim, I stopped by my office to say hello and catch a ride home with a colleague.

And now it's the weekend...not that days of the week mean anything to me anymore, but it's still the weekend which means Alex will be home for two days!

And now for the hardest part so far

For the last two-plus months, my Mom (or Kelsey or my Mom, Dad, Kelsey and Rebecca) has been around to help me and Alex with all the things that have come up because of my injury. For most of the last month, my Mom has been here during the week, usually going home on weekends when Alex doesn't have to work and can help me out. She has been a great help and I don't know how we would have coped without her!

This morning she packed up and went home...this time for good. Minutes before she left she was doing one final load of laundry, one final sinkful of dishes, and some scrubbing. Now I have to do the cooking on my own, a task that is still a bit more difficult that I'd like it to be because I am not quite at the point where I can get dishes in and out of the oven. Alex will be doing the grocery shopping until I can actually lift the bags...I am great at filling the cart up though!

It's scary to think I'm alone (if you're in the area, stop by for tea...I'll be here and I love having visitors) really for the first time since I fell...and somehow that's scarier to me that the initial injury was...

But the hardest part is going out and about on my own. Twice this week I've walked over to the physiotherapist on my own, but I haven't ventured far from my own neighbourhood. Tomorrow I will be braving the bus to go to the pool for some swimming on my own...all scary stuff...the other hard thing (apart from now being alone all day when I'm used to having people around all the time) is getting out for walks...enter the timer, the ever useful timer...when the timer rings, it means it's time to wander around the block...but as hard as all this is, it does mean that I'm getting better, and I'm so happy about that!