That Turned Into A Totally New Lifestyle
After doctoring and PT-ing my way through most of the summer on into early fall, I was still left with almost constant chronic nerve pain (since February) in my lower back, searing down each leg out through my toenails.
Then I had another surgery on my right knee 7/15 and the recovery’s been slooww.
It makes me laugh that people always ask how the surgery was. “Was it painful? Tell me, what?”
My standard reply: The surgery’s nothing, really. You know the drill: no eating after midnight, show up at 5:30 AM, change into a surgical gown, lock your stuff in a locker and do whatever it is they tell you to do next as numbers of others scurry around doing their pre-op work to make sure things go as smoothly as possible for you.
Before you know it, you have no idea what hit you and it’s over.
The recovery from that surgery, however, is the bitch.
Couple this with the fact that I’ve been having great difficulty walking my usual 5-8 miles a day. Struggling since early February, the least I would traditionally walk at one time would be my morning 5-miler. Then whatever other walking I did throughout the day accumulated into my extra miles.
This is currently not the case.
Those who know me well know that my tights are in a Titanic twist because of my present physical limitations. I’m totally beside myself that my ability to take those daily cardio fitness walks that I’ve so diligently developed over the last 5-6 years, and, yes, come to absolutely love, are being taken away – maybe for good.
To me this is unconscionable after losing 130 pounds in 2-1/2 years on my own by cutting white starch and sugar carbs from my diet and by taking up daily walking; until recently, I averaged 45-50 miles per week. This being my 6th year, I’ve logged over 13,000 miles, or better than halfway around the earth at the equator.
How can I stop now?
I can’t.
So I plug on in spite of of my physical challenges and limitations. Something, all my doctors tell me, most of the rest of you do not.
Their statements baffle me so I always ask: What do your other patients do instead?
And each and every doctor’s reply is the same: “They do nothing. They just whine and complain and get fatter, weaker and even worse. They give up. But not you. I wish I had more patients like you. It would make my job more interesting and certainly a lot easier.”
Starting September 1st, I decided to try a little experiment of my own. Nothing highly scientific, mind you. Just my usual up close and personal research. I figure if I could teach myself to walk daily in 35 consecutive days – no matter what – back in January of 2003, I could certainly teach myself to ride that dang two-stage (arms and
legs move together) Schwinn Air-dyne stationary bike at the health club 1 hour a day every single day that I’m able to drag myself there.
As of November 24th, the day we left for Florida, I rode that same bike each day – missing only a very few for business, meetings, travel and such.
Seriously.
I’m down 5 pounds – half of the “Lyrica 10” I gained over the summer. (It wasn’t the miracle drug for me like it is for some. I’m sad about this fact because I had high hopes for my chronic nerve pain relief. More on this later.)
Compare your physical condition to mine and if yours is worse, I’ll cut you some slack. If it’s not – you have no excuse, believe me.
The moral of the story here is that even through all this pain, I finally found a way to squeeze in another form of daily cardio that does not exacerbate my chronic lower back and leg nerve pain: I ride the two-stage stationary bike at the club now to take up the slack and lack of my normal 5-8 miles of daily fitness walking.
I tried swimming and water walking this summer, and neither were the level of intensity in daily cardio that I need. I want more bang for my effort’s buck – but also something more gentle on my joints and spine – because right now, sadly, walking clearly intensifies my chronic nerve pain.
Serious, diligent daily cardio does pay and I’m living proof. If I can find a way to squeeze my cardio in every single day dealing with what I deal with physically, you can, too. There is no excuse. Find time.
How much time do you waste in a day?
Make your Mantra for the Holidays, into 2009 and beyond:
LESS CARBS – MORE CARDIO.
Get out and do it – for the health of it.
Laura Dion-Jones Casey
