Cat's Exercise Diary

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Another quick update for today: I ordered some new ice skates online today. :p I found a pair that got good reviews and they were a decent price. I'm supposed to receive them in about a week. I can't wait to try them out! I was remembering, an old friend from high school was seriously into ice skating (she could do a half-axel and she may have been able to do a single toe loop as well) and years ago, she bought some really expensive professional $300+ ice skates. I hadn't gone online until today looking for new skates because I was afraid that the only good skates would be in that price range! Fortunately that doesn't seem to be the case (my new ones aren't professional quality, but it sounds like they're very good for casual skating enthusiasts and they were only like $60).
 
Update 1/16/15: I went to the gym yesterday for weights. That didn't go as well as I had hoped. My lung capacity is still definitely compromised by this flu. I did 5 mins on the stationary bike to warm up, and that felt quite difficult and it really got me coughing. When I did the first couple weight machines, I felt like I wasn't getting enough air and I got a bit light-headed and was probably at risk of passing out. It was not fun. I made myself slow down a bit and then I didn't have any more light-headedness for the rest of my workout. I did get exhausted pretty quickly though (couldn't do my usual number of reps, and in some cases I had to dial down the weight a bit). I skipped the abdominals machine just because I ran out of energy and didn't think I could do it. I'm definitely weaker thanks to this flu. It was kind of a frustrating workout. I did what I could, but what I could do didn't feel like enough. Ugh.

And today, my lungs feel worse again. My chest feels more congested today and I'm coughing more. My boss heard me coughing and she said I sound terrible, she thinks I sound much worse than I've been. So, today is definitely a rest day. Tomorrow I'll probably dial it back a bit. I was hoping to do weights again tomorrow, but after how yesterday went, I'm thinking I need to take it easier. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous tomorrow so I'll probably just walk the dog and then see how I'm doing from there. If I'm okay after the walk then I might do just a short at-home weight session with my dumbbells. I want to exercise, but I don't want to get sicker again from this never-ending flu, so I need to walk a fine line between getting some exercise but also getting better from this stupid awful flu. I'm a bit frustrated, but ultimately I need to do what's best for my health.
 
Just remember.... when you have any upper respiratory illness, the best action is to not exercise. It's very difficult for your body to operate in an oxygen debt, and your lungs have to work very hard to provide enough oxygen when parts of them are compromised. Then your heart has to work very hard to move the limited oxygen around your body. It's better just to rest and wait until you get better, as frustrating as that is.
 
Thanks, Cindy. Yeah, I know, I'm probably being stubborn by trying to exercise. I'm not doing a whole lot - it's obvious even to me that cardio is just completely not happening until I get better so I'm mainly doing a bit of weights and some yoga & walking. (I recently talked with a friend who is a CNA, and he said this flu is lasting about 6 weeks for most patients - I'm just about to start week 5, so the end should be in sight soon!) I feel like my muscles are going to atrophy and I'll be back to having no muscle mass if I don't do at least a little weight lifting here & there, so I have been doing a bit of weights. As long as I don't push myself much, and take decent breaks in between sets, I feel okay (when I do push myself or don't take enough of a break, I start to feel like I don't have enough oxygen and that I might pass out). And I've mainly been doing weights at home, so if I do happen to pass out, at least my hubby will be right there to help me.

Yes, it is VERY frustrating to not be able to do what I want to fitness-wise right now. It's been nearly 5 weeks (since xmas) that I've had this flu, I can't wait to be rid of it! I just want to go back to the gym and do a proper workout! On the plus side, at least I missed going to the gym during the worst time of year, and by the time I'm able to properly work out again, the new year's resolutioners will mostly have already quit. :p
 
Yes, the gym in February sounds nice! I hope to get back to properly working out soon!

I've had a bad migraine - today is the 3rd day of it. It finally seems to be easing up (my migraines can last up to 5 days, so 3 days isn't even super bad, relatively speaking). I've been off sick from work yesterday & today. I have done nothing active at all since the migraine hit. Finally today I was able to do some laundry, and being a little bit active makes me feel a bit better. I'm hoping this migraine completely goes away soon so that I can enjoy the weekend. I just got my new ice skates in the mail the other day - they are so nice! Cushy and fleecy inside and fit me really well. I really want to try them out soon, so hopefully I'll be able to do that this weekend if my flu and my migraine play nice. I do feel like I'm finally getting over this flu, I'm not coughing nearly as much (barely at all) and I don't feel all congested in my chest anymore. So, if I can just shake this migraine, I'll be doing pretty well! So here's hoping that I'll be able to break in my new skates in the next day or two.
 
Update 1/26/15: I had a decent day yesterday both health-wise and weather-wise, so I tried out my new ice skates. They're wonderful! They feel like very good quality and they glide on the ice like butter. It's a huge improvement over my old skates. I spent nearly an hour on the ice yesterday, it was great fun and I hope to skate again soon.

My health is still iffy though. I thought I was finally getting over this cough, but hubby and I went to a comedy show on Sat night, and I think I coughed more than I laughed. I'm not sure if it was the musty old theater that the show was in or what. I had some cough drops in my pocket, which helped me stop coughing for a short time, but the cough drops were mentholated and made me sneeze (mint/menthol always makes me sneeze for some reason). So I was alternately coughing and sneezing the whole night. I'm still coughing today although it's getting somewhat better again.

So, I am not sure what to do about my workouts. I'll probably do yoga tonight again as yoga doesn't make things worse. I'm getting sick of not being able to do a proper workout but I just have to continue to be patient I guess.
 
Update 1/27/15: I did yoga on my lunch hour yesterday and that went quite well. I feel a bit sore today! But I also feel pretty good. Last night's dinner didn't sit so well with me so my guts are a bit unhappy, but on the whole I'm okay. I'm still coughing a little but I feel like I'm improving again.

Today, the weather is fairly nice - overcast, but about 30 degrees F with very little wind. So I think I'm going to head out to the outdoor ice rink again today for another skating session. So I'm going to head over there on my lunch break today. Looking forward to that!

Tomorrow, I think I will do weights at home. I'll take it fairly easy and not push myself too hard as I'm still coughing and my lungs still aren't 100% just yet. If I don't feel up to weights then I'll probably do yoga, again.
 
Update 1/28/15: Yesterday was pretty much a bust. I got out to the outdoor ice rink, got my skates on... and the condition of the ice was terrible. It was so bumpy! I had just been at that rink on Sunday and it was quite good ice conditions then, so I'm not sure what happened over the course of 48 hours but it was a significant change for the worse. I could barely stay upright and couldn't propel myself forward easily, the ice was that bad. I tried and tried but I only managed to skate around for about 15 mins before I just gave up. Ugh.

Yesterday was just a day of frustration all around. Little things have been going wrong, like one of the prongs on my engagement ring broke, my cat & dog both had to go to the vet, work was really stressful, stuff like that. It was just a rough day all around. Today I don't feel super well - my sinuses feel clogged and weird and I just feel tired and bleh. I think today is going to be a rest day. I just feel like hibernating today, partly because I feel crappy and partly to avoid all the stupid stuff that's been happening. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel more upbeat.
 
Update 2/12/15: Sorry for not updating sooner, there wasn't much to report. I'm still coughing although I think I'm finally getting over this flu (it's been close to 7 weeks now). I'm able to do a bit more weight lifting and still doing yoga, but still not able to do any cardio.

Work has been absolutely insane the past couple of weeks - we had 4 huge meetings that I had to help out at, and all sorts of things went wrong. The meetings themselves went mostly fine, but there was a lot of stuff like, my boss crashed her car on her way to one meeting, a co-worker had a meltdown because someone was snippy to her and she cried for an hour and I had to try to help calm her down, someone at one of the meetings has a peanut allergy but we weren't informed so we had candy w/ peanuts at the meeting and we got yelled at anyway, stuff like that. It's all been very draining both mentally and physically. Today is the first day after the meetings, so I have a ton of stuff to catch up on, but I'm so drained I am having a hard time doing that. I'm headachey and exhausted and just feel crappy. So, in a nutshell, I've been stressed to the gills and not able to exercise properly enough to get rid of some of that stress. As a result, I feel yucky. I just want to crawl under a rock and hide from the world for awhile. But I can't so I'll cry at my desk instead.
 
10 lbs!! That's crazy, that's about how much my cat weighs. :p I don't think I even own a pot large enough to cook a 10 lb lobster! And it'd take me about 7 meals to eat the whole thing. Although, it could be a nice alternative to a turkey on Thanksgiving, ha ha!

Update: I haven't been exercising much since my last update. I'm *still* coughing. This morning, I wanted to test my lungs, so I took the stairs (I work on the 3rd floor) instead of the elevator when I got to work. Sure enough, just as I got to the top, I started coughing. Ugh. It's been like 7 weeks now with this respiratory flu thing. I'm beyond sick of it. I think I'm going to go lift weights anyway. Cardio is obviously still not my friend, but if I just do weights with minimal warming up and give myself plenty of time in between sets, I think I can do it. If I can't then I guess I'll switch to yoga. Bleh. I hate having limitations like this! And this flu is seriously ridiculous! I had no idea that getting sick at xmas meant I'd still be coughing on President's Day. Yuck!
 
Update 2/17/15: Yesterday I decided to just go for it, go to the gym and do a weights workout and try not to cough too much. That went well although it seemed like everything was working against me! I went down to the little gym that's in the basement of my workplace, and there were workmen there servicing the treadmills. They had junk all over the place - the treadmills were half disassembled so treadmill parts were all over the floor, tools and tool bags were all over the gym floor as well, the workmen were leaning on the weight machines, their coats and other personal items were strewn all about - it was a mess! I just glared at them and stormed towards the weight machines and did my thing even with this chaos and mess all around me. The other thing was, I picked the wrong playlist on my ipod, so instead of starting my workout with my "get pumped up" music, instead I ended up hearing songs from my "getting ready to go to bed" playlist - oops! :p That was just silly, but it didn't exactly inspire me to push myself when there was junk and workmen all over the place and my ipod was playing "Baby Goodnight". Ha ha!

So, in spite of all that, I did every weight machine (including abdominals) and I didn't cough once. I consider that a success! I feel pretty well. It's amazing how much a workout does for my mental state. I feel much calmer, less stressed, happier, just able to deal with things better after a workout. Cardio is still out, but as long as I can do weights, I'm pretty happy with that. I think I might do yoga tonight and weights again tomorrow.
 
Update 2/18/15: I didn't do yoga last night. It's been so cold out, I just wanted to curl up under my electric blanket, so I did that. Today I'm heading back to the gym (hopefully no workmen this time!) to do weights again. I was coughing a fair bit this morning so I hope that I'm okay to work out. I'm going to try it regardless. And I will make sure I select the right playlist this time. :p
 
Update 2/19/15: I've been trying to get back to a regular pattern of going to the gym, but life has not been making it easy for me! Vent coming up!

So I decided to try cardio today. I'm coughing less and I thought I'd just see where I'm at, if I would have a massive coughing fit during a cardio session. I decided to go down to the little gym on my lunch break and use the stationary bike for 30 mins. So, I went down, changed into my gym clothes, got into the gym (no workmen this time), got the proper playlist going on my ipod... and found that the stationary bike is broken. Ugh! It was turned off which was odd, so I turned it on, and all I got was a blank screen. I unplugged it, plugged it back in, pressed buttons, fiddled with everything I could fiddle with - no dice, still just a blank screen. I can pedal it, but it's stuck on the lowest (zero) resistance which is way too low/easy, and I can't manually change anything and I can't get the screen to work. So basically it's totally unusable. Not cool!

So, I walked on the treadmill instead. I figured that'd have to do and I set a brisk pace and upped the incline a bit. Shortly into my walking, my good hip started aching. Ugh, really?? I have arthritis in both hips, but I've had arthritis in my right hip for longer and if one hip is going to hurt, it's almost always the right hip, my bad hip. My hips don't like jogging, it's just too high impact and causes hip pain right away, but walking is usually okay. Sometimes, yes, walking will give me some hip pain - but again, it's nearly always the bad hip that hurts. Today, it was my left hip, my (relatively) good hip. The right hip felt fine but the left hip felt pretty bad! I only walked on the treadmill for 20 mins and the highest I set the incline was 5 degrees, and I was walking at 3 mph, so it wasn't like I was doing something super hard and my hip shouldn't have hurt that much. I feel like a failure today. I couldn't do the workout I wanted, and the workout I did put me in pain. That's not good. Frustrating!

I wrote an urgent email to the people who deal with the gym equipment, so I hope they fix the bike soon (I kind of wonder if the workmen who were there on Monday might have done something to break the bike?). I do have a stationary bike at home, and of course there are also bikes at the big paid membership gym I belong to. But this bike is so convenient, being in the basement of my workplace, I can just zip down there on my break and use it. (Biking does not hurt my hips, anything low impact is fine on the hips.) Anyway, I'm just disappointed. I'll have to try out cardio on my stationary bike at home another day I guess! :(
 
Update 2/25/15: I'm finally getting back on track fitness-wise. The cough seems to be 99% gone. Yesterday, I did 40 mins on the stationary bike at home. Last night I did wake up once in the night to cough, and I coughed up a bit of mucus this morning - but that was all the coughing I've done. All things considered, though, that's pretty good. A few weeks ago when I had tried to do the stationary bike, I ended up having a coughing fit not even 5 minutes into my ride and had to stop and felt awful. So to do 40 mins on the bike and have just two little incidents of coughing, I'll take it! :)

But last night after my stationary bike ride, I screwed up. :p Hubby and I had gone grocery shopping, and I got inexplicably brave in my choice of cereal purchases. I decided that frosted mini wheats cereal (high fiber, whole grain) sounded good and that maybe, just maybe, my guts could handle it. Um, NOPE! I had a small bowl of that cereal for dinner last night, and shortly afterwards I ended up with painful gut cramps and bathroom trips. Yeah, I know, it was dumb to even try - that cereal just sounds painful! So last night and this morning, I was not feeling so great. The cramps fortunately mostly subsided by this afternoon, so I was able to hit the gym for weights today. I did avoid the abdominals machine just to be safe, as my guts still don't feel 100% recovered from my little adventure into fiber land. Weights went fine. Although, the stationary bike in the little gym is still broken, so I wasn't able to do my usual warm-up.

Tomorrow I'm having lunch with a friend, so I think I'll do yoga in the evening. Friday, it'll be weights again, and I think hubby and I will be going to the big gym for that. It's literally been over 2 months since I've stepped foot in the big gym, so I'm a bit nervous. Still, I think it'll be great to get back and I'm looking forward to it.

Saturday will likely be a rest day although I'm going to do something new that I'm also nervous about. My hubby and his friends are going to a shooting range to shoot guns at targets, and they've invited me along. I'm pretty anti-gun, I don't like guns and I don't want them in my house and it makes me uncomfortable being around guns. But, it does sound like an interesting experience to shoot a gun at a target, and I think I should at least give it a shot (sorry, bad pun). So, I'm trying to have an open mind, and I'm going to go and learn how to shoot a gun on Saturday. It's probably not something I'll ever do again, but once it's over with, I'll either be able to say I tried it and didn't like it, or I may surprise myself and have a fun time. Wish me luck!

Edited to add: I just had blood in my stool. Lovely. It's been just about a year since I last passed blood. I hope this is just due to the cereal I ate and goes away quickly. Ugh!
 
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Update 2/26/15: I passed blood again today. It's weird, after eating the fiber cereal I had a few episodes of loose stool and then one bloody stool. Then today 3 or 4 more loose stools and another bloody one. It's weird how the blood kind of comes & goes. It hasn't been a lot of blood, and I think I feel better today than I did yesterday, so hopefully the blood stops altogether soon. (It is bright red blood and not a large amount so it's not super worrying, but any blood in the stool is still a bit worrying as I'm not a regular bleeder.) And of course, my time of the month is due to start any moment now, so once that starts then I will have a really hard time discerning whether it's menstrual blood or rectal blood (or both) in the toilet. Yay.

I know blood isn't something to mess around with so I'm going to skip yoga and rest tonight instead just to be safe. I don't want to make things worse by overdoing it. As long as I'm doing relatively okay tomorrow, I still plan to hit the gym for weights. I'll re-assess tomorrow and see how I'm doing - if I'm still passing blood then I guess I'll rest again and try to heal.
 
Update 3/2/15: I didn't go to the gym on Friday as I felt it was better to continue healing. The good news is, I didn't seem to pass any blood on Friday and I started to feel better.

Saturday we went to the shooting range as planned. It was definitely an experience. I got to shoot I think 5 different guns at targets. I was actually pretty good (thanks, Nintendo's Duck Hunt) and even with the hugest gun, the 44 magnum, I hit 5 out of 6 bullseyes on my first try. I am just not a gun person though and I probably won't ever go target shooting again. Guns make me really nervous and the noise is insane. Even with heavy duty ear protection, I was still flinching at every single gun shot sound. So, I'm glad I tried that once so I can say I did it, and I likely won't ever do it again.

Sunday, I felt pretty good, so hubby and I hit the big gym. It had been awhile! And I'm quite sore today! :p That's a good thing though. I'm happy to finally be getting back into proper workouts. I did everything except for the abdominals machine - tummy still felt a little bit iffy so I decided to avoid working my abdominals for now. I didn't cough at all so it seems I'm finally 100% over the flu! It only took me 2 months, ha ha.

Today it's actually pretty gorgeous outside - we've had one cold spell after another with -20 wind chills being pretty common, so I haven't gotten outside a lot lately. Today though it's a balmy 25 degrees, sunny, and little/no wind. Sounds ideal for ice skating, so I'm going to head out for a skate soon. My legs are still pretty sore from yesterday so I'm not sure how much skating I'll be able to do, but it'll just be nice to get outside without feeling like I'm being tortured from the cold.

Tomorrow, we're supposed to get a bunch of snow. I'll likely end up helping hubby shovel tomorrow evening once it stops. If I don't end up shoveling (if he's already shoveled before I get home), then I'll do weights using my dumbbells at home. I'd like to go to the gym, but I hate driving in snow, so it seems better to skip driving more than I have to and just work out at home instead.
 
Another quick update for today: I only managed 25 mins of ice skating (I was hoping for at least 30). My legs are just too sore & tired after yesterday, and around 25 mins in they apparently had enough and sort of turned into wobbly baby deer legs, so I stopped. Didn't want to fall so I just couldn't make it to 30 mins. On the plus side, the ice was in beautiful condition and the weather was super nice, perfect for skating! Almost too nice in fact - I got quite sweaty! I guess next time I go skating, I need to wear a lighter jacket if it's sunny & pleasant out.

Also, a weird thing - I have a fitbit and it's been really messing up yesterday & today. It's the fitbit "one" so it has an altimeter for tracking how many flights of stairs I've walked up. Yesterday at the gym, I did 10 mins on the arc trainer to warm up. Afterwards, my fitbit said I had walked up 17 flights of stairs (um, nope!). I had assumed it was just an issue with the fitbit not liking the arc trainer, so I didn't pursue troubleshooting yesterday. But today, I looked at my fitbit after I had walked up one flight of stairs - it said zero. Hmm. So I looked at it again after I had walked up a 2nd flight of stairs - and then it said I had done 6 flights of stairs! Again, nope! I glanced at my fitbit once more after my ice skating session, and now it's saying I've done 21 flights of stairs. Nope, nope, nope! I'm going to try rebooting it tonight and see if that fixes the issue. If not, I'm going to have to contact the fitbit people. Lovely, it's only a couple months old (I got it for xmas). Hopefully a reboot will fix the problem - if not, then the altimeter is seriously messed up. The good thing is, since it's still so new, it's surely got to still be under warranty, so if all else fails hopefully I can get a replacement.
 
Hi, I just thought I'd let you know I've been vicariously enjoying exercise by reading your thread a bit today. ;) And to ask if the bleeding has stopped. I also don't pass blood that often, except that I have a stoma, and it's normal for stomas to bleed a bit, so I understand the feeling of trying to work out if bleeding is a problem or not.
 
Thanks UnX! Sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself in this thread, so it's nice to know that others are reading it. (Not that I'd stop posting in here even if I was really just talking to myself - it's nice to have a diary of my ups & downs when it comes to my fitness endeavors, so I'm going to keep updating this thread regardless.) Yes, the bleeding has fortunately stopped. I had I think 3 days of intermittent bleeding and crampy pain. My abdomen is still a bit tender, but I'm on the mend - haven't had bleeding at all this week and I am feeling better day by day. :)

Update 3/3/15: My legs are still pretty sore, although not quite as bad as yesterday. I do want to lift weights today, but I think it'll just be an arms day as my arms aren't sore. The big snowstorm we were supposed to get has already sort of fizzled out and the snow seems to already be melting, so I guess I won't be shoveling snow tonight! So, if I can sneak away during a break at work, I'll hit the gym for a bit of arm work. If not, then I'll use my dumbbells at home tonight to work my arms.

Tomorrow, I'm just going to play it by ear. If my legs are feeling better then I might do yoga or the stationary bike. If I'm still feeling sore, then I'll take a rest day. I hope to lift weights again on Thursday. Friday, it's supposed to be really nice weather again so I hope to go ice skating that day. It's actually supposed to be really nice, like almost 40 degrees F (ice melts at 32 and above) so if the outdoor ice rink is open then I hope to go ice skating again. If the ice is melting too much then I will have to figure something else out! It's weird to say I'm hoping the weather doesn't get too warm, but there does seem to be a narrow window of weather where it's warm enough to ice skate outdoors but cool enough that the ice doesn't start melting - so I hope the weather stays within that window.
 
Update 3/5/15: Well, I spoke too soon. The bleeding came back with a vengeance. :( Tuesday night I had some painful episodes of d. Wednesday morning I woke up, had another painful bowel movement, and when I looked in the toilet it was just red. It was probably the most blood I've ever passed. I took the day off of work and rested. I'm doing somewhat better today - no blood at least, although all is still not well in tummy land. Ugh. Guess I'm going to rest a bit longer just to be safe, so exercise is off the table for a few more days.

I'm fairly depressed about this. I get depressed when I can't exercise, but I also get depressed when I can't pretend that things are okay. With a chronic illness things are pretty much never okay, but I can put on an act for the world and for myself. I tell myself that normal people have diarrhea sometimes, get nauseous sometimes, so it's okay. But, normal people don't have blood in their stool (especially not copious amounts like yesterday) so I can't lie to myself when that happens. As a result, I get really sad and weepy. I cried most of the day yesterday, it was a pathetic pity party of one. I'm feeling less weepy today, guess I just needed to get that out of my system (it helps that I haven't had any bleeding today). I called in sick to work today too just to be safe - I didn't want to have a bleeding episode nor a crying episode at the office. I'll go back to work tomorrow probably, and I'm hoping to get back to exercise next week at some point. Going to stay out of the gym through the weekend at least to hopefully heal up. I see my GI on Monday, so I'm hoping he'll give me something (my bleeding is usually due to hemorrhoids and/or fissures - it's always bright red) like suppositories or enemas to help with that.
 
Sorry to hear that, Cat. Though I think people without IBD get bleeding from haemorrhoids too, so perhaps you're not so far away from the "normal" illness experiences people sometimes go through. But it's still hard when you're going through them far more often or severely than everyone around you seems to be.
Hopefully your doctor will know what to do about it.

Do you enjoy light forms of exercise, like walking? Maybe there's something that can help you by keeping your body moving but without stressing it too much.
 
I'm sorry to hear that you're having those episodes! I think it's a good idea seeing the GI doc though. Something definitely is not right there and needs to be addressed. You will be in my prayers.
Jim
 
UnX, yes, I sometimes walk with my dog, and I do some gentle yoga as well (I'm not flexible at all so the more complicated/twisty/bendy yoga is beyond my capabilities!). The weather here is supposed to warm up a bit, so I think I will try to take my dog on a walk this weekend. We live right near the dog park anyway so it's convenient, although there aren't bathrooms nearby which is the one big drawback, so I will only go for a walk if I'm confident that I won't have an issue while we're out. But yes, I do walk pretty regularly with my dog.

Jim, thank you. I see my GI on Monday and I'm definitely going to ask him about the recent bleeding episodes and see if he can do anything to help me in that regard (I'm thinking suppositories or enemas). It's been one thing after another lately - last year in August, I came down with Labyrinthitis and I spent about 3 months dealing with horrendous vertigo. Then I got the flu at xmas and the respiratory symptoms lasted about 2 months. Now the bleeding. It's like my body is doing everything it can lately to prevent me from exercising. It gets really frustrating!
 
I guess I should give a little bit of a positive update because it's not all negative (even though it sometimes feels that way). At my work, for doing a good job we sometimes get to pick out a prize. I had helped out at some big meetings that we had recently, and my boss felt that I did a great job with the meetings, so I earned a prize. I picked a fancy expensive name-brand new blender. My old blender was something that I had paid like $30 for at the hardware store, and it was not great quality, so that's exciting to get a new & better one. I make myself a smoothie for breakfast most mornings (crushed ice, almond milk, protein/vitamin powder, cocoa powder, and a banana) but my old blender wasn't that good so as a result I'd usually end up with chunks of un-blended banana still in my smoothie. I just got my new blender in the mail yesterday and it's way better - I tried it out this morning for the first time, and there were no chunks of banana! Everything was smooth and nice. I didn't have much appetite for solid foods this morning, but I was able to drink my smoothie, and it was blended so nicely. So that's a positive, it's nice to get new things that make life slightly easier. :)
 
Update 3/9/15: I see my GI this afternoon and I've been writing my list of questions & concerns for him (it's pretty much just a paragraph explaining that I've been bleeding, I'd like blood tests to check for anemia etc, and I'd like something along the lines of suppositories or enemas to help stop the bleeding). I'll update again after my appointment with what he says.

It's hard to tell what's setting off the bleeding - if it's food, activity, stress, all of the above, or if it's just random? I think I overdid things activity-wise on Saturday. I decided to walk my dog, but the dog park was still pretty snow-covered so I brought along my snowshoes. Snowshoeing was a bit too much for me, though. I felt very out of breath and exhausted afterwards, like I did too much. I rested for the rest of the day but I did have another bleeding episode after the snowshoeing. Sunday, I made poor food choices (pizza) but no bleeding that day. The weather on Sunday had warmed up quite a bit and most of the snow melted in the dog park, so I walked my dog again but wore my rubber boots instead because the dog park had changed from mostly snow to mostly mud! I had an easier time walking rather than snowshoeing, I didn't feel like I overdid things on Sunday. It was a bit difficult walking in all the mud, and my dog clearly disliked it (she hates water & mud, and she's got very short legs so it's impossible to avoid getting her belly wet & muddy in those conditions). Still, the sun was shining and the weather was warm-ish (almost 50 degrees F) and I'm glad I got outside for a bit.

Today I'm just waiting to see what my GI says, and I'll take it from there. Presuming he gives me something to help get the bleeding under control, I'll see how that goes and then I'll hopefully start to ramp up my exercise from there once I start feeling better. I feel like, if I can just get the bleeding to stop, then I'll be doing pretty well. It's only when I've had episodes with a lot of bleeding that I feel dizzy & light-headed afterwards. If I can just get that to stop, then I'll feel safe enough to go to the gym. I really don't want to push myself to go to the gym, then get dizzy and fall over or pass out while holding a dumbbell or whatever. If I were in the little gym in the basement of my workplace and if I passed out, I'm usually the only person in that gym so that would be a problem - there's no landline phone down there, and my cell phone doesn't get reception in the basement, so there would be no way to get help. If I passed out down there and didn't wake up right away, the lights in that gym are motion-sensitive and turn off after a few minutes if they don't detect motion - so, worst-case scenario, if I had an issue in that gym where I fell/passed out and then the lights turned off, I wouldn't be able to call for help and nobody would find me for awhile. That's a terrifying thought! So I'm going to first see what my GI says, then see how I do on whatever treatment we agree on for the bleeding, then ease back into weight-lifting. I do have a weight bench and some dumbbells at home, so I can work out at home with my hubby keeping an eye on me - that sounds like the safest thing to start with until I get over the light-headedness. I'll start with that and work my way back up to going to the actual gym. Baby steps!
 
Another quick update for today: I just saw my GI and he was a bit concerned about my blood loss. He did a CBC to see if I'm anemic or not. He's going to call me this evening when he gets the results. If I'm anemic then we're going to do a flexi-sig to ascertain the source of the bleeding. Either way, whether I'm anemic or not, he's going to prescribe suppositories to hopefully help heal things up and stop the bleeding. This all sounds good to me and was basically exactly what I wanted so I'm quite satisfied with my appointment. I've never had a flexi-sig before so I'm a bit nervous about the prospect of that (my understanding is, it's just an enema and then they do the scope just to the left colon but it's done in the office with no sedative? If so, eek), but otherwise I'm happy. I'll update again once my GI calls with the results of my bloodwork. In the meantime, I'm going to rest.
 
Update 3/10/15: My GI called me last night and he said the results of my bloodwork were pretty good. My CBC results were a bit lower than my usual, but still within the normal range, so I'm not considered to be anemic. That's good! My GI has prescribed hydrocortisone suppositories. I've taken them before and I'm not a huge fan of them - my main issue is, the instructions say to insert the suppository just before you go to bed. That way, it can work its magic on you all night. The issue I have with that is, it starts working right away including the side effects - taking a steroid just before bed is a surefire way to lay awake half the night. Ugh. It's like a battle between the steroid and the amitriptyline, asleep or awake, who is going to win?? Fortunately I think I only laid awake for about an hour last night, not too bad. (I had some left over from last time so I just used one of those last night and will pick up my new prescription today.)

So, I'm back on steroids, and I haven't really lost the weight from when I was on Entocort yet. My usual healthy weight is around 135 lbs, and I'm currently just above 140, so I don't have a lot to lose, but I'm afraid I'm going to gain even more now that I'm on steroid suppositories. Last time I was on these suppositories, I was on them for 6 weeks, and I gained 6 lbs, so about 1 lb a week. So, I'm just going to try to keep a super close eye on things and try to cut out as much junk food and extra calories as I can. I am thinking a semi-liquid diet to start out with isn't a bad idea either, so today I'm trying a smoothie (crushed ice, almond milk, protein/vitamin powder, cocoa powder, and a banana) for both breakfast and lunch. Dinner will be baked fish (and I'm skipping the tartar sauce). I don't expect to lose weight while on steroid treatment, but if I could just not gain during this time, that'd be nice. So that's my goal, to maintain.

I had a bit more blood in my stool last night and things in my tummy still feel pretty unsettled, so I'm still on a short hiatus from going to the gym. Hopefully once the steroids start healing things up, I'll be able to get back to working out properly.
 
When I'm on prednisone, I just up my amitriptyline dose to cancel out the insomnia. Amitriptyline will knock you out whatever steroids you're on if you take enough of it. Though I do have quite a liberal attitude to medication dosages, so I should probably add to check with your doctor first, but the maximum safe amount of amitriptyline is 300mg, so if you're on less than that it may be possible to have more to help you sleep, if you can tolerate any side effects.

I'm sure you know already that you can gain a bit of weight on steroids from water retention, but that's minor and temporary. Anything else is due to increased appetite, so if you keep eating the same, steroids can't make you gain. But given your current weight and attitude towards exercise, I can't imagine weight gain is something you need to worry much about! It'll all even out when you're feeling better.

It's a while since I had a flexible sigmoidoscopy (it's a while since I had a colon!) but if I remember correctly, there was no enema or prep at all (different doctors may have different preparation requirements, but I think I'd remember if I'd had an enema - I remember every time I have had to have an enema!), they're done in the office with no sedation. They feel pretty much like having a digital rectal exam - if you're used to suppositories, it's probably no more uncomfortable than that, the discomfort just lasts a bit longer, and it really is better if you relax and breathe. It might hurt if you've got problems in that part of the bowel so that anything touching is painful, otherwise it shouldn't be too bad.
 
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I unfortunately don't really have the option of upping my amitriptyline dose. The dose I'm on, 25 mg, is apparently the ideal dose for me for preventing migraines. At one point my GI tried upping my dose, but even at 40 mg the migraines were back within a week or so. The primary reason I'm on ami is because of the migraines - it helping me sleep is lovely but is secondary to that. So I'm pretty much stuck at 25 mg because I'm more miserable with migraines than I am with lack of sleep. :(

The good news is, I zonked out to sleep last night in spite of the steroid suppository. Slept like a log and feel pretty good today. Guts feel more settled and no blood in the stool so far today (although usually that's been happening in the evenings and it's 4:45 PM here right now so I may still have blood in my stool at some point this evening). So far so good, I'm feeling better today than I have in a bit. I think the steroids are helping.

My GI specifically mentioned enemas when he said we might do a flexi-sig - he didn't even say enema, he said "we'll have you do some enemas" as in plural, so I guess that means I'll have to do several enemas beforehand if I go that route. And honestly, with the bleeding lately I have been having some anal pain (getting the suppository in last night was quite painful, I nearly cried out loud as I was putting it in). So I am expecting the flexi sig to be painful, but it's not like I haven't had things in my backside (colonoscopy scopes, suppositories, an anuscope) in the past and I'm not super anxious about it. Not looking forward to the prospect of it, but not losing sleep over the thought of it either. And hey, a bowel test where I don't have to do prep or drink contrast is a winner in my book! :p

Oh, and yeah, I honestly am a bit concerned about weight gain on the suppositories. I was only ever on pred for very short periods of time (like 5 days at a time) so I never gained weight from that. Entocort I tend to just gain a little extra weight, I think I ended up with about 6 extra lbs total from being on it for 8ish months. But these hydrocortisone suppositories, the one other time I was on them I didn't change my eating habits and I kept exercising the whole time, but even so I gained 1 lb each week I was on it (6 lbs in 6 weeks). True, that weight did come off rather easily and probably was just fluid retention, but still, it seemed extreme compared to gaining less than 1 lb per month on Entocort. I don't want to head down that 1 lb per week road again so I'm being a bit pre-emptive and trying to cut a few calories just to be sure. I actually still haven't lost that extra bit of Entocort weight from when I was on it in 2014, so I have a few pairs of pants that fit a bit tight already and I don't want that situation to get worse. (I was on Entocort from Feb thru Oct 2014 and gained 2 lbs during that time, and I actually gained about 4 lbs right after coming off of Entocort, I was exercising and trying to get back to my usual weight, but then I got the flu at xmas and couldn't exercise for awhile due to the respiratory symptoms, and now the bleeding is largely preventing me from exercising, so weight loss right now is tough with just exercise so I'm seeing a need to cut a few calories.)

I guess I should give an exercise update. I haven't done any. :p On any days where I'm having bleeding and/or just not feeling great, I'm opting to rest. So far that's been every day this week, although today I'm doing fairly well. I told myself that if I have a good day with no blood, then I should make the most of it. So I'm thinking I'm going to do some gentle exercise tonight - I'm leaning towards yoga. I have a 30 minute yoga program set up in my Wii Fit, it's just the right balance of being a bit challenging but not being crazy or anything. It shouldn't make things worse at any rate. It's things like the sun salutation, the warrior pose, etc - nothing that contorts me into a pretzel (not that I could anyway, I'm ridiculously un-flexible). So I think I'll do some yoga tonight, and assess how I'm feeling tomorrow and go from there. If tomorrow I'm still feeling okay, then I might just sneak to the gym for some weights (I'll avoid the abdominals machine so that hopefully my guts don't get angry).
 
Update 3/12/15: I didn't end up doing yoga. I got home and my guts started grumbling and I felt a bit run-down, so I rested instead. Had more blood in my stool just before bed. Slept okay but woke up feeling fairly bad. Guts are not happy, I feel exhausted, I'm slightly more pale today than I've been and I'm so cold. I'm wearing a sweater and a scarf, I have a little heater pointed right at me, and I have a mug of hot tea, but I'm still freezing and can't seem to warm up. I'm not sure if I'm just having an "off" day or if this is a flare thing (I haven't had night sweats or getting up in the night to go or even much nausea so if it's a flare, it's giving me some abnormal symptoms - I do get chills in a flare though so who knows).

I'm a bit concerned that I'm slipping into anemia. On Monday when I had my bloodwork done, my CBC was still within the normal range, but it was lower than my normal - lower than what I've typically been at in the past. And I've had blood in my stool at least once per day since then, so maybe I'm just on a downhill slide towards anemia and the paleness & coldness are due to that? I'm not sure. My GI had said to call him about 10 days to 2 weeks after starting the steroid suppositories, so I'll be calling him next week. At this point I'm guessing we'll do the flexi sig since I'm still bleeding, and today I sure don't feel like I'm getting better - feels like the opposite. I really need to get this figured out so I will request the flexi sig unless I make a miraculous recovery in the next few days.

So, I guess once again it's a rest day. Getting really frustrated with my body.
 
Update 3/16/15: Not much to report. I had 2 or 3 days with no bleeding, but then the bleeding came back last night. :( My anus HURTS today and I seem to now have a few external hemorrhoids to go with the internal ones. Ugh. Going to call my GI in a couple days and schedule the flexi sig. It's definitely yet another rest day and I'm frustrated and depressed.

I'm once again doing a liquid diet for most of today (smoothies for lunch & dinner, something solid but low-res for dinner). I can lessen the bleeding & pain by doing that, and I have a few lbs to spare anyway so I guess that's a win-win although honestly right now nothing feels like a win. I'm quite bummed out that this has continued happening in spite of the steroid suppositories. And of course when I get depressed, my anti-depressant of choice is exercise, but I can't work out right now which depresses me even more. Sorry, just having a little pity party for myself over here. I've been throwing myself a lot of pity parties lately. I feel kind of pathetic.
 
Thank you, UnX. :) It's been 10 days on the steroid suppositories without much improvement, so I emailed my GI this morning letting him know that and requesting that he schedule the flexi-sig for me. I also finally broke down and told my boss about the bleeding - it's been a real struggle to get through work some days, so I felt like she needed to know what's going on and why I'm struggling. Her response? "You're too young to be going through this!" Ugh, that old chestnut. Also, really? I mean, I told her I'm bleeding and she said I'm too young - does she think there's an appropriate age at which it's acceptable for a person to start rectally bleeding?? :p

I had to go out yesterday and purchase some items for an upcoming work event, and it seems that even just walking around stores now is not doing good things for me. I went to 7 or 8 stores, and I think in the 2nd store, my anus started hurting quite a bit. I just had to walk slowly and carefully through the rest of the stores. It was fairly miserable. So now it's even a struggle just to go shopping, great. Being able to properly exercise again just seems to get further and further out of my grasp. I'm not happy about that.

So, right now I'm just waiting to hear back from my GI's office about when I can have the flexi-sig. Hopefully soon. In the meantime I'm still resting and just trying to do what I can to feel better (got some stronger hemorrhoid cream for my backside, and have been doing Epsom salt baths most evenings).
 
I had an appointment at an osteoporosis clinic this morning - even the posters on the walls and the stacks of patient information leaflets they had everywhere seemed to imply I should be old. But an appropriate age for rectal bleeding? Maybe she just meant you're too young to be dealing with chronic health problems, which is kind of true. Lots of young people do have health problems, but enough of a majority don't for ill health to be considered mainly something that happens with old age. Good luck with the sigmoidoscopy.
 
Yeah, I'm pretty sure she meant I'm too young to have so many health problems, but the way she phrased it made it sound like she was saying I'm too young for rectal bleeding. At any rate, neither one of those is a helpful comment, really. Okay, I'm young-ish (35) and I have health problems - those are the facts. Telling me I'm too young for health problems isn't exactly going to make them go away and doesn't really make me feel better, either. I have an aunt who is a nurse who once also told me "You're too young for this." I was like, um, you're in the medical field, do you not have a more supportive or less generic thing to say to me than that? She surely sees people of every age in the hospital where she works. Plus, her own daughter (my cousin) has fairly bad health too - she's had 4 or 5 miscarriages at this point and all sorts of things like stress fractures, ovarian cysts, possible celiac, etc. She's in the ER more frequently than I am! So anyway, I guess I just don't get that comment. I feel like saying to people, "I'm young and I'm sick, deal with it!" :p Maybe I should have that printed on a t-shirt.

Still no exercise happening today. Had a very painful bowel movement this morning with lots of blood. That was a depressing way to start the day (the bloody stools tend to happen most often at the end of the day, just before bedtime - I take the steroid suppositories last thing before bed, so theoretically they work their magic while I sleep and my guts should be relatively okay when I wake up, but that was not the case today). I thought about calling in sick, but most of the office is out at an offsite meeting so they were counting on me to hold down the fort. So, I went to work even though I wasn't feeling so great. To cheer myself up, I did some shopping. I saw that one of my favorite local thrift shops was having a sale today - sometimes they do a $2 pants day, and I absolutely love $2 pants day (if I'm lucky, I can score really nice high-end designer brands for only $2 per pair!). And today happened to be a $2 pants day, it had been a couple months since the last one and I was very excited about it. So I went to the thrift store on my lunch break, and they happened to have some really nice workout pants in my size. I ended up with 3 pairs, all are like new condition. 2 of them are Nike and I forget what the other one was. They all fit perfectly. So, whenever I'm able to work out again, I have some very nice new workout pants for a grand total of $6. That makes me happy, but sad too. I love buying new workout clothes, but it depresses me when I can't use them right away. Still, I will be very happy when I do get a chance to finally wear them. I'm looking forward to that day.
 
I don't find that kind of age comment annoying, the ones that annoy me are ones that fail to recognise that young, ill people exist. E.g. one time when I was at uni a guy was going on about politics and complaining that one party was promising to put more money into the NHS, and he said they were only doing it because most people who vote for them (and who vote in general) are old. I.e. that young people don't get sick and don't need the NHS. That kind of comment annoys me. (The guy who said it later asked me out and got very angry when I refused to be his girlfriend. He asked me to an "all you can eat" restaurant, because obviously eating a massive meal is just the kind of thing I like to do.... how do some people decide they want someone as their partner when they don't know one thing about them?!)

Shopping is one of my mood boosters too, though it's online shopping for me. Even if I was well enough for going to actual shops, I live in the middle of nowhere, so online shopping is far more practical. I hope you get to try out your new things soon. I think I remember a while back reading posts where you said bleeding isn't a symptom you suffer from; is the bleeding new or am I misremembering? Do you think it's haemorrhoids or Crohn's causing the bleeding? Before I had an ileostomy I used to get internal haemorrhoids and they can cause a scary amount of blood for something so relatively harmless, and if it were haemorrhoids it might explain why the steroids aren't working well.
 
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That's correct, I'm not usually a bleeder. I first got sick in 2009 but I only started bleeding in 2013 - I didn't bleed at all for the first 3 or 4 years of my illness. In spring of 2013, they stopped making regular Asacol (the one where you take 6 tablets a day). Asacol had been my maintenance med, and I had been in remission and doing fine on it, I had been in remission for 2 years thanks to Asacol. But when they stopped making it in the US (the patent was up and they could no longer make buckets of money from it), my GI put me on Asacol HD instead as they do still make that here. But it turned out that I can't digest those two huge pills a day, they were passing through me undigested, so I was essentially getting no medicine and I entered a mild flare at that time. Shortly after that is when the bleeding started. It was sporadic - like one episode of bleeding every 3ish weeks, and it often seemed to happen after a bicycle ride for some odd reason. I had a colonoscopy in Aug 2013 and that determined that the bleeding was caused by internal hemorrhoids.

I was still in a mild flare, and in Feb 2014 I convinced my GI to put me back on Entocort in an effort to achieve remission again. I was on Entocort from Feb to Oct 2014. I didn't bleed at all from Feb '14 until Feb '15. A year of no blood and I felt like I was getting back into remission. Then, about a month ago I stupidly ate something that was whole grain and really high in fiber. That just seemed to set everything off and that's when I started bleeding in earnest. The past few weeks, I've had bleeding like never before - it's almost every single day and sometimes multiple times per day. I'm still guessing it's hemorrhoids and/or a fissure - the blood is always bright red and my anal/rectal area feels quite painful (it feels like really bad hemorrhoids). I definitely have external hemmies which are quite painful, and I presume I still have or again have internal ones which are the culprit for the bleeding. My guts are a bit unsettled too and last night I had a wicked episode of nausea, so it could be a bit of a flare going on as well. I'm really hoping it's just horrendous hemmies, and maybe my GI could do something about them (band them?) during the flexi-sig (which I'm still waiting for a call back on, I left another message with my GI's office this morning).

So yeah, long story short, I definitely am not typically a bleeder and in the past my sporadic bleeding has been due to hemmies. This bleeding every day thing is new to me and I really don't like it, so I hope the flexi-sig happens soon so that I can know exactly what's going on and what we can do about it.

I had another bad episode of blood last night - that's 2 bad episodes yesterday. I'm afraid the bleeding seems to be getting worse rather than better. I'm also worried about an upcoming event. A week from tomorrow, I have to help out at a work event that is 2 hours away - I have to help set up, wear a fancy dress, help hand out awards, help with taking photos, basically I have to be on my feet for the whole evening and it's not optional. At this point, I'm not sure how I'm going to do it. It sounds exhausting and at times I'm getting light-headed, so there's a risk that I may actually pass out in a fancy dress in front of a lot of my colleagues. Sheesh, how awful would that be! My hubby will be there with me at least, so I'll have someone there who knows what's going on. I'm still really dreading it, though. I'm dreading the supposedly-fun work event more than I'm dreading the flexi-sig, ha ha! :p

I love online shopping too. I buy most of my jewelry online. (I tend to buy cheap but pretty costume jewelry from China - I know, it's not the best quality, but it's within my budget and it usually is really pretty and I get a lot of compliments on my jewelry.) And wow, how awful that some loser asked you out to an all you can eat restaurant! I'm glad you turned him down, he sounds absolutely clueless. It would have been kind of funny though to go and eat like 5 pieces of rice and then say you're full. :p He'd still have had to pay for your meal even if you had done that! Ha ha. Maybe then he'd at least think a bit harder about where to take a date to eat.
 
Thanks Hawkeye. I did have bloodwork done 2 weeks ago when I saw my GI, and I can request more bloodwork when I have the flexi-sig. We're definitely keeping an eye on what my blood is doing.

Speaking of the flexi-sig, my GI got in touch with me on Saturday morning (I swear he's never not working) and he said he will order the flexi-sig. Of course, it was right after I heard from my GI that I started to feel better. :p I don't believe I passed any blood all weekend long. I feel generally less woozy (less like I'm going to pass out), more energetic, and less crummy. It's only been 2 days so I'm not sure yet if I'm actually on the mend. Still, it'd be really nice if this no bleeding thing continues! If I could have the energy to get through the big fancy work event on Saturday, that would be wonderful. So, I'm trying to eat safe foods and still rest a lot just to keep this upswing going.

The downside of this, of course, is that if I'm feeling very well and the bleeding stops on its own, then I may as well just cancel the flexi-sig. I know, that's not a huge downside, but it would be nice to know for sure what caused the bleeding and how to treat it if it happens again. Maybe this feeling good is due to the steroid suppositories finally kicking in? I've been on them 2 weeks as of today. Maybe they just finally started working their magic?

I think, if I'm still feeling reasonably well after the big work event, then I will start exercising again after that. That's my goal right now. I need to get through this week first as I'm basically working 7 days straight (my normal Mon-Fri work week, the big event on Saturday, and then cleaning up & going home Sunday). I'm taking a couple days off next week to recuperate, so I'll be able to properly rest if needed. But, on Monday if I'm feeling okay, I think I will try a brief workout and see how it goes. If it goes okay then I'll start to ramp things up to my usual intensity and length of time. I don't want to push myself too much too soon and start bleeding all over again, but if I can make it through this whole week with minimal/no bleeding, then I think (hope) I'll be in the clear to start doing some workouts again. I'm already getting excited about it! Now I just need this week to be over with!
 
Wouldn't it be worth having the flexi sig anyway since it may still show the cause of the bleeding even though the bleeding had stopped?
 
Yes, it probably still would be worthwhile - well, depending on how soon I can have it. My GI said he ordered the test but I haven't gotten a call yet to schedule it. I'm hoping he put me down as urgent so that I can have it in a matter of days/weeks, rather than months. I had an experience recently with my GP, I had gone to him because of lingering vertigo (I had labyrinthitis for about 3 months from Aug - Nov 2014) and he wrote me a referral for a special type of physical therapy for labyrinthitis. But the waiting list was so long, I think it was 2 months long, and by the time my appointment came around I just cancelled it because I had recovered on my own and didn't have vertigo anymore. So I'm kind of worried this will be another one of those situations, but I guess I'm getting ahead of myself and I should just wait for the phone call to schedule it and go from there.
 
Update 3/26/15: I still haven't done a proper workout lately, but yesterday I tried to sneak a bit of fitness into my everyday life. I moved around some big heavy boxes at work, I walked around a lot, and on my lunch break I did some shopping and bought some heavy things (like 6 lbs of Epsom salt for baths) and carried that all around the store, etc. By the end of the work day, my stomach was not super happy, so that's quite discouraging. (Fortunately though an Epsom salt bath in the evening made me feel better, so I guess that's the silver lining - although I still can't tell if that stuff is actually doing me some good or if it's just a placebo effect, or if a hot bath without any salt would have also made me feel better, etc.) I am feeling okay today, so at least I'm not paying for it the next day. Still, I had hoped that increasing my activity every so slightly wouldn't be a big deal, but my body clearly didn't like it. That's not good. I haven't bled for 5 days and counting so I feel like I must be healing, I guess the process is just going slower than I would like. I was hoping to try to get back into working out next week after I recover from the big work event on Saturday, but now I am not sure if that's wise. It's frustrating, but I am healing and that's not nothing, I just have to be more patient I guess.
 
Update 3/27/15: Finally got my flexi sig scheduled! It's on April 7th, so about 10 days away. And a rather interesting turn of events, the nurse on the phone said I could have sedation for it. My GI hadn't mentioned anything about sedation, so I figured I'd just have to deal with being scoped with no sedation and no pain meds. Nope, it sounds like I can have my usual colonoscopy combo of versed & fentanyl! So I'm leaning towards having the sedation. My hubby is off that day and he can drive me, and it sounds like I can get the full day off of work myself. (I've been toying with the idea of not having sedation and going back to work after the flexi sig, but I think I'm going to play it safe and probably will take the sedation and have the full day off.) This is a relief because the rectal pain has been quite bad today. I'm still not 100% sure I'm going for the sedation, but that's definitely the direction I'm leaning towards.

Still not sure about when I'll be able to return to exercise. I feel very run-down and yucky today. Not sure how I'm going to get through the work event tomorrow. It's going to suck. At this point, I may just wait until after the flexi-sig to get back into working out. Or alternatively, maybe I'll go on some bike rides just before the flexi sig and try to really piss off my hemorrhoids and get them bleeding like crazy just before the flexi sig so my GI can see the full effect of what's going on in there. (I probably won't do that as it sounds kind of awful, but if it gets me a good result from this test...)
 
Update 4/1/15: I did the Jane Fonda 30 min "beginner" workout last night. Holy cow, that's maybe not so much for beginners! The pace was very fast and at times I couldn't keep up. Also, Jane apparently thinks that beginners are ridiculously flexible. I am ridiculously un-flexible. I cannot touch my toes, I cannot do the splits (I can't even get remotely close!). Some of the exercises required those things, so I sort of sucked at those parts. She also had a long section on hip exercises, and I had to skip some of those as my arthritis just doesn't allow for a lot of hip exercise. I did end up in a bit of hip pain last night from what I did do, so I'm glad I skipped some of it. My hips feel mostly okay this morning, so at least I didn't overdo things too terribly much. But yeah, I figured the "beginner" workout would be, you know, aimed at beginners. Not so much! :p

I'm thinking of taking it easier today since yesterday's workout ended up being more intense than I had thought it would be. It's really nice out and I think I will walk my dog this evening. Tomorrow, if I'm feeling up to it, I'm going to do weights.
 
How often do you walk your dog? Dogs are a great way of making sure you get exercise if motivation is ever a problem. I can't give my dog all she needs, so my parents give her two walks a day between them, and I give her one. Knowing she loves it is good motivation for me to get out, because it's a great way to bond. My dog knows the routine, when each person is likely to take her out, and will come and ask when it's time.

And my dog is actually really not much of a walker as dogs go. One of my previous dogs was high energy, and he usually got about three hours of walks a day (and he'd be charging off into the distance then back again for the whole of each walk), and would still charge round the house and outside most of the time he wasn't out on walks.

I go out for walks with my dog now and we're very well suited as we go the same speed - slow. :) As you're much fitter than I am, if you're ever short of exercise ideas, maybe you could consider going out jogging or cycling with your dog, or whatever you enjoy? Or agility classes if your dog is able to do that kind of thing (I used to do dog agility when I was a kid - it gets you very fit!).
 
My husband is currently under-employed (in a typical week he works only one 7-hour shift - he's been looking for full-time work but so far no luck) so he is usually the one who walks our dog. I usually walk her on the weekends and he walks her during the week, that's often the way it works out (during the warmer months I try to walk her after work in the evenings sometimes as well). We're fortunate enough to live very close to a large fenced-in dog park, so we always walk her to the park and then do a lap of the park. My dog loooooooves the park so she's always up for going for a walk. She's not super high energy - she's a 6 year old corgi and she's a bit fat and lazy, but on walks she does like to walk fast especially on the way to the park as she's excited to get there. Once we're in the park, she likes to sniff everything and meet all the other dogs and people, so then the pace of the walk slows down a bit.

Motivation isn't a problem for me - I love working out, it makes me feel healthy and strong, and it's basically the only time I can forget for a bit that I am ill. It's the best anti-depressant I've come across, it's just the best! So I don't really have any issues with motivation, I have more issues with my body not being up to exercise because of whatever symptoms are going on. Like lately with the blood loss, it's made me feel dizzy and light-headed at times, so with that going on it's not wise to risk passing out during a workout - I could injure myself if I fell, especially if I was on the treadmill or holding heavy weights. So yeah, I get frustrated when I'm not well enough to do a workout, but I never lack motivation.

Oh, and I sadly cannot jog nor cycle with my dog. I can't jog at all due to hip arthritis, jogging is just too high-impact for my hips and it becomes painful very quickly, and if I push it and try to jog through the pain, that just makes the pain worse and I end up needing my cane for like 4 days afterwards. I can ride my bike, but my dog wouldn't be able to keep up. When we got our dog, my brother was living with us at that time. He's a runner, so one day he tried taking my dog out for a jog. They returned about 5 mins later - my dog couldn't even run 2 blocks before she got tired out and decided to stop. She's just not a runner! She can walk fast, but those short little corgi legs of hers, combined with the fact that she's a bit fat, makes her not really built for running. We haven't tried any agility classes with her, but that might be something to consider trying. I have a neighbor who has 2 corgis and hers do classes like that, so I might ask to join her sometime. My dog is very intelligent and learns new tricks quickly (she'll do anything for a treat!), so I bet she'd do pretty well at agility. Thanks for the idea! :)
 
Update 4/2/15: I did take my dog to the park last night - the weather was beautiful! And my dog got to play with her friends - my neighbor had her 2 corgis at the park, and there was also another corgi there, so it was 4 corgi friends playing together. :) It was seriously cute! My dog had such a fun time, she loves her friends. I had a fun time too, it was so nice to get outside for awhile and I didn't even need a jacket!

Walking isn't always the easiest on my hips (walking is a bit too high impact for my joints at times), and sometimes the weather makes my arthritis act up as well. It's rainy this morning, so I think the combo of walking yesterday and rain today has made my bad hip a little painful today (both my hips have arthritis, but the right has always been worse than the left, and it's the right hip that hurts today). I'm planning on going to the gym for weights and will be focusing mainly on arms today. I am going to do some hip stretches as well as that usually helps my hips feel better. So that's the plan!

Tomorrow I might do yoga or the stationary bike if I feel up to it. If I'm still feeling reasonably well on Saturday, I think I will do weights again. Still trying to make myself bleed for my flexi-sig - I had a big salad yesterday but it caused me zero trouble! Usually a meal-sized salad is a huge no-no for me, so that's a bit odd. I guess I'm just going to keep on eating iffy/fibrous foods in an effort to bleed by Tuesday.
 
Update 4/6/15: I did go to the gym on Thursday. My abs and hip were sore, so I left those areas alone and focused mainly on arms, and that went fine. The stationary bike in the little gym in my workplace is still broken - in the past I would do 5-10 mins on the bike to warm up, but it's been broken for a couple months now. So my warmup when I go to the little gym now consists of a variety of mainly bodyweight exercises instead - squats, lunges, jumping jacks, jump rope, pushups, etc. That's been going okay but I miss the bike. I've been told that the building owners are going to either fix or replace it, but they are sure taking their sweet time.

Friday I didn't work out - hubby and I did a bunch of things around the house and ran some errands, and by the time that was all done I was pretty wiped out. Saturday, I had been thinking of going to the gym, but we had really nice weather and ended up doing some strenuous yard work instead. Our house is older (built in the 1950s) and it came with one of those insanely heavy cast iron and concrete utility sinks in the basement. It looks like it belongs in a prison and it weighs approximately 10 zillion lbs. :p We got a more modern plastic utility sink, so the heavy concrete sink has just been sitting in a corner in our basement for years. We finally decided on Saturday to try to move it out of our basement! It took a ton of effort and like 2 hours - we have a walk-out basement so fortunately we only had to get it up 3 stairs, but even so that was a pretty insane amount of effort to move it even that far. Between hubby and I, we could just barely move the stupid thing. We eventually got it up the 3 stairs and into the backyard and that's where it's staying - we dug a hole and buried it halfway, and are using it as a planter now. It actually looks kind of nice as a planter! And since it's a sink, it's already got drainage built in. So that will help us with our gardening efforts as we're trying to grow a lot of plants this year (fresh fruits and veggies can be problematic for me as-is, but I can juice just about anything without trouble). So, I definitely got a workout from moving that huge stupidly heavy thing plus digging the hole to partially bury it. It took about 3 hours total to move the sink, dig the hole, get the sink into the ground and put the dirt back. It was worth it, though, it's nice to have a new planter plus that awful heavy thing is out of my basement forever! :D

Yesterday I was still a bit sore from moving the sink, plus it was Easter, so I took a rest day. Today, I'm heading to the gym for weights as the soreness is largely gone. Tomorrow is my flexi sig - it's not until noon, so I'm thinking I might do some yoga in the morning before heading to the clinic. I don't want to do anything strenuous as I'm not allowed any food nor water for 4 hours before my scope, so I won't do anything that makes me sweat as I won't be able to drink any water. Yoga should be fine though. I'll have to see how I'm feeling after my scope - my GI always likes to take a lot of biopsies, and as a result sometimes I'm in a bit of pain the next day once the fentanyl has worn off. So, if I'm in pain on Wednesday then I'll rest. If I'm feeling reasonably okay then I'll do weights again.
 
Good luck with the test. I was going to say something along the lines of hoping it finds nothing wrong, but I think you were hoping it would show up something to explain the bleeding? If I've got that right, then I hope it finds something but that the something is easily treatable. :) (And also that the test itself isn't too uncomfortable.)
 
Great idea with the sink, I doubt that I'll be able to plant any vegetables until June this year. We are thinking of raised bed planters.
 
Thanks, UnX! I think I'm hoping that it finds something, but that the something is minor like hemorrhoids. I don't want the bleeding to have been caused by anything more serious than that. So think happy hemmie thoughts for me! :p

Hawkeye, we're thinking of doing raised garden beds as well. For now, we can put old windows on top of the sink to use it like a little greenhouse, so we can start seeds in it now. I have a lot of seeds so that's part of what I'm going to figure out in the next few days, which seeds do I want to start first! We also have an old wheelbarrow in our basement - it has no wheels, the handles are broken, and it's full of dried cement (a gift from the people who used to live in our house). My hubby thinks that if he can get the cement out with his sledgehammer, then we can use the wheelbarrow as a planter box as well. I'll just be happy to get it out of my basement as well as it takes up a lot of space and is currently utterly worthless!
 
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Another quick update for today: I went to the little gym in the basement of my workplace on my lunch hour today for a fairly quick weights workout. That went very well! I am tired, I didn't sleep well last night and I feel mentally foggy. But apparently physically I feel just fine - it was one of those easy breezy workouts where the weights feel a bit lighter than they usually do, I had energy to spare and found myself wishing that I had more than an hour to spend in the gym! You know those workouts where your whole body just goes like, "Ahhhh, this is exactly what I needed" - it was one of those. I just felt fantastic the whole time. And I must have been working out a bit intensely, as I got my GERD to start acting up (it usually acts up during an intense workout but is fairly quiet during less intense things like yoga). It's been awhile since I had a workout where I started belching from my GERD getting riled up - not that I enjoy belching and refluxing during a workout, but that said to me that I'm doing something right. So even though my GERD has been nothing but problematic during workouts many times in the past, it was almost nice for it to act up today. I finally feel like I'm starting to get back to my old self, the self who works out a lot.

I also got to properly rock out to my favorite workout music which was so nice. The little gym in the basement of my workplace, for ages it had an ancient box-style TV with a built in DVD player that frequently didn't work. I used to burn youtube music videos of my favorite songs to DVDs and then watch those while I'm working out, so in the past when the DVD player would actually work, I'd put my music on the TV and it would fill the gym and I'd just rock out while working out. Then the DVD player died completely and I had to switch to my ipod for music, and it's just not the same. My ipod is great for the big gym where there are lots of other people around because in that situation I like to put on my headphones and drown out everyone around me and just focus on me and be in my own head, but in the little gym where I'm almost always the only one there, I love having my music blasting out loud from the TV speakers rather than keeping it intimate and in my headphones only. That little gym is already intimate and it feels downright lonely to be alone in there and have my headphones on - maybe I'm just weird, but I feel like I need the music to be more out in the open than that. So anyway, we finally got a new flatscreen TV in the little gym, and today I was able to play my music on the TV again! It was so fun, I was singing along in between sets and dancing from machine to machine. I think that's another part of why my workout today felt so good, my favorite workout songs were able to be played as they should be and the whole gym was full of music and it just pumped me up! :) It was wonderful!
 
Update 4/7/15: I had my scope today. I wasn't able to do yoga beforehand - I had been told that I could drink water but had to stop 4 hours before my scope. My scope was at noon, so I got up at 7:30 and drank water until 8. I felt parched, so I guzzled a ton of water - probably too much. That gave me some d and I felt fairly yucky, so I opted to rest until my scope.

The scope itself was a bit eventful. The enemas that I had to do to clean out my sigmoid, those really sucked! They caused massive cramping and were just plain awful. I honestly think I'd rather do prep than enemas again, seriously. The cramps I get from prep are like 1/5th what the enema cramps were.

The scope itself, apparently the sedation didn't work right. I don't remember much, fortunately. And I wasn't in pain. But I was awake & talking the whole time. I have bits of memories, mainly I remember opening my eyes and trying to see what was happening on the monitor, but my glasses weren't on and I couldn't see. My GI said I was loopy and talking nonsense the entire time. He also said that I'm getting propofol from now on so that I can be knocked out properly, as we don't want this to happen again. So, that's a good thing!

Another good thing is that my scope found the source of my bleeding, and it is indeed hemorrhoids. I haven't bled in about 2 weeks now, and my GI said that my internal hemmies are shrinking and healing, which is what I had been hoping. He took some random biopsies but I don't expect they'll show anything. He said that besides the hemmies, everything else looks great. It sounds like I'm probably in remission and all my recent troubles have been hemmie-related. So that's very good news! I feel like this is a big green light for me to properly get back into fitness. I've had so many health hurdles lately with the labyrinthitis and then the flu and then the bleeding - I really hope this is the end of that stuff for awhile and that I can enjoy remission and get back into working out a lot! I'm feeling really optimistic and hopeful. So yeah, I had a not great experience but a good outcome. Presuming that I feel okay tomorrow (not sure exactly how many biopsies my GI took), then I'll be back in the gym. :D
 
Update 4/8/15: Well, I'm not in any pain from the scope nor the biopsies, so I'm going to head to the gym shortly. I do have a headache today, although it's not as bad this afternoon as it was this morning. And sometimes a workout will help alleviate my headaches, so all the more reason to go to the gym. My one concern is that within the past couple hours, I suddenly became super gassy. I did re-start taking psyllium husks today, so I am pretty sure that the gassiness is because of the teaspoon of psyllium I had this morning. Fortunately I'm going to the little gym in the basement at work, and I'm usually the only one there, so if need be I guess I'll just fart it out during my workout! :p If my headache cooperates, I do plan to crank the music up on the TV again, so that will at least cover up any sound, ha ha.

I definitely need a workout today, too. It's been a stressful day especially with finding out that my grandpa is in the hospital. I plan to push myself as much as I can - I won't overdo it since things are probably still a bit tender inside from the scope & biopsies yesterday and I don't want to upset things, but I will definitely do what I can.

Tomorrow I'm thinking I'll do the stationary bike at home (the one at work is still broken). I'm going to try for 45 mins to an hour of that. I always find myself getting bored when doing more than 30 mins on the stationary bike - pedaling to nowhere with no change in scenery is just dull. So I need to find a new TV show to watch while I do the bike, I think that could help alleviate the boredom. I really like Korean dramas - I'm slooooowly trying to teach myself Korean, so I try to pick up on new words, plus reading the subtitles keeps my mind busy. I'm not sure which one to watch next, though. I just finished My Love From Another Star and it was so good, I need to find another good one like that. So I think tonight I'm going to peruse what's available and add some episodes to my Hulu queue for future cardio sessions.

Friday I've made a date night with the hubby to go to the big paid membership gym and do a longer weights session than what I'm usually able to accomplish on my lunch break at work. We'll do a nice long workout and then have dinner together - probably at a little falafel place near our house. Saturday the hope is to do more yard work (the wheelbarrow that I mentioned in a previous post) if the weather is nice.
 
Another quick update for today: I went to the gym and the gassiness disappeared - no farting it up in the gym! :p My headache is getting better as well - it's still there a little bit, but not throbbing and horrible like it was this morning, it's far more tolerable now. I was able to do everything in the gym including the abdominals machine and I felt pretty good the whole way through. Oh, and the elevator at work is broken today, so I got a bit of extra exercise walking the stairs from 3rd floor to the basement and back again (I normally do like taking the stairs but not with my heavy gym bag - it wasn't so bad today though so I might take the stairs with my gym bag more often).
 
Update 4/9/15: Well, my plans have all changed already. My hip pain is acting up today in response to an impending thunderstorm, so I think I'm going to rest instead of do the bike. I probably will stretch things out very well tonight but I don't plan to push my hip to do much of anything on a bad pain day. And Fri-Sat-Sun, hubby now has to work, so I'll be going to the gym by myself on Friday if my hip is feeling better by then. Really I'm just going to play it by ear due to the hip pain, and I'll do what I can when I can. Hopefully once this storm blows through then my hip will feel better - that's usually how it goes.
 
Update 4/10/15: The storms have finally ended and my bad hip is feeling mostly better. Not 100%, but definitely a solid 85%. I think that's good enough for me to go to the gym. Since hubby ended up having to work today, I'm just going to head down to the little gym again and do another lunch hour workout.

Tomorrow's weather is supposed to be 65 and sunny, which sounds wonderful and I think I would like to take a bike ride! That's just about perfect bike riding weather, not too hot and not too cold so I won't freeze nor sweat to death. I'd also like to do a bit of yard work but nothing too strenuous, just pruning back some things before they bud out and stuff like that. So that's the plan! I haven't really thought as far ahead as Sunday yet, as my parents are coming to town and I have to have lunch with them. I'm thinking I'll probably do a quickie weights session at home with my dumbbells either before or after lunch, I just have to figure out exactly when I'll be able to do that (usually I plan my meals around my workouts, not the other way around, so I just need to make sure my stomach has been empty for at least 2 hours before doing weights or my GERD will get mad).

Maybe I should talk about my diet a bit as well, as now that I'm getting back into properly working out, I'm also trying to eat a bit healthier. I'm having my usual smoothie for breakfast - I added a few new ingredients to it which is going well so far. I got some powdered peanut butter and also some chia seeds and added a teaspoon of each to my usual smoothie (crushed ice, almond milk, cocoa powder, soy-based protein/vitamin powder, and a banana). I declare it to be delicious! :) For my snack I packed a few options into my lunch - string cheese, soy yogurt, and a banana. Lunch is crab salad with goat cheese on potato bread - I've actually never tried potato bread before (I like to try new foods on Fridays, so that I have the weekend to recover if it goes badly). So that will be interesting, although I don't think it'll cause me any issues as potatoes are safe for me. Dinner will be a salmon filet with half an avocado. I might make couscous as a side dish as well depending on how hungry I am.

Tomorrow... well, I'm thinking of riding my bike to a little café where they make seriously delicious salads. It's about 5 miles from my house so it'd be about a 10 mile bike ride round trip, not bad at all for my first ride of the year. I kind of want to just ride there, order a salad to go, take it home and scarf the whole thing down. :p I'm sort of obsessed with salads, sometimes they affect me really badly but other times they don't, it's really always a mystery what a salad is going to do to me. These salads at this café, they're so yummy and the last 2 times I didn't experience any repercussions from them. So I'm thinking about being sort of bad and getting a salad! Wish me luck!
 
Another quick update for today: Ugh, change of plans yet again. I went to the gym today for weights, and during my warm-up, I noticed some pain in my left quad. I think I pulled it? I went easy on my legs and just focused on arms. I walked a bit on the treadmill to cool down but the quad pain is still there. So, I am now thinking it's best to not go on a bike ride tomorrow as I should probably rest this and let it heal. Not happy about that! (And I may still go out and get a salad anyway even if I don't bike there.) Bleh! Hopefully this is just another blip on the radar and nothing big. Still, frustrated. I hate when my body forces me to rest. Not cool, body!
 
Update 4/13/15: I didn't go to the gym all weekend. Saturday I mostly rested, although I did about 90 mins of yard work (massively trimming back some bushes and planting some seeds in my new planter). That was moderately strenuous - one of the bushes I was trimming is a very pokey bush so there was a lot of bending and moving involved in order to trim it without poking myself (I still got poked a lot!). My quad fortunately felt okay the whole time. Sunday, my parents came for a visit so we ate way too much food and then took a long walk afterwards. It was sort of an adventure walk with climbing over logs and things down a nature trail. Again, my quad felt fine the whole time, so that's encouraging!

Today I'm planning on going down to the little gym. I'll probably take it easy on my legs and mainly focus on arms as I don't want to re-injure my quad. I will test it out a little bit but won't push it at all. If that goes okay then I might try a short bike ride tomorrow. I won't do any crazy hills or anything like that, I'll keep it around 5-6 miles max as I still won't want to push my quad too too much at that point.

I did go and get myself some salad over the weekend. I decided to just make my own at home, so I went to the store and bought lettuce, tomatoes, etc. Had a delicious salad on Friday evening and it didn't bother my guts. Had another one on Sunday night and the guts were a tiny bit crampy afterwards, but it was totally tolerable and the guts are fine today. I guess I must really be in remission if I can reliably eat salad without issues! I'm still hoping someday soon to be able to ride my bike to that little café and pick up a salad. The café isn't far from my gym, so I could incorporate it with a bike ride to the gym, a weights session at the gym, then ride to the café afterwards and get a to-go salad and bring it home in my bike basket. That's sounding like a good plan, now I just need to find a nice weekend day to do it.
 
Update 4/14/15: I went to the gym yesterday and that went well. I played it very safe with my quad and I didn't experience any pain from it. The only thing I even did leg-wise was a few very cautious and slow lunges during my warm-up to test it out. That went fine fortunately. The rest of the time I focused on arms, back, and a bit of abs. Now that I'm doing better, I can do a bit more ab work. I still can't do much ab work as it tends to anger my GERD pretty quickly, so any ab work is considered a success. I did some crunches and a plank.

The weather is really nice this week, so after work I took my dog to the park. She met up with her corgi friends and they played around for awhile. It was really nice to get outside. Springtime is finally properly here!

Today my legs feel a bit tired, I think from the walking that I've done lately. I think I'm going to rest today rather than ride my bike - I still want to play it safe with my quad. Tomorrow, I am going back to the gym for weights and I will try to ease back into working my legs a bit more. I probably still won't push it too much, but I will likely do more cautious lunges and maybe squats too (not with weights, just bodyweight squats). If things continue to go well, then maybe I'll ride my bike on Thursday. Friday is the re-scheduled date night with hubby - going to the big paid membership gym for a longer weights session, then going out for a nice dinner afterwards.
 
Update 4/15/15: It's been SUCH a rough week at work. In a nutshell, I got yelled at by someone (who isn't my boss), and the reason I got yelled at was because I did my job the way my boss told me to. Seriously. I did everything right but somehow still got yelled at for it and made to feel that I'm stupid and do everything wrong. That's not cool. I ended up crying at my desk yesterday. I have a super nice boss though and she brought me flowers and donuts this morning because she knew I was upset. She's so sweet.

So, with the crazy stress and emotions, I *so* need to do a workout today! I wish we had something like a punching bag in the gym because I really just want to hit something! :p But lifting weights is usually just fine when I need to work out some emotions, so I'm going to go and lift as heavy as I can. My quad feels fine and I kinda just want to push my body to physical exhaustion, so I will (cautiously at first) go for a whole body weights workout today. I think I'm going to walk my dog tonight after work, too. If I manage not to re-injure my quad today, then I'm going to do a bike ride tomorrow. Friday, going to the big gym with hubby. This weekend, we're hoping to do more yard work and I'll surely go to the gym at some point and walk the dog too.
 
Another quick update for today: I pushed myself in the gym and I feel good! My quad didn't hurt at all, even though I did lunges, squats, and probably other leg exercises that I'm forgetting. I did every weight machine including the abdominals machine. I pushed myself as much as I could - my reflux got pretty riled up by the end of my workout. I feel pretty tired now and my abs feel a bit sore, but I feel quite good too. I should still have enough energy left to walk my dog tonight, so that's the plan. Tomorrow, presuming I'm still feeling good, I'm going for a bike ride. :) I can't wait!
 
I expect some people would say that yoga is the right type of activity for dealing with anger and frustration.... but punch bags are so much more satisfying. ;) It's a long time since I've played it, but I remember squash as a good game to play when someone's made you want to hit them.
 
Squash is tennis, correct? If so, tennis is a bit problematic for me. I've tried but it just doesn't end up so well. The running around on the tennis court makes my arthritis a bit angry, and the repeated bending over to pick up the tennis ball can make my GERD get riled up. Last time I played tennis, I ended up with hip pain and a reflux attack - it wasn't fun. :( So yeah, I've tried, but tennis just isn't my sport.

Yoga, I think you have to have the right personality type or at least be in the right mindset to be able to relieve stress and emotion. Personally I need a much more intense workout to get my stress out - that's why I love lifting weights so much, as that's the best stress-relief and anti-depressant for me. I tend to bottle things up (I'm trying to be better about that, but that's my natural inclination) so in an intense workout, it's like the bottle opens up and releases all the pressure - the actual issue doesn't necessarily go away, but it becomes far easier to deal with. I don't really get that from yoga - don't get me wrong, I feel good after a yoga workout, but I don't get that "Ahhhhhh" feeling of leaving my emotions and stress in the gym like I do when I lift weights.

I had a co-worker ask me if I meditate, and I laughed and said no. I'm way too antsy, I can't sit still and do nothing like that. My mind is always going, I don't think I could shut it up even if I tried just by sitting still. But with weight lifting, my mind does kind of shut up. Or at least it quiets down enough because it has to use its full energy to concentrate on what I'm doing. I need to count reps, focus on my form and my breathing, talk myself into doing another rep or couple of reps when I start to feel like I maybe can't do another, etc. That to me is the closest I get to meditation. I guess with meditation and with yoga, there's not enough going on for my mind to be able to focus. With weights, though, I can focus - my workout takes up all my brain capacity and there's no room for noise or outside stuff. Maybe that's weird, I don't know. It's like a body workout and a mind workout. I think that's what other people get out of yoga, and I get it from weights.

Anyway, I'm rambling again. I should give an update. I feel a bit sore today from my workout yesterday, but I don't feel pain - the quad still feels good. My guts are a bit upset, I've had some d and my guts just generally feel a bit unhappy. My hemorrhoids aren't super happy either (because of the d, I'm sure). I was thinking of riding my bike tonight, but now I'm not sure if that's such a good idea. I'll probably play it by ear and see how I'm feeling later today. I could always just go for a short ride to see how that goes. Or I could decide that I'm just not up for a bike ride tonight and I can always walk my dog instead. Once again we're having a really nice day weather-wise, so I will get outside and do something, I just have to listen to my body and figure out what would be best.
 
No, squash is far more violent than tennis: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squash_(sport)

Or at least it was when we played it at school and used to hit the ball through the ceiling of the squash court.

Edit: According to Wikipedia, it provides a good workout:

Squash provides an excellent cardiovascular workout. In one hour of squash, a player may expend approximately 600 to 1000 food calories (3,000 to 4,000 kJ).[1] The sport also provides a good upper and lower body workout by utilising both the legs to run around the court and the arms and torso to swing the racquet. In 2003, Forbes rated squash as the number one healthiest sport to play.[1] However, some studies have implicated squash as a cause of possible fatal cardiac arrhythmia and argued that squash is an inappropriate form of exercise for older men with heart disease.[13]
Click to expand...

But it would probably have the same problems for you as tennis.

I can't meditate either. Maybe because I have had so many times of extreme boredom (e.g. weeks in hospital) sitting still and doing nothing is very unappealing to me.
 
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Oh, squash is racquetball! I have only played that once, years ago when we belonged to a fancy expensive gym for a short time (I now belong to a cheaper, more bare-bones gym that doesn't have a racquetball court). I do recall it being very tiring so I'm sure it is a good workout. But yeah, with my issues with tennis, I'm presuming I'd have the same issues with racquetball, and I don't even have access to a racquetball court anymore so I can't try it out regardless.

Doing nothing is unappealing to me, too. Even when I'm just sitting and watching TV, I need to be doing *something*. So I crochet - it keeps my hands and my mind busy enough that I'm not antsy, but I can still watch TV while I'm crocheting, and I end up with a usable item when I'm finished, so it's a win all around. I'm working on a dog blanket right now to donate to a corgi group - it'll be raffled off at a local corgi picnic in September. Last year they didn't have a lot of great stuff to raffle off, and they donate all the money from the raffle to a corgi rescue, so I volunteered to contribute something to the raffle to help them out. I also sometimes crochet scarves and hats, and there's a woman at work who donates that type of thing to a local cancer center, so I will make a bunch of stuff and then give it all to her to donate. It feels nice to make things for a good cause. And it keeps me busy and stops me from getting bored and antsy when I'm watching TV. The only problem is that I'm practically a yarn addict at this point! :p Whenever I buy more yarn, my husband is like, really? You needed more yarn even though you have like a metric ton of it already? Ha ha.
 
Another quick update for today: Have I mentioned yet that I'm a bit addicted to buying workout clothes? :p I bought myself another sports bra today. Because apparently 3 black ones were not enough and I needed a 4th, ha ha.

My guts have settled - I haven't had any d since first thing this morning and things feel far less grumbly. I think that's my body giving me the green light to do a bicycle ride tonight. I'm downloading Map My Ride as it was recommended to me by brooklyn23, so I'm going to give that app a try. It looks like it tracks where you ride, what distance you ride, your speed, etc. All very useful stuff so hopefully that will work well for me - when I log my exercise into my fitbit dashboard, it wants to know that sort of information, particularly distance when it comes to bike rides, and I hate to guesstimate. I used to have an odometer/speedometer thing on my bike, but it was never very accurate and then it broke altogether, so an app seems like the way to go. My hubby had the day off work today so I asked him to get my bike road-ready - put air in the tires, lube up the gears, etc. So I should be all set to go for a ride! :)
 
Update 4/17/15: I did go for a bike ride last night. On a spur of the moment, I asked the hubby if he wanted to come with me, and he actually said sure! (I've asked him numerous times in the past if he wants to go on a bike ride with me and he always laughs and says no like it's the most preposterous idea ever - how ridiculous, going on a bike ride!) So I was shocked to the core when he actually said he'd go for a ride with me! He has a bike that he's never ridden ever. :p It's not a new bike, it's something used that a friend gave to us years ago and it's just sat in our basement ever since. Hubby dusted it off, put air in the tires, greased up the gears, and it seemed good to go.

I was hoping to do 6-8 miles, but we didn't make it that far. We got a couple miles out and had to turn around. I had been pedaling slowly and leisurely but hubby was still having a hard time keeping up with me (he clearly needs to work on his cardio!). After a couple miles, he turned into such a whiny whiner - he said, "My legs are tired and my butt hurts and I want to go home!" Such a baby. Ugh, fine, so we went home. When we got home, the app on my phone said that we rode a total of 3.37 miles. That's a much shorter distance than I had wanted to go. I told hubby to make his bike more ride-able - his bike seat is apparently very uncomfortable (hence the butt pain) so he'll be looking at other bike seats and I may just buy him a gel seat like the one I have if he's serious about going for more bike rides with me (I suspect he won't go for many or any more rides with me). So, I had a short ride but it wasn't because of my health! My guts felt okay (abs felt a bit sore but I didn't have any d or cramping or anything) and my hemmies were pain-free - my gel seat is indeed awesome. :)

Tonight hubby and I are going to the big gym - I looooove going there on Friday nights as it's usually dead quiet, for some reason the gym is not a popular Friday night hot spot (personally I'd way rather go to the gym than a bar or a club!). Tomorrow I think I'm going to take my dog out to a different park for some hiking through the woods - the weather is supposed to be lovely tomorrow and a hike sounds really nice. Sunday hubby has to work so I'll hit the big gym by myself.
 
Update 4/20/15: I went to the big gym Friday night with hubby. It's been awhile since we both went there together (last time was before I started bleeding out my backside, so it had been well over a month). I felt very good, very strong and a lot of energy, and was able to push myself to do everything - my quad didn't make a peep so I'm presuming it's fully healed now. I did feel very refluxy at the end of weights/beginning of stretching - I had to make sure I was upright and drinking water to coax my stomach contents back down my throat. That's never pleasant but it is a sign of a good workout. :p We went out to dinner after our workout and we both had salads. I scarfed mine down, and I did feel a tad bit crampy afterwards, but other than the very mild crampiness I didn't have any repercussions. I must really be in remission if I can eat salads with relatively no problem! :)

Saturday, I woke up feeling kind of awful. Head was pounding with pain and I was fairly nauseous - I'm thinking it was a migraine. In spite of that, I had stuff I wanted to do so I pushed through it. I went around and hit some garage sales Saturday morning. Then I took my dog on a hike. I felt okay while walking around - I felt the worst when I was driving in the car, oddly enough. It was like, the vibration of being in the car did really bad things to my head, but walking around somehow made it feel a bit better. Weird.

Sunday I felt a fair bit better - the headache was still there but was far less bad than it had been on Saturday. So I hit the big gym for weights again. I felt less energetic than I had on Friday, but I was still able to do everything I had wanted to. And, I still had enough energy afterwards to be able to walk my dog, too. So all in all I had a very active weekend in spite of having a migraine for a good chunk of it. I was pretty pleased with my ability to push through the pain and accomplish what I had wanted to.

Today I think is going to be a rest day - I feel a bit sore, particularly my back is sore, so I'm not going to push things today. Tomorrow I'll go to the little gym for weights - I put some new songs in my playlist and am very excited to rock out in the gym. :) Wednesday, not sure - maybe a bike ride or a walk with my dog if it's nice outside. Thursday, going to the big gym for weights after work with hubby. Friday not sure, and Saturday I have to work at an event (overtime pay, woo hoo) but I'm hoping to squeeze in a weights workout on Saturday after work - I only have to work for a few hours in the morning, thank goodness, so hopefully I'll have enough energy left over for a workout that afternoon. I may get a massage at some point this week for my aching back - just have to see if/when my massage therapist is available.
 
Update 4/21/15: I did rest yesterday and that helped quite a bit. My back feels much better today (which is good because we still can't get ahold of my massage therapist, hah). I'm heading to the little gym soon for a weights workout.

It's been a day of good things happening which is a bit weird since good things don't usually happen to me! :p My hubby had a job interview this morning (he really really really really needs a decent full-time job), and apparently they liked him, because they already asked him to come back for a 2nd interview! This job is even in his field (graphic design/animation) so it would be incredibly wonderful if he gets the job. I'm really trying not to get my hopes up too much or even think about it. I just need to be distracted until the 2nd interview is over with.

The other good thing is, I got something to distract me with! My boss wanted to give me something nice to thank me for helping out at the work banquet the other weekend. So we have this system at work where you get points and get to pick out a prize with your points, and my boss gave me a bunch of points today. I got enough points to get a road bike! I've been really wanting a road bike lately. Don't get me wrong, I love my current bike that I bought a couple years ago - it's a comfort bike style (similar to a cruiser) and it's made more for casual, shorter rides. Road bikes are lighter and faster and made for longer rides. So now I'll have multiple bikes for multiple purposes - if I want to take a longer ride then I can head out on my road bike, or if I'm just doing a short ride like riding to the gym then I'll take my comfort bike. Win-win!

For reference, here are the two bikes I'm talking about. This is the comfort bike that I currently have:
http://www.amazon.com/Schwinn-Prest...p/B00279A0NE/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8

This is the road bike that I'm getting:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BD45U8E/ref=twister_B004W8LG1S

Green with blue tires! It's so flashy, I love it! It seems to get good reviews, too. Yes, it's a men's bike, but I don't particularly care. It's made to fit a human of my height which is the more important part. I'll likely add on a couple of things - a water bottle cage and a gel seat cover, I'm thinking (or maybe get some padded bike pants?). I'll want to keep it light though when I'm riding so I won't add too much on. My comfort bike has a fair amount of add-ons including a basket - I'll skip the basket when it comes to the road bike. :p I'm so excited though! From the reviews, it sounds like it's a good road bike for a novice/non-pro, and I'm definitely solidly in the novice category. I can't wait to ride it! My one concern is that it's a single gear bike, but hopefully it's fast enough that it doesn't matter too much.
 
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Update 4/22/15: I went to the gym yesterday and pushed myself and had a good workout. Today I feel a bit sore. I am also exhausted and my back is a bit painful again - maybe painful is the wrong word, but it's a bit stiff & sore and not super happy. I think I'm going to do a fairly easy short ride on the stationary bike tonight. I'd love to go for a bike ride outside, but it's so cold! In the past couple days it went from 70 degrees and sunny, down to 30s and snowing. Brrr! So an indoor workout is definitely going to be best today. And I won't push myself too much tonight since I pushed myself yesterday and I plan to push myself in the gym tomorrow too.

I hope it's just the change in the weather, but I sort of feel like I'm coming down with a cold. I hope I'm not and it's just my body being grumpy about the weather. At any rate, I'm having tea and I'm going to have some soup later. Trying to keep warm and be nice to my body. If I feel worse tonight then I'll probably skip the bike, but as it stands now I think I could do an easy 30 mins on the bike without trouble. I'm not coughing or anything, I just feel a bit chilled and run-down. So between my back and feeling sick-ish, I'm not having a great day. I'll probably do the bike tonight and then have a hot bath and go to bed early. Hopefully tomorrow is a better day.
 
Another quick update for today: My guts have been a bit unsettled today (not uncommon for me when I'm under the weather), and a little while ago when I wiped my backside, I noticed a tiny bit of blood on the TP. It's probably nothing/hemmies/fissure, but still - with the run-down "I'm maybe coming down with something" feeling and now a bit of blood, I've re-assessed and I think I should rest rather than do the stationary bike tonight. It's so cold out, I'm going to rest & hibernate. I'm thinking chicken soup is on the agenda in addition to the hot bath and going to bed early.
 
Update 4/23/15: I'm still feeling somewhat run-down and exhausted today. Not quite as bad as yesterday, but not great either. Also my joints are a bit achey, not sure what's going on with that as it's no longer raining/snowing. My hips are just a little bit achey, my lower back is still sore and my knees are now acting up too. I feel pretty blah.

I was hoping to go to the gym tonight, but I just don't see that happening with how I feel. So I'm going to do a scaled-back weights workout at home with my dumbbells. I also have a weight bench, a balance board, and a yoga ball, so with all those things I can still do a fairly decent workout. But it won't be as long or as intense as it would be in the gym. I'll just do what I can manage to do.

I can't be this exhausted, it's only Thursday and I have to work on Saturday too (another 6-day work week, but at least I get overtime pay for Saturday). Saturday is going to be absolutely miserable. There's a local running/walking race that morning, and my company is going to have a booth set up near the finish line. But the weather is supposed to be bad, with temps in the low 40s and quite a bit of rain so that's going to suck. I'm going to freeze and be miserable. My joints hurt (more) just thinking about it. And no, they don't cancel this event if it rains, so I have to go no matter what. Ugh. At least the event is only in the morning, so I can spend Saturday afternoon bundled in a blanket with a mug of hot tea.
 
Update 4/24/15: I was able to do a pretty decent workout last night at home with my dumbbells. I also on a whim went out and bought a kettlebell, so I did a few things with that too. My back still feels a bit sore today although the soreness is higher (more upper back, where it's been my lower back feeling sore the past few days). Finally got ahold of my massage therapist but of course he's not free anytime soon, so no massage for Cat. Ugh, oh well.

Tomorrow is the work event where I have to go stand outside in the rain and wind and cold and be miserable for a few hours. :p If the rain and cold don't utterly kill my joints then I will see about doing a workout Saturday afternoon/evening, but I'll just be playing it by ear until then. If I can't manage a workout on Saturday, then the goal is to go to the gym Sunday. Monday, I have an ultrasound of my liver (I have some benign tumors on it that have taken a backseat to my other health issues, so it's been a few years since we checked on my liver and it really needs to be looked at again to see if the tumors have grown/changed any). I can't plan my workouts much in advance since I'm waiting to see what tomorrow does to my joints.

Oh, but some good news - my new road bike has shipped and is arriving on Monday! I'm so excited! If I can get hubby to assemble it right away then I'll hopefully be able to go for a ride early next week. I bought myself a few accessories for it already - new lock, gel seat cover, and a water bottle cage. I've also got one of those small under the seat storage bags on my comfort/cruiser bike, and I'm going to transfer that to the road bike for a bit of storage (my comfort bike has a basket so it doesn't really need the under seat bag too). Super excited for my new bike! I can't wait to try it out!
 
Yep, definitely! We do have ponchos and umbrellas, but I have a feeling I'm still going to get soaked by the rain tomorrow. I'm going to dress in layers for sure - I have a moisture-wicking long-sleeve workout top that I can wear as my base layer, so hopefully that'll keep me mostly warm and dry, and I have a raincoat that I can put on top of that. For pants, I'm not sure yet. Probably workout pants as jeans are just going to get soaked and heavy. I have some jogging leggings that might be somewhat rain-resistant. At any rate, I'm really not excited about tomorrow. I'm getting overtime pay and I can't back out so I'm just going to have to grin and bear it and think happy thoughts about a slightly larger paycheck!
 
Update 4/27/15: I survived the work event on Saturday! And the best part, it didn't even rain! It was very cold and windy though. I had to keep moving the whole time to keep warm, so I was very active that day just because of that. As a result, I ended up not going to the gym. But I did get my 10,000 steps in just by dancing/bouncing/walking in place to keep warm! :p

Sunday the weather was much nicer and we ended up doing a lot of yard work. I cleared out a lot of dead leaves & plants from the yard and again was very active but didn't go to the gym. We also did a lot of walking as we had to run some errands. So I stayed active the whole weekend without actually setting foot in the gym or lifting a weight.

Today I am headed to the gym for weights. Tonight I think I will walk my dog, too. The weather looks really nice this week, sunny and warmer, so I hope to get outside as much as possible. My new road bike should arrive today, and if my hubby can put it together today/tonight then I am definitely taking it out for a ride tomorrow! :D So excited that I finally am going to have a road bike.

The plan for the week: Monday weights and walk with dog, Tues bike if it's been assembled (if not then I'll probably walk my dog), Weds weights and maybe walk with dog, Thurs bike ride if I didn't get to take one on Tues (otherwise maybe a rest day or walk with dog), Fri weights. Sat not sure and Sun I have a family thing to go to so I'll have to figure out how to fit in some workouts somewhere in there.
 
Another quick update for today: I hit the weights and felt very good. Like an "Ahh, I needed that" feeling. :) Also, my new bike arrived!! I'm going to make hubby assemble it so that I can go on a ride tomorrow evening. Now I just have to decide where to ride on my inaugural road bike excursion! By the lake? By the other lake? Through the arboretum? Ooh, maybe the arboretum. It's a bit hilly in there and that will be a good test of how I do on a single speed road bike - the hills might kill me or they might be okay, I'm really not sure! It will be an interesting test ride!
 
Update 4/28/15: Got my new bike put together so I'm going for a ride tonight! :D Very excited. I had ordered a few accessories for it - lock, gel seat cover, and water bottle cage - and I'm still waiting on the water bottle cage. So I'm not sure how I'm going to transport a bottle of water with me on my ride - I might just throw on a lightweight backpack and put a water bottle in there, although that's not super ideal. I do need water on a ride so I guess it'll have to do for now.

The weather is looking so nice, they're saying it's going to be 75 degrees and sunny on Saturday! I'm thinking about taking the kayak out that day. Hubby's not so sure about that idea (it's a 2-person kayak so I need him, I can't paddle that behemoth by myself). He thinks the water in the local creeks will still be way too cold and that we'll freeze every time we get splashed. I think it'll be okay - yes, the water will be cold but it's not like we're going to die of hypothermia when it's 75 and sunny. The water will probably just feel refreshing or at worst a little uncomfortable. So I'm trying to argue my case to him that we should go kayaking. Hopefully I can convince him by Saturday.
 
Another quick update for today: I forgot to mention, I did walk my dog last night. It was only about 60 degrees out at the most, so not overly warm at all but even so she got a bit overheated (my dog looooves cold weather and hates anything even remotely warm, she just cannot deal with warm weather). I gave her some water to drink and that seemed to help her cool down, but she drank the water so fast that it gave her some diarrhea. Other than that, it was a nice walk. We met up with her corgi friends and they played around a bit. I was proud of my dog - her friends were rolling around in something gross. So my dog went over to sniff and investigate it. But instead of also rolling in whatever it was, she just peed on it and moved on. I was like, Good dog! Thank you for not making me give you a bath! :p

Oh, and I'm not going kayaking on Saturday after all. Hubby got asked to work this weekend, and we need the money so he'll be working. I'll probably take a bike ride or a walk with my dog instead on Saturday then (I'll have to walk her early or late in the day when it's not as warm out!). I want to get a rowing machine so that I can get my arms into kayaking shape (my arms do a lot of weights but far less cardio, so they're strong but are a bit lacking in the stamina department). So maybe I'll look around for a cheap/used rowing machine this weekend.
 
Update 4/29/15: I took the road bike out for a ride yesterday. Didn't go too far, about 7 miles. It's definitely a much different bike than my cruiser! My cruiser has 7 gears, the road bike is a fixed gear (single gear) bike. So hills were a bit difficult. Not crazy bad, but I'm definitely going to have to build up my stamina more if I want to take it out on longer/hillier rides. The brakes on the road bike are also a bit of an issue. I can sit more upright or more hunched forward depending on where my hands are on the handles. If I'm sitting more upright then my hands aren't near the brakes. If I lean forward more then my hands are near the brakes but then I feel not totally comfortable (it feels like it puts some strain on my back). So I ended up opting to sit sort of in the middle, with hands relatively near the brakes but also not straining my back too much. And the brakes aren't super tight (I've asked the hubby to tighten them up if he can) - as it is right now, I have to squeeze the brakes quite a lot to get the bike to slow/stop. That's not ideal and I actually had one incident during my ride where I couldn't reach the brakes in time and then couldn't squeeze them hard enough in time, I nearly ended up being hit by a car! (Fortunately the car saw me coming and he stopped, but it was scary for a second.) I definitely need to do a few tweaks on this bike, namely tightening up the brakes, and I also need to get myself more used to where the brakes are and practice stopping more quickly.

I obviously need to build up my core strength more, too. After my ride, both my back and my lower abdomen were both not super happy, and my abs are SORE today. I ended up having a couple episodes of d last night and another this morning. Not sure if that is due to the bike ride, or the fact that it's my "time of the month" (the d was accompanied by cramping that felt like period cramps). I'm guessing it's probably a bit of both. If I can go on regular rides and get my core stronger, I think that'll help a lot. Right now I'm thinking my next ride might be a ride to the gym on Friday evening - I'll do one of my favorite things which is ride to the gym fast (that serves as my warm-up), then do weights and stretching at the gym, and then ride home slowly and leisurely (that's my cool-down). I can't decide if I want to take my cruiser bike or my road bike to the gym. I'm leaning towards the cruiser bike - the gym isn't far, it's 3 or 4 miles each way and that's a good distance for a cruiser. And there are a few hills - after yesterday's ride, I'm not in a big rush to ride on hills with a fixed gear bike again! I know I should keep doing that as it'll get easier the more I do it, but with how my abs feel right now, I just need a short break from the road bike. :p

Today I'm going to the little gym for weights. I'm going to skip the abdominals machine and try to be really nice to my abs. No planks, no crunches either. Tomorrow is likely is going to be a rest day - I feel like I need a bit of a rest. Friday as I mentioned will be a bike to the gym day. Saturday, not sure yet. I'll have to see how my abs are feeling after my bike-gym-bike on Friday.
 
Another quick update for today: I decided against going to the gym today after all. My guts are not happy - I had another episode of d and my abs are sore and my legs are tired and my back isn't great. I'm going to rest today and go to the gym tomorrow instead. So now I'm not sure about Friday, but Saturday I'll do bike-gym-bike.
 
Update 4/30/15: Frustrated! Yet another setback. Last night I was reaching for something, and I don't know what I did but I must have moved just a bit wrong, and now my left bicep & shoulder area have some pain. I somehow tweaked something. It's more in the shoulder but a bit in the bicep too. It's not super painful but it's clear that something isn't right. So, I'm skipping the gym today as well. :( Feeling rather depressed about having to miss 2 workouts in a row. I was having such a good streak there for awhile. At any rate, hopefully whatever this is heals up as quickly as my quad did. And hopefully after this I can manage to avoid injuring myself for awhile! Ugh.

This pain actually isn't unfamiliar to me - I seem to recall similarly tweaking my shoulder (not even sure if it was the left or the right) a few years ago. I only have a vague recollection of it, but it seems to me that it healed quickly back then. So maybe I just re-injured an old injury, but at any rate, if this is something I've had happen before then hopefully it heals as fast as it did last time.

And the good news is, I don't have to skip exercise altogether. It's just my shoulder, so I could still walk with my dog or ride the stationary bike (I don't trust my shoulder's ability to keep me stable enough on my actual bike right now, so the stationary bike will have to suffice for a bit). And I can do lunges, squats, anything to do with the lower half of my body. Just going to take it easy on my shoulder for a bit. My abs are actually feeling mostly fine - I'm still having some d though - so I'll be taking things easy for a bit longer on my abdominals as well. Long story short, I think today will be another rest day just to be on the safe side, and if the shoulder is still iffy tomorrow then I'll probably do the stationary bike to at least get in some form of a workout. Will play it by ear and see how I'm feeling.
 
Update 5/1/15: The shoulder is slowly improving - there's much less pain today than yesterday. It's still definitely not 100% yet so the gym is still not happening, but the weather is super nice so I feel like taking my dog for a long walk should happen tonight (I'll hold her leash with my good arm of course!). I still don't trust the shoulder enough to go on a bike ride, so walking it is.
 
Update 5/4/15: My shoulder gradually started feeling better day by day. Saturday, we did a lot of yard work and my shoulder was fine with that - we did a lot of digging (digging up plants and moving them to other areas of the yard, plus digging up a lot of weeds) and the shoulder was quiet.

Sunday hubby had to work and I went to lunch with my grandparents. I got home early enough though that I felt like I had time to do a workout before hubby got home, and my shoulder felt good enough to lift weights. So I rode my new bike to the gym, lifted, and rode home. That was a great workout! I was concerned as my abdominal muscles don't always like bike rides, but I had ordered online this thing that I was hoping would help. It's a neoprene waist support thing. It's made for working out - it's intention is that you wear it during exercise, and the neoprene doesn't breathe which makes your abdominal area sweat a ton, so in theory you lose some water weight around your midsection and it helps you trim down. Although I do have a bit of a jiggle belly thanks to corticosteroids, I wanted it more for abdominal support. I thought, if I could just have my abs supported more during a bike ride, maybe they wouldn't be so sore and I wouldn't have d afterwards.

So I tried out the new waist support thing during my entire workout - I wore it on my bike on the way to the gym, I wore it in the gym while lifting, and I wore it on the bike ride home. It made my GERD a little unhappy (I definitely had some reflux but nothing I couldn't handle) and my belly area was definitely super sweaty afterwards! But most important, I think it really did help with the ab soreness issue. I had a little bit of cramping, but not bad at all and my abs feel fine today. So I consider that a success and I'll definitely be wearing that thing during bike rides in the future! :) Oh, and so that I remember it for future reference - it's exactly 3.26 miles from my house to the gym via bicycle (it's more like 4 miles via car, but it's a more direct route on my bike), so I rode a total of 6.52 miles yesterday.

My shoulder does feel a little bit painful today - not bad but just enough to be noticeable. Maybe I pushed it a tad too much yesterday with both bike and weights. Today's going to be much less intense, I'm just planning to walk my dog. Tomorrow if the shoulder is okay then I'll head down to the little gym on my lunch break for weights. Wednesday, I haven't decided yet - if it's not raining then I might take a bike ride. Thursday will likely be weights at the big gym with hubby. That's all tentative plans for now, it all of course depends on how my shoulder (and guts and arthritis and GERD and everything else) is doing.
 
Another quick update for today: Well, I guess my guts were a bit unhappy about the bike ride after all. I just went to the bathroom, and my poo was green. Like, St. Patrick's Day green. :p I did have a salad yesterday so I'm guessing that's the culprit. I've had a few salads lately and none of them have turned my poo green, so I'm guessing it's just a combo of salad & bike ride that did it. I will make a note of that, I shouldn't eat salad a few hours before a bike ride! But hey, if my rectal bleeding starts up again maybe I can coordinate the red with the green - it'll be like xmas in my toilet! :p
 
I still haven't tried beetroot with my ileostomy. Apparently it turns the output red so you can go to hospital and claim you're passing blood. :p
 
This site has an explanation for you:

Green stools

If stool passes through the intestine too quickly, there might not be enough time for bile to be digested and broken down to provide the normal brownish stool color. Bile is a greenish brown fluid that is manufactured in the liver and stored in the gallbladder. Bile helps digest fats in food. It takes time for the bile to degrade and turn brown in the intestine and if the transit time is short, the stool remains green colored. This is why diarrhea is often greenish in color.

Green stools may be a normal variant. It can also be caused by a diet rich in green vegetables, especially spinach. Iron supplements also may be a cause, though it often turns stool black.
Click to expand...

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/mobileart.asp?articlekey=87898
 
Thanks for the link, that's interesting - maybe it's a combo of my body wanting to have d (I had taken some Zofran yesterday which tends to firm things up quite a bit for me, so I didn't have d, but the bit of cramps indicated that my body was probably wanting to go in that direction) and the salad. I did have a lot of d after my first time out on the road bike, so maybe Zofran plus the waist support thing prevented that from happening? There wasn't spinach in the salad, I think it was mostly romaine lettuce - and my poo was almost exactly the color of romaine lettuce, so I think that's the main culprit. I definitely have had green poos a few times in the past and I think spinach has usually been the culprit there. Hah, maybe I'll try a spinach and beet salad to get red & green - or would those two colors just cancel each other out if I ate them at the same time? I know I can also sometimes get bits of red in my stool by eating strawberries or tomatoes, so I could have those with my spinach for some festive poos, ha ha. At some point maybe I'll just poo rainbows. :p
 
If you mix red and green together you end up with brown anyway. At least you do if it's paints that you're mixing, not sure about fruits and salad!
 
You know what, I just remembered what else I ate yesterday and I think it's the real culprit - I figured it was the salad because I was only thinking of green foods I ate, but I think I'm wrong. My hubby was given some cupcakes at his work yesterday and he brought a few home with him. They had bright blue frosting and I ate like 3 of them (they were small) - maybe that blue frosting somehow came out as green in my poo? That's seeming likely as the frosting was VERY blue and my poo was VERY green so I think somehow blue just turned into green as it digested or something along those lines. So it wasn't the salad at all nor was it related to my bike ride, since I ate the cupcakes after my ride. That's actually a bit of relief to realize it was probably the cupcakes - I've been enjoying being able to eat salad lately with few/no repercussions (at most, I've had a bit of cramping after a salad) so now I feel like I'm totally okay to continue eating salads.

(Update - I just got confirmation from my hubby, it was definitely the cupcakes. I texted him to see if his poo is also green and he said yes. He didn't eat a salad yesterday and he has no digestive issues whatsoever, but he did eat some cupcakes too. So that seems to be it for sure. Phew! Salad has been exonerated!)
 
I think it was just a lot of food coloring. And that seems to be a common thing with cupcakes - I seem to recall having read somewhere that red velvet cupcakes (which contain a lot of red food coloring) can turn the stool red and make people think they're passing blood. So, I guess I'm glad they weren't red velvet cupcakes! :p Having green poo wasn't nearly as worrying as having red poo would have been.

I should give a fitness update. Yesterday was mainly a rest day although I did walk my dog. Today I'm feeling okay - a bit tired but only because I haven't slept well the past couple of nights. I'm feeling well to do a workout, and sometimes working out gives me energy, so I'm looking forward to that. I'm going to hit the little gym in my workplace on my lunch break for weights. My shoulder gave me a bit of achiness yesterday but it feels okay today, so I think it's okay to lift weights.

It's raining today and it's supposed to rain most of the week. I'd love to do a bike ride tomorrow, but if it's raining then I'll stay in and either do yoga or the stationary bike. I'm leaning towards yoga as I just find the stationary bike so boring! Pedaling to nowhere with no change in scenery, it gets really dull. Watching TV while riding the stationary bike is a poor substitute for riding outside and seeing the actual world around me. So yeah, if it's raining tomorrow then it'll probably be a yoga day.
 
Another quick update for today: I hit the gym just now and it mostly went fine. My abdominal area was grumbling the whole time though - I think it was more my abs than my guts, but it could have been a bit of both. My abdominal area often gets sore and grumpy after a bike ride, and I had just done a ride on Sunday, so I'm presuming that's why.

So, I avoided abdominal exercises today and I've decided that regardless of tomorrow's weather, I'm not going on a bike ride tomorrow. I think I need to give that area a bit more time to recover before my next bike ride. So, I'm thinking yoga tomorrow. I might do yoga on my lunch break and then walk my dog after work if the weather allows. If it's raining then just yoga. (And obviously I'll avoid yoga poses which work the abdominal muscles too much!)
 
Update 5/7/15: Yesterday ended up being a rest day. I woke up yesterday morning feeling exhausted, the guts were just a bit iffy, and I sort of broke down a bit mentally. I had been exhausted all week and feeling burned out at work, and I just decided I couldn't do it that day. So I called in sick and rested all day.

But then last night I couldn't sleep and I got up feeling even more exhausted today. So I called in sick again (my boss knows I have IBD and I just told her I was having issues related to that, which is mostly true - I didn't tell her about feeling burned-out though). I guess I'm just going to rest again today and try to feel less exhausted tomorrow. I don't want to use up all my sick days so I am planning to go to work tomorrow and then maybe do more resting on the weekend. I managed to nap a bit this morning but I still feel exhausted. Not really sure what's going on, but my body is telling me to rest so I'm going to rest. I don't think it's a flare - I'm having some odd LLQ pain (my usual pain is in the LRQ). I think it's just one of those odd days where I don't feel quite right and it ended up spilling over into 2 days? Something is just a bit off and it's hard to pinpoint what.
 
Update 5/8/15: Still exhausted. Back at work today because I can't stand being at home doing nothing for more than a couple days at a time. Probably going to rest up most of the weekend. Gym plans are on hold until the exhaustion ebbs. I told my boss I might end up taking a nap at my desk at some point today, and she was cool with it (she's a pretty great boss and she has health issues herself so she understands).

I might do some gentle exercise like walk the dog tonight. I'm hoping that if I tire myself out enough, that maybe I'll actually be able to sleep (I haven't been sleeping well at all which I'm sure isn't helping the exhaustion any). Even the amitriptyline isn't knocking me out like it usually does. And lately when I do fall asleep, I wake up a zillion times during the night. It's not a restful nor deep sleep. If I could just SLEEP, I think that'd help a lot. I don't know why I can't sleep. I'm going to try eating a very light, mild dinner tonight in the hopes that that helps too. And if all else fails then I'll take a bunch of naps this weekend. Ugh.
 
I tried reading before bed last night and I could definitely feel my eyelids getting heavy, but when I turned off the light and settled in, I just couldn't sleep. I'm definitely tired, just can't seem to make the leap from tired to sleep right now for some weird reason. My guts aren't too happy today, either. I've only had some rice cakes, some rice, and a handful of Jolly Ranchers, but I still felt nauseous after eating. Bleh. I'm not having d nor any other flare symptoms (no chills, night sweats, etc) so I don't think this is a flare, but I don't really know what it is.
 

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