Cat's Exercise Diary

Crohn's Disease Forum

Help Support Crohn's Disease Forum:

LMV, I can eat carbs and protein just fine, but it seems unhealthy to me to eat basically the same thing every day. A typical day, like yesterday for example, I had a small breakfast - an Ensure and one of those "Skinny cow" chocolate bars. Tuna sandwich on white bread for lunch, chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner. It's bland and not particularly healthy. So instead of Ensure, I'll sometimes have fresh juice for breakfast and that makes me feel healthier - but I'm still having all that other bland, white stuff the rest of the day. I would love to have a salad but that's just not happening. If I have a snack, I used to snack on junk food (candy or potato chips) so lately I've been trying to swap out that stuff for healthier food (hence the cottage cheese). I seem to digest mango okay as well so sometimes I'll have a mango for a snack, but I can't have mango every day (it's expensive and not always available at the store) and most other fruits/veg/healthy foods cause me problems. Even in remission, my diet is so limited and so many foods still cause me trouble. So I still end up eating a lot of low-res foods because I know they're safe - they're not healthy though. Me being frustrated about one food causing me trouble, it's just another food to add to the long list of foods that cause me trouble. It's an ongoing frustration really.
 
LMV, I have not seen a dietician nor a nutritionist. It is probably something I should do, I'll add it to the long list of things I need to do to get my health on track. The list so far is: I need to get my arthritis figured out (what type of arthritis do I have, has it spread or worsened, etc), I need to get my brain figured out (do I have Asperger's or am I just introverted with OCD), I obviously need to get my guts figured out (do I have IBD for sure, and what type), I need to get my GERD figured out (why is my GERD so severe when my hiatal hernia is small and sliding), and I need to get my liver figured out (why do I have benign tumors on it, what caused them, do they need to be removed, etc). Phew! That's just the list off the top of my head, I'm sure there's more than that. That's the main stuff though.

Update 4/4/13: I rode the bike last night and did a full hour and that went okay. It didn't make me feel worse. I still feel pretty crappy today though, nauseous and having some d, but not bleeding any more. It depresses me when something like that happens, I'm not normally a bleeder and it's so worrisome when I do pass blood, even though it was just a little bit. I'm not flaring so it seems to be just a really bad reaction to food. I slept okay but I feel exhausted today, having any symptoms just takes the wind right out of my sails and fatigues me. Still, I'm not giving up. I told hubby we're going to the gym tonight regardless of how I feel. I have to try. As long as I don't pass out or puke in the gym, I'll consider it a success. Wish me luck!
 
Update 4/5/13. I feel much better today! I was still feeling yucky yesterday evening but decided I just had to try doing my workout, and I'm so glad I did. I had been feeling dizzy and weak, but I felt so much better as soon as I started working out. I took it a little bit easy (I avoided the abdominals machines). I felt so much better afterwards and am still feeling pretty good today. No more nausea, I haven't passed any blood yesterday nor today, and my bowels are getting back to normal. I still feel fairly tired, but I can sleep late over the weekend so I'm not too concerned about that. Tonight I'll ride the exercise bike. Today it's still kind of cold out, and tomorrow it's supposed to be warmer but rainy, so I just haven't had a good day yet where I can ride the bike outside.
 
Update 4/6/13: I feel great today, no tummy issues whatsoever. I did an hour on the exercise bike last night and was able to push myself and no issues there. I just got back from the gym and I did all the weights, including the abdominals machine, and that felt fine too. Oh, and tomorrow, it might be sort of warm (high temp 57 degrees) and it might not rain! So I may actually be able to ride my bike outside! Today it's about 60 out, but it's rainy and really windy, so no bike ride today. I'm optimistic about tomorrow though! Wish me luck!
 
Update 4/7/13: I was hoping to ride the bike outside today, but it's still too cold & windy for me. Boo! I walked the dog and got quite chilled, it's not quite feeling like springtime yet! I checked the forecast and it's supposed to rain all next week, yuck! So no bike ride outside in the near future for me. Sigh! At least I got outside, but I didn't enjoy it. :p I'll either ride the stationary bike or do some yoga tonight, depending on how tired I am. Hubby got called in to work today because his boss hurt her leg, so that leaves me to do all the stuff around the house today. Hm, I'm not liking this weekend! Bad weather and chores, no fun!
 
LMV, you're brave, ha ha. My neighbors next door have a bunch of kids, and their kids were all outside playing football (American football) all day today. I kept looking out the window and thinking they must be cold! I was too chilled from walking the dog, brr. I think it would be nice out if it weren't windy (and according to the weather report it wasn't supposed to be windy today, so that's upsetting), the sun is shining and it's trying to warm up, but the wind still has a frigid bite to it.
 
Haha, its been lovely and sunny the last few days but still cold. But this weekend its been a bit warmer. My parents were outside for a while so I thought I should go out. It was nice :)
 
Update 4/8/13: I did some yoga last night and that felt pretty good, but my back has been bothering me. It was aching off and on so I decided to do some yoga in the hopes that it would stretch out my back and make me feel better, but it's still aching. I get these lower back pains sometimes where it kind of feels like my back isn't fitting together quite right, like something's just a bit out of place. If I move in certain ways then the spot that doesn't fit right feels pinched and I get some sharp pains. I'm going to mention all this to the rheumy when I finally have my appointment (in July). So yeah, yoga didn't help my back and it's still iffy today. I'm still planning on hitting the gym tonight for weights though. There's a lower back machine at the gym and I'm debating whether or not I want to risk doing that machine or not. But I'll do everything else for sure.

I think I need a massage again soon too. I'm really lucky - a friend of ours is a massage therapist, and for friends & family he'll make house calls AND charge a reduced rate, so for $25 I can have someone I trust come to me and give me a nice long massage. He isn't always available though as he works long hours and he lives in another city, so I can only get massages when he's around.
 
Update 4/9/13: I'm depressed today. That thing about Asacol being discontinued has got me in a funk. I've been taking Asacol for close to 2 years and it's helped keep me in remission and has worked pretty well overall - I would rather stay on it, but I can't now that the manufacturer has stopped making it, and there's no generic. I'm worried about switching meds, I really want to stay in remission and don't want to deal with possible side effects of a new med, etc. So I'm feeling upset about that. It's also raining and very gloomy here today which is not helping my mood at all.

I'm planning on riding the bike tonight but I don't know if it'll help. I was feeling really depressed yesterday about the Asacol thing too, and I hit the gym hard and pushed myself and worked harder than I usually do, then I ate some of my favorite comfort food afterwards. But I still couldn't shake the depresed/upset/nervous feeling about switching meds. Oh, and my lower back is hurting more today than it was yesterday, that's just swell. I had to go to my GP to get more x-rays done of my arthritic hip, as I'm being referred to rheumatology finally and rheumatology wanted updated x-rays. Lying on that hard x-ray table seemed to throw my back even more out of whack somehow. Walking hurts quite a bit today. That's not helping my mood either.

So yeah, long story short I'm feeling very blah. Still going to exercise but my heart really isn't in it today. Just going to have to fake some enthusiasm I guess and make myself do it.
 
Update for 4/10/13: I'm feeling more chipper today, more like my old self again. My GI emailed me back and we're working out the Asacol issue. I'm going to try Asacol HD, even though it's somewhat a different thing and is stronger. I hope it goes okay. I'm less anxious now that I have a plan anyway. I rode the bike last night but I really didn't want to. I made myself ride for 30 mins, that was all I could manage. Then afterwards I did about 10 mins of hula hooping. I'm trying to incorporate more abdominal exercises any way I can, and hooping is fun and still pretty easy on the tummy. I have a regular (okay, children's) hula hoop which is really light and easy to use, and then I have a heavier (adult) hoop that has these like massage ball things built into it. It's supposed to massage your belly as you hoop, but it kind of hurts. I just got it the other week so I'm hoping that the more I use it, the more I'll get used to it and the less it'll hurt. It's not so much pain I guess as discomfort. Mini massage balls on a hula hoop sounded like such a good idea but it just doesn't work very well in reality I think. I'll keep trying with it though. I like that that hoop is heavier, it gives me a better workout and makes me work harder to keep the hoop up. My other hoop requires hardly any effort at all to keep up, it's easy and I could do it forever. And while that's fun, I don't think it's doing me much good in terms of fitness.
 
hehe, I enjoyed your little hoop ramble! :p
As for the asacol thing, annoying you have to change. Whats the difference between asacol and pentasa?
I was on pentasa for a few years and I really liked it. Didn't get any side effects. I had the sachets so I just poured it out onto my tongue and swallowed it. My current GI took me off it though because he said it doesn't do anything for crohn's.
 
My understanding is, Asacol and Pentasa are the same basic drug, but work on different areas of the digestive tract. Pentasa mainly works on the small intestine, Asacol works on the terminal ileum & colon. Since I'm still not fully diagnosed, my GI feels I have IBD but we really don't know where it's located. My main "pain spot" is in the LRQ, so I feel like it's probably in or near the TI. My GI has a hunch that I have microscopic colitis, so he feels I have colon involvement. So Asacol works on both places that my GI and I feel my illness might be hiding, and Asacol's been working well for me. Entocort worked well too, and that also works mainly in the TI and colon. So we still don't know what type of IBD I have, but logically it pretty much has to be in the TI and/or colon!

That's odd that your GI would say Pentasa doesn't work for Crohn's - unless you don't have Crohn's in the small intestine? Is it just in your colon? It is a mild med, so it doesn't work for everyone, and it probably won't stop a flare, but it's pretty decent for remission maintenance. Asacol has been keeping me in remission, 2 years and counting now. :)
 
Update 4/11/13: Hubby and I hit the gym last night and did really well. I had a bad GERD attack though, that was the closest I've been in a long time to vomiting! I managed to keep it all in and didn't puke, but I was refluxing heavily into my mouth and that was not fun. I kept drinking water to try to get it back down but it just came right back up. Yuck! It seems ridiculous that I take 300 mg Zantac (ranitidine) and 8 to 10 Tums just before working out, but I still sometimes reflux that badly anyway during my workout.

Oh, and I've been noticing some issues with my gym. When stuff breaks, it's like they just leave it rather than fix it. One of the bathroom stalls in the ladies' room has had an "out of order" sign on it for literally at least 2 months. A lightbulb burned out by the drinking fountain weeks ago and hasn't been replaced. Now one of the weight machines is broken with an "out of order" sign on it, who knows when that'll be fixed? There's been a lot of stuff like that lately at the gym. So I messaged my gym's facebook page telling them about all this stuff. They actually responded immediately, apologized, and said they'd get upper management working on it. I was pleased with that response - now to see if they actually follow through. I'm going to the little gym tomorrow so I'll be back at the big gym on Sunday. What are the odds that anything is fixed by Sunday? I'll be interested to see!
 
Lol, When I was at the gym the other day, a guy was doing an induction for two girls and I kept hearing him say "this is out of order at the moment" "this bit doesn't work at the moment". I haven't noticed it with anything I want to use yet.
 
Do they actually eventually fix the broken equipment at your gym, LMV? Because they never seem to fix it at my gym, although maybe they will now that I said something. That ladies' room bathroom stall is the worst though, there's only like 2 other bathroom stalls in there and tons of people go to my gym, so either you have to wait to use the bathroom or sometimes it's really gross because they haven't cleaned in a few hours. Either way, it's inexcusable to leave one stall broken for months on end. But they put fresh flowers in vases in the ladies' room every day, so I know the staff is going in there, and they're spending money on the flowers - in my fb message to the gym I did say I'd rather they fix things than buy flowers. :p
 
Update 4/12/13: My lower back has been killing me! I don't know if it's arthritis or what. It kind of feels like the pain spreads from my lower back to my right hip, so I think it's either referred arthritis pain from my hip, or maybe the arthritis has spread to my lower back? Either way, it sucks. It's been raining every day which is probably aggravating the arthritis (my hip usually hurts when it snows - this is a different pain though so I don't know for sure).

So, with the back pain, I decided against riding the bike last night and opted to do yoga instead. Somehow that actually seemed to make the back pain worse! So then I sat in a hot bath. That also frustratingly made the back pain worse. I'm getting a massage tonight so with my luck that'll also make it worse - hopefully not though! My heating pad does seem to help it though so at least I've found one thing that helps. I'm going to hit the little gym today before my massage, so hopefully that doesn't do further damage. I'm going to rest up most of the weekend although I will work out at some point, so hopefully getting some rest will do me good too.
 
Update 4/15/13. I haven't updated in a couple of days. I had a rough weekend with lots of arthritis pain, and also a really nasty sinus headache. And to top it all off, I got a letter from my GP with the results of my recent x-rays. He says I now have arthritis in both hips, although it still looks to be mild. I've been having sharp (not mild!) lower back pains, which feels like it might be referred hip pains but I don't know. My rheumatology appointment isn't until mid-July so 3 more months to wait.

*sigh* I feel like such an old lady since I found out that both my hips are now bad. It's depressing. I'm only 33. This just shouldn't happen. I've been exercising every day, even when the pains are bad. I had hoped that regular exercise would prevent the arthritis from spreading/worsening, but it hasn't. I'm still going to exercise of course, I know there are still lots of benefits to it, but this has taken a lot of the wind out of my sails. It's so frustrating - I've done everything I could to prevent this but it happened anyway. Two bad hips and I'm still fairly young - not cool, body.

Anyway. Gotta keep going, right? Can't let life get me down too much. I did weights yesterday and am doing the bike tonight. I still haven't been able to take my real bike out for a ride yet, it's been too cold/rainy/snowy/windy/you name it. Today it's almost sort of warm out but really windy, so I'll be on the exercise bike in my spare room as usual.
 
Update 4/16/13. As you can see from my last post, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself yesterday. That feeling stopped when I heard about the Boston marathon being bombed - what a horrible thing! I am not feeling so sorry for myself anymore, more just shocked and horrified. What a tragedy, so sad. My mom is a marathon runner and she's run Boston 4 times, but fortunately she wasn't there this year. I've been at the finish line cheering for her 2 of those 4 times. This could have easily happened to us, it hits so close to home. Scary, awful stuff. It's always such a happy atmosphere at a marathon finish line and I cannot fathom someone doing this. It's just terrible.
 
Update 4/17/13. Ugh, blah. This weather is killing me! Yeah, I'm back to feeling sorry for myself. :p Yesterday it was so nice out! It didn't rain at all, it was like the one day in recent memory where it didn't rain. And I had no arthritis pain, I could even walk the dog without pain. Today though it's right back to pouring rain all day, and my hip is hurting. Miserable! It's supposed to rain for at least 3 days so I just have to deal with the pain for awhile longer. I'm going to try to ride the bike tonight, wish me luck. If the pain is bad then I'll switch to yoga.
 
Update 4/18/13: Yesterday was a bad day. It poured rain all day and my arthritis was quite painful. I tried riding the bike, but only managed about 10 minutes and then just gave up, it just was not happening. I switched to yoga, did 30 mins of that and felt okay. Today it's overcast but not raining right now, and the arthritis feels better - it's still a little bit painful but so much better than it was. I got a really good night's sleep last night too so I feel better overall than I did yesterday. Lifting weights tonight! Can't let a bad day get me down, gotta keep going.

Oh, and for some weird reason, I actually gained about 4 lbs this week. I have no idea how. I haven't been snacking more than usual. Honestly when I get depressed or feel sick/in pain, I tend to not eat very much, so I have no clue how I gained weight! :p
 
I wish, sadly I don't put on muscle that much that fast! :p It would be awesome if I did though! I'm wondering if, just by me taking it a bit easier on bad arthritis days, maybe I didn't burn enough calories? 4 lbs is still a lot though, I only burn like 300 calories in an hour on the bike so I don't really think that's it either (it's what, like 5000 calories per lb or something like that?). I don't know. I'm going to chalk it up as being a fluke. My weight usually does fluctuate a little bit, like 1 to 2 lbs up or down, but 4 lbs is a little bit much. It still could be a fluke/normal fluctuation though I guess, so I have decided not to worry about it for now. If I keep on gaining then that'll be a problem though!
 
Its 3,500kcal per lb. I still wouldn't have thought it would make that much difference though, you never burn off as many calories as you think you deserve to when exercising!
Unless less exercise has effected your metabolism, again I wouldn't have thought it would make that much difference.
It could be water retention depending on what part of the month you are in?
I guess it could be a combination of all of these things!
 
Maybe I'm just retaining water because it's been raining so much lately. :p I'm just absorbing it through my pores or something. Ha ha. My period isn't due for another 10 days or so, so I don't think that could be it. You're probably right, just a combination of things. I'm just going to carry on working out and eating what I usually do and will keep an eye on things. I see my GI on Monday and he's always interested to hear what my weight is doing (he gets very concerned if I lose any weight at all) so if my weight is still being weird then I'll get his opinion on things.
 
Update 4/19/13: It snowed (!!) here all morning which made both my hips ache, but the weather seems better this afternoon so I'm feeling less achey now. I'm planning on riding the bike tonight. I did weights last night and that went fine, although the gym was really busy and crowded so I had to wait for a few machines to open up. I still was able to do everything I wanted to, though, so it worked out okay.

I will say, though, I'm a bit jealous of my hubby's ability to eat anything. When we go to the gym in the evenings, sometimes we're too tired afterwards to think of cooking dinner, so we go to this cute little cafe near our gym. Lately hubby has been ordering this amazing-looking salad at the cafe and I just drool whenever I see it - I miss salad! It just kills my guts though so I know I have to avoid it. And I know hubby is trying to eat healthier so I can't exactly complain to his face that he's eating a big salad in front of me, but it just kills me. I want to sneak bites of it but I know I'd pay for it. So yeah, we went to the cafe after our workout last night and he had his big beautiful salad and I had my bland, safe meal. *sigh!*
 
It's super windy here, cold, and yes - snow. It had been raining for about 2 weeks almost non-stop, then decided to snow today. It didn't stick, but it was enough to make the arthritis angry (and it's already been angry about the massive amounts of rain we've gotten). We had one nice day in the last 2 weeks, and that was the one day my arthritis didn't hurt. It was warm-ish, sunny, no rain, and it actually felt like springtime that one day! Today it feels like back to being winter again. :(

At least the snow didn't stick. I heard that in some parts of Minnesota, it did stick, and they got something like 5 inches of snow?! So I guess it could always be worse!
 
Update 4/20/13: So I didn't do anything yesterday. :p I was exhausted and decided to take a rest day, which I rarely take, so I don't feel too bad about it. Hubby said that we haven't had a date night in forever, so we decided to do that and we went out for a nice dinner and then did a little shopping. It was nice, it felt refreshing to break up my usual schedule.

Today it's right back to the gym. I'm feeling productive today and am going to rock my workout. :)
 
It was nice having a date night. :) We hardly ever go out for Chinese food but it sounded really good last night. It was cold & windy when we got to the restaurant. As soon as we sat down, it started snowing really hard! It looked like a blizzard outside. By the time we were done eating, the snow had stopped. It was nice to be indoors during the mini-snowstorm. As we were finishing our meal, the restaurant owner told us that the Boston PD found the bombing suspect and he turned on the TV so we could all watch. So yeah, it was a memorable evening!

Another quick update for today: I said I was going to rock my workout today, and I totally did. :) I pushed myself hard and I feel great. I also walked the dog today so I got in 2 forms of exercise - I guess that kind of makes up for my lack of ambition yesterday. I'm about to do even more too - hubby and I are remodeling our living room lately, and we're getting our new fireplace/mantel put in on Monday, plus we are getting a new couch and loveseat next week too (yay tax refund, ha ha) so we have to clean our living room and move most of our stuff to other rooms to make way for the new stuff. It's going to be so nice when it's finished but it's looking like a lot of work right now!
 
Update 4/22/13: So, remember when I said we were getting our living room remodel underway with today? There was a last minute change of plans, and now we have to wait a week. This is an inconvenience because we had already moved most everything out of our living room! And a lot of it was moved to our back bedroom, where my exercise bike is. This means some annoying inconvenience for the next week, as it'll be harder to get to where my bike is, and I can't do yoga right now (I do yoga on the Wii fit, and we disconnected the Wii when we moved everything). I guess I could do yoga without the Wii, but I like having the virtual instructor there to tell me what my muscles should be doing and how long to do it for, etc.

So, yeah, fun times. I'm going to try to keep my exercise schedule as best I can. It was cluttered but I did manage to ride the bike last night, and I'm headed to the gym tonight. I'll just do the best I can with the situation!

Oh, and this is kind of funny. I visited my grandparents yesterday. My grandmother is a hoarder, including a food hoarder. She has an upright freezer that is jam packed with food, and she decided she actually wanted to clean it out. Apparently "cleaning out the freezer" meant giving a ton of frozen food to me. She asked if I could eat turkey, and I said yes. So she gave me about 100 lbs of frozen turkey! (That's not even an exaggeration, she literally gave me dozens of packages of frozen turkey thighs.) I don't mind, it's frozen so it'll keep for awhile, and it'll all get eaten eventually (we often do turkey/chicken/duck in the crock pot) so yeah, now I have a huge supply of lean protein in my freezer. Yes, I will be eating turkey for dinner tonight when I get home from the gym! :p
 
That's great - I like a well stocked freezer. I make a list of what I have in the freezer downstairs and pin it on the fridge in the kitchen so I know what's down there.
 
Hawkeye, I like a well-stocked freezer too - that's a great idea about making a list. We have a chest freezer in our basement and now it is quite full! It was kind of empty before. My grandmother gave me other stuff too besides turkey - pork and beef (the hubby will eat those as I don't do red meat), but also gross junk food like Hot pockets and microwave burritos. Ick. I learned a long time ago that it's easiest to never say no to my grandmother, so I just accepted all the food, and I'll either throw that gross stuff away or give it to my brother. :p
 
Yes a well stocked freezer is great! If you run out of money you can keep going on dinners for a couple of weeks! :p The annoying thing is when I was at uni we had to defrost our freezer coz it all froze over and we couldn't open the drawers. So I lost a load of my food!
 
LMV, that sucks! We went through something similar. My freezer is really old - we bought it used from craigslist, so I don't know quite how old it is, but really old. We thought it broke at one point, but it turns out the electrical outlet that it was plugged into had died or something, so the freezer was fine. But it was off for a couple of days when the outlet stopped working, so we lost all the food we had in there too. I was sad, I had like 4 containers of ice cream in there that all became melted and inedible. :( Now I make sure to try to check it once a day to make sure it's still on and working, because I don't want to have to throw out so much food again.
 
I also write the date and weight of the frozen food on the outside of the Ziploc bag and include that on the fridge list as well - sounds like I should be working in a commercial kitchen / restaurant. Maybe Gordon Ramsay would be impressed.

Our fridge went about 6 months ago, but it was only a $ 100 fix luckily.
 
Our freezer is a Subzero--made in Madison Wisconsin! I understand they're normally expensive, like over $10k, but we got ours at a liquidation sale. We bought a kitchen display and it came with the cabinets. In fact, we didn't even realize it was a freezer at first, because it's a couple of sliding drawers under the counter that looks like one of the cabinets, so does the matching frig. Got it really cheap too because the owner had just died, his widow needed to liquidate quickly, and I don't think she realized that freezer alone was worth more than the entire kitchen. Neither did we. Who puts something like that in a store display anyway? It's almost hard to believe just how much longer food stays fresh. Salads don't wilt, milk doesn't sour, and we have to take bananas out for them to ripen.

Anyway, we had a power outage last year that lasted almost 5 days, and our frozen food stayed frozen. A single pot of ice kept all the food in our frig. frosty cold as well :)
 
Ya noy, that's an awesome deal! Puts my $50 ancient craigslist freezer to shame for sure. :p Can't complain too much though since we've had it for a few years and it's still working, so we've definitely gotten our $50 worth.

Hawkeye, I think Gordon Ramsay would be impressed! Ha ha, I find that when I go to restaurants, I start wondering what Chef Ramsay would think of the place. My hubby and I went out to eat with my grandparents at this very iffy restaurant yesterday, and I was like, "Gordon Ramsay would be so mad that there are like 700 different things on the menu, and he would totally send this soup back because it's gross, and he would think the decor here is really ugly." :p I told my hubby that and he agreed.
 
Update 4/23/13. I feel pretty good today. I had a rough few days - I made the switch from Asacol to Asacol HD on the 18th, and that just did not go well. Asacol HD is not for me. So yesterday I saw my GI, and he switched me from Asacol HD to Delzicol. I only just started on it today, but I'm feeling hopeful that it'll work better for me. I have a hard time breaking down these type of pills that have the special coatings, I used to pass undigested Asacol sometimes every day. But since I was taking 6 pills a day and passing 1 or 2, I was still getting enough medicine for me to feel okay. I was only taking 2 Asacol HDs every day though, so passing 1 or 2 of those daily obviously was a worse situation! I'm taking 6 Delzicols daily so hopefully I can break down the majority of them and get enough mesalamine in my system for it to be worthwhile.

So yeah, I had a rough few days on Asacol HD, the diarrhea came back and I was pretty nauseous for a few hours yesterday. Not fun. I managed to make it to the gym anyway and did pretty well. Hubby actually organized the back bedroom so I can get to my exercise bike without having to walk over piles of stuff, so I'm excited to ride the bike tonight. :p I *still* haven't been able to get my real bike outside for a ride, it's been cold/rainy/snowy/you name it. It's looking like the weather might be ideal on Saturday for a ride, so I'm hoping the forecast doesn't change.
 
Update 4/24/13. Things still aren't quite right in tummy land, I've had several episodes of d today and a bad one last night too. I'm hoping I adjust to the Delzicol soon and get back to relatively normal. In spite of this, I did an hour on the exercise bike last night. I felt better than usual and I think that was because it was cooler in my house than normal. We had a warm-ish spring day the other day, so hubby turned off the heat in the house, and I guess we forgot to turn it back on. It seems like the cooler I am during a workout, the better I do and feel. So the heat was off in the house and I did 12 miles no problem in spite of having an iffy tummy.

I hit the little gym for weights today too and did fine. I'm hoping to get another massage tonight too - after the last massage, my painful lower back felt even worse, so I'll be curious to see how I feel after this one. The lower back has generally been feeling somewhat better lately, although I got a sharp twinge of pain in the lower back as I was finishing up my workout today, so who knows.
 
Update 4/25/13. I wish the Delzicol would kick in already! I'm feeling a bit better, but it's deceiving. Mostly I feel okay, but every so often I'm hit with cramps and urgency and I have to run for the bathroom. Not fun, but it seems to be getting a little better. I think.

It's sunny and it actually looks nice outside - but when I went out earlier, it was quite chilly. So I'd love to try to ride my bike outside tonight, but I think it's still too cold. Plus with the guts not being quite right, it's safest to ride the exercise bike at home. So I'll do that, again, but it's getting really boring! :p I need a change of scenery! I'm getting spring fever or something, I just want to get outside! But it's in the low 40s which is just too cold. Grr! I'm still holding out hope for Saturday, they're saying it'll be in the 60s and no rain. Oh, and Sunday it might be as warm as 70 (!!), and my in-laws may be visiting that day, so that sounds even more ideal for a bike ride. A long, long bike ride far away from my house... :p
 
Sorry you're having trouble Cat! Was there a lay off between Azacol and Delzicol? I hope you get straightened out soon:)!
 
Thanks Mark. :) I was on mesalamine the whole time, but I went from Asacol to Asacol HD to Delzicol. The Asacol HD did not work well for me at all - I could not break it down very well and was passing it undigested. I was on HD for 5 days, and during that 5 days I started to feel noticeably worse, so I may as well have been on nothing for that time. I'm on day 4 of Delzicol now and I think things are starting to turn around - I do seem to be able to break those down at any rate, so much better than the Asacol HD. I'm still having some diarrhea - my poor anus is so sore and swollen from the d, it started bleeding a little bit yesterday. Fortunately I had some hydrocortisone suppositories on hand, so I did one of those last night and things back there feel significantly better now. I love how fast and effective steroids are!

With the anal issues though, I decided it was best to avoid the bike altogether last night as I didn't want to make things worse back there. So I just did yoga instead and that went fine. Tonight I'll do weights, and tomorrow I am hoping to ride my bike outside. We've *finally* got some nice springtimey weather, yeah! Tomorrow's temp mid 60s, no rain, and no wind - this sounds so ideal for a bike ride! Hopefully my backside will be up for a ride.
 
Update 4/27/13: I rode my bike outside today! :D I feel out of shape though! I have been riding the stationary bike all winter and I have been pushing myself on it and doing hill programs, so I thought I'd be okay to ride my regular bike. But wow, riding a real bike is very different from an exercise bike! My legs feel okay, but my abs feel tired and my butt feels sore. :p There's all this balancing and stuff that I don't have to do on my exercise bike, so the abs got a good workout. And real hills are much tougher than computerized hills! And, even though I have a cushy gel seat on my bike, it's still a bike seat and my booty is not used to a real bike seat, so yeah. I'm going to feel sore tomorrow for sure! But I did a decent ride, I rode through the Arboretum in my city. I saw a turtle and lots of ducks & geese, it was nice. Nothing's really flowering yet so it wasn't super pretty in there, but I'm looking forward to doing another ride soon. I feel good, but tired.

After I got home from my ride, I saw my hubby was outside working on the garden, so I helped him out with that. Because apparently I am crazy and wanted to be REALLY sore tomorrow, ha ha. :p
 
Woohoo for riding your bike!
Got out on my bike today too, it wasn't pretty though, I had a rough night and was severely dehydrated this morning. My insides were still churning when I went for my ride. Managed 96km, barely.
 
Cat: your exercise diary is inspiring. I used to work out pre-marriage, that was 12 years ago. I was doing cardio and kickboxing several times a week and was getting really toned. The body wants to be toned...it happens quickly if you are persistent. However, that being said, I am no longer toned - upper legs look very cellulity since Entacort - thanks Entacort!!! --- and have gained 45 lbs. over the years...especially during the Entcort. I have started back on the treadmill and yoga - one or 2 days of this and I felt noticeably better, especially from the stretching from yoga. I am 63 so I won't be doing the kick boxing and have a bad knee from an aerobics injury years ago. My yoga instructor is in her 70's and avoided knee surgery with certain poses - she is working with me.

An interesting note: Like you, I started getting the sore joints after Entacort and honestly, I think Entacort somehow opened the door for it some how. I had a "virus" that left me so stiff in the joints that I could barely move around and it lasted for 2 days. My joints are still somewhat achy. I think it may not have been a virus and it happened shortly after I ended Entacort. Same thing happened to my mother. She started a medication of some kind and the next day she could not get out of bed. Her RA had begun overnight. They say it does that sometimes and I'm hoping it is not RA for me. I'm making healthy food choices and trying to exercise at least 4 days a week. I feel great other than the achy joints but I think the yoga has started to help that. Thanks again for sharing your story.

One more question Cat--- are you on medication? I don't see on your profile.
 
Sparkle, my joint pains started while I was on Entocort too, and my GI said that sometimes Entocort can cause a type of arthritis that usually occurs in the hips. Well, I have arthritis in both hips now, and I'm only 33 so too young for it to be wear-and-tear type arthritis. I'm going to see a rheumatologist about it but my appointment isn't until July. I don't seem to have RA, as my bloodwork (ANA) was normal/negative for that.

The medications I'm currently on are: Delzicol for remission maintenance for the presumed IBD (just switched from Asacol - did a brief stint on Asacol HD but that didn't work for me), Nexium & Zantac for the reflux plus Tums as needed, Nuvaring for birth control, Amitriptyline to prevent migraines, and generic Zofran as needed for nausea. I also take a handful of supplements and psyllium too.
 
Update 4/29/13: I thought I was going to be sore yesterday after Saturday's bike ride and gardening, but I actually felt really good, hardly any soreness at all! So I went to the gym yesterday and did my usual weights routine. And today I feel really sore! Particularly my legs. So I don't know if it was a delayed reaction or what, but I feel like I've overdone things with my legs. I was hoping for another bike ride tonight but I'm not going to push it too much, so I will do yoga instead - hopefully.

I say hopefully because my living room remodel is happening today! Our new fireplace/mantel/built-in shelving is being installed, and hubby is walling-over a window and putting in new wall studs so that we can wall-mount our TV. IF the work gets all done today then hopefully hubby can hook up the Wii and I can do yoga on the Wii Fit. I prefer that to just doing yoga on my own, as the virtual instructor can give me feedback. I like that a lot. But anyway, the room needs to be mostly put back together so that I can do yoga properly. Wish me luck!
 
Awesome! Yoga on the WII. I have a WII, I'll check it out.

Cat: we have some similarities. I have stiff joints in all joints since Entacort, but I do notice in the joints when I stand after sitting a long time. I will have to mention that to my doctor. I also have migraines and gerd which I just ignore and sleep inclined. What is the test for RA....is that what you meant by ANA? I should check for that as my mom has it. I'm hoping mine is osteo or temporary. :) Good luck with the remodelling. I hate the remodelling process.

We had cermaic tile put down our house throughout a few years ago, dust was everywhere and the inexpensive contractor neighbor of ours kept getting a "virus" everytime he got paid. We were like to never get it done. haha
 
Sparkle, yes, ANA is a blood test that they use to check for things like RA and Lupus. I'm not sure exactly how ANA works, but I was told mine was normal/negative so I don't have RA nor Lupus. It's just a simple blood test, so it's worth looking into.

And fortunately we do not have a contractor doing the work on our house! My father-in-law is a woodworker so he built us a mantle & some built-in cabinets. He also built all our kitchen cabinets custom from scratch. And the best part is, he's not charging us - he wouldn't even let us pay for the wood! He does great, beautiful work too. It's not quite done yet, we need to do some minor stuff like wiring (we're running the wires through the walls so that there aren't a bunch of cords coming off the TV when we wall-mount it) and we have to paint one spot, etc. But the built-in cabinets/mantel are installed and they are so gorgeous!

So yeah, the living room remodel is like 85% done at this point. And that's great - I just wish the bathroom remodel would happen already. I have the ugliest bathroom I've ever seen - it's an older house and whoever built it really loved pink. Our bathroom is mostly pink - pink tub, pink sink, pink toilet, pink countertop - and brown tiles on the walls, and on the parts where there are no tiles, the walls are painted yellow. Pink, brown and yellow - I always think of pee, poo, and Pepto. :p

I get migraines too - I never got them until IBD came along - and I have severe GERD. I wish I could ignore it but it's too severe. I have to take Nexium, a quadruple dose of Zantac, and Tums as needed just to get through the day. I do have a chaise lounge, which I will sleep in if I need to sleep upright. Usually I can get away with propping myself up on pillows in my own bed though. The GERD is sadly worst when I'm exercising - I have to take a Zantac and a handful of Tums just before I hit the gym. And even so, I'm usually refluxing pretty badly by the end of my workout. I will even vurp water, it's terrible. My GI tried reducing my dose of Zantac but I told him no way! I'm functional on the medications I'm on right now, I don't want to change!

So, update 4/30/13. Hubby didn't hook up the Wii yesterday so I walked the dog instead of doing yoga. I usually don't consider walking to be enough exercise, but I was really tired so I let it slide. I hit the little gym today for weights and that went fine. I feel a lot less sore than I did yesterday, so I'm hoping to take another bike ride tomorrow evening if it doesn't rain.
 
Wow how lucky to have such a nice father-in-law. When I visualize the pink bathroom--- it was a dream in the 50's...with those little princess pink phones and all. That thought brings back warm memories. Sounds like the paint etc with the yellow is the 70's where everything was earthtones. Ugh. How did we tolerate that color scheme-- everything was harvest gold. avocado green, orange and brown. Sounds like you needed a good update. Hope it turns out well! The GERD - it's the pits. There is a theory about GERD that made sense to me....it's from not enough acid as opposed to too much acid. I read up on this in the 90's but have lost all my bookmarks for that stuff. Also, a lot of people swear by Bragg's vinegar - organic. Read up on it. Who knows...it helps with arthritis I've read.
 
Sparkle, my father-in-law is nice now, but he was actually really mean to me when I first got sick (he said some really awful things to me and wouldn't stop even when I started crying). He's gotten a lot better since then and is actually supportive of me now, but I don't totally trust that he's going to stay nice. It is of course an incredible gesture that he's done all this work for us on our house and I'm appreciative of that - I still don't totally trust it though and I don't always like talking to him (he drinks a lot and I think part of it is that he can sometimes be a mean drunk). My mother-in-law, although we're not very close, has always been really understanding of my illness, so I think she told him to stop being mean to me.

And you guessed the time periods correctly, my house was built in the mid 1950s and was last remodeled in 1977. There was a lot of pink when we moved in - pink walls, pink siding - and we're gradually removing the pink. Whoever built/remodeled the house sure loved pink!

Update 5/1/13: My arthritis is killing me today for some reason! Usually it acts up when it rains/snows or if it's bitterly cold out. Well, today it's sunny and 75 degrees, no rain, no cold, no snow. But the hip is quite painful and Tylenol isn't touching it, that's just great. Sometimes my hip aches in anticipation of a big storm, but I don't think we're supposed to get a storm in the near future, so I really don't know what's up with this stupid pain today. I'm going to try to go for a bike ride tonight anyway - usually exercise (except for jogging) helps my hip feel better.
 
Another quick update for today: I went on a nice long bike ride by the lake tonight and that went well. I feel better than I did after my previous bike ride, although the booty is still sore! I also figured out a really easy route for riding my bike to the gym! I'm not sure if I'm ready to try it - I don't know if I would have enough energy to ride my bike, lift weights at the gym, then ride home.
 
Update 5/2/13: It just started pouring rain here which means the hip has just started acting up too - the bad hip does not like rain or snow. I'm still planning on going to the gym in a little bit though, hopefully the rain will keep people away from the gym and it won't be too crowded. I went shopping earlier today and found a cute new workout top (well, new to me, as I'm mainly a thrift-store shopper). It's black with red trim and it fits really nice. I'm not sure what is up with sizes in workout clothes though. I have sports bras that are size x-small, small, medium - and this new one that I just bought is a large! They all fit really well, but the sizing seems to differ drastically from brand to brand. I'm definitely not "large", I usually wear a small (size 6 jeans) so I don't get it. And if the one I bought today was a large, then the small size in that brand probably only fits a doll. :p
 
Mark, I had wondered for a minute if it was a children's size large, but it's a workout top with a built in sports bra and children don't need bras! So it has to be an adult size, and it fits me perfectly, and I know I'm not a large. I have no idea. Maybe when they made the top, they sewed in the wrong tag or something. Fortunately I hate tags and removed it immediately so now nobody will know my size large secret. :p
 
Cat,
I am a size four but I usually have to buy a medium to a large in sports bras (which is odd, my band size in a bra is only 32-34). So then I wonder, what options are there for plus-size shoppers who want to work out and wear a sports bra? I think our marketing system is for the birds. Seems the clothing companies want to make us all feel like a bunch of fatties!
 
Mccindy, I don't know that I've ever seen a plus-sized sports bra in a store (although I haven't specifically looked). That's a good point and I do wonder what larger women do for workout clothes. It's sometimes hard to find cute workout clothes even in my size so it must be a nightmare for someone larger! I recently wanted to buy more workout pants - I prefer yoga style pants because I do not do short shorts - and I had to go to at least 4 different stores before I found some I liked and that fit well. If I were a bigger girl, I don't know that I would have been able to find anything.
 
That is so sad. Our culture seems to be ignoring the needs of the larger-sized person. They keep being told to eat right and exercise... but the "bad for you" foods are much cheaper and the workout clothes can't be found. I've had trouble finding yoga pants in the past too. When I work out at home I wear shorts but I do like yoga pants. Seems when I do find them they are always too short in the leg!
 
And really that's just it - I think having just a "small-medium-large" range doesn't work, because I am thin with a larger chest so I need a large, but have to hook to the innermost set of hooks. But if someone with a larger torso circumference and a smaller chest would try it, wouldn't it be baggy in the ****s? They just don't account for all of the possiblities!
 
I had a bra that I ordered online from Marks and Spencer (they must be only a British company). It was one of the best bras I've had. I'll have to check into their sports bras.
 
I've never heard of that company but I'm intrigued. I'm quite thrifty and mostly buy my workout clothes from thrift stores/garage sales or clearance racks. The last brand new sports bras I bought were about $6 apiece on the Target clearance rack. :p
 
Cat - sports bras are one area you want to spend a bit more to get something really good and supportive. I tend to buy high-impact bras even though my workout is technically no-impact.
 
Mccindy, I've never been "well endowed" in the chest area (I'm a small B cup) so there's not a whole lotta jiggling going on when I work out. :p So I feel like I can get away with cheaper sports bras.

Update 5/4/13: I took a rest day yesterday. Haven't had one in a little while, and was so exhausted when I got home from work. I am going to the gym in a little bit. I'm hoping to go for another bike ride tomorrow too. I think I had a dream last night about riding my bike but I don't remember much of it! It seems to me like my bike was morphing into different things in the dream. I guess I really shouldn't have salsa before bedtime. :p
 
Update 5/5/13. I went on a long bike ride today (well, long for me, about 10 miles I think - I've been meaning to get an odometer for my bike so I know exactly how far I'm riding). I rode from my house to the arboretum and all the way through it! Last time I only made it halfway through the arboretum before I got exhausted and turned around. This time I felt like I could do the whole thing, and it was exhausting, but I did it! I feel proud. I feel really good now, too! My legs were so achey earlier today, hubby and I went to see Iron Man 3 and I got really achey sitting for hours on end in a movie theater. It felt great to get out and get my legs moving. :)
 
sounds like a nice day! We went to St. Cloud for the day which was fun, but I had broccoli for lunch (thought it was mushy enough to be okay) and am paying for it now. Thinking I will have to skip the afternoon elliptical.
How was the movie?
 
Mccindy, the movie was okay. The hubby REALLY wanted to see it so I kinda got dragged along, ha ha. It was better than the 2nd Iron Man, I didn't really like that one. As hubby said, "It was weird." The plot was not what I expected. It wasn't bad, just different.

I suspect I'll be getting dragged along to the new Star Trek movie in a few weeks too. :p
 
I'll probably be seeing the new startrek one with my dad. i saw the last one with my ex and his friends. it was really annoying coz they all thought he dragged me along but i wanted to go. then at the end he basically ignored me coz he was talking avidly to his mates about it. it was 10 or more mins till he acknowledged i was there. i should have just walked off and gone home. or would that have been childish?
 
Nope, I think you would have been justified! If you go together then you deserve his attention. If you wanted to see it too then he should have been discussing it with you! Good thing he's an ex - sounds like that's what he deserves to be.
 
Aha! Yes. He was kind hearted, but was silly and immature. Which I suppose is allowed at 17/18. I definitely put up with too much in that relationship which I think he learned when I left and could not even entertain the idea of going back. I hope I learned to stand up for myself. But three years on since it ended I haven't been in another relationship... I still feel like I just can't be bothered with the hassle, but I hope thats just the excuse I give myself rather than a lasting effect of that relationship.
Anyway... This probably isn't the place to discuss this although I know Cat will forgive me :)
 
No worries LMV, it's cool to go off-topic in my threads. :) I do it all the time myself!

Update 5/6/13: I'm planning on going to the gym tonight to lift weights. It might suck though! On the first Monday of each month, my gym provides free pizza to everyone who comes in. Which means it's by far the busiest night at the gym! And sometimes the pizza smell makes me nauseous. It's gross and it sucks. I could just work out by myself at the gym in my workplace, but the hubby wants to work out too which means we have to contend with pizza night. I'm not looking forward to it, but I'll get through it. Wish me luck!
 
Enjoy Pizza night! :)
Its public holiday over here and we have had such a lovely sunny day, I've spent most of it in the garden. There is a pub in our village which does Thai food and there is an offer on a Monday night so we are going there for dinner tonight.
I'm really looking forward to it.
 
Thai food, eek! I used to *love* pad thai before I got sick, but even when I was "healthy", it would give me terrible diarrhea. :p I would ask for it to be as mild as possible but it was still always too spicy for me. Spices do me no favors, and I believe there were peanuts in it as well which are also a big no-no for me. It would probably kill me now! You're brave, LMV!
 
A gym with a pizza night? That seems a bit, well.... opposite of what people are at the gym for!:eek: ha ha. I hope it goes well for you and you're able to work out despite the smell. My husband makes the best homemade pizza for me sometimes, but it's looking like I'll have to give that up. :ymad: Oh well. I also used to love Pad Thai but I don't think I could tolerate it now. Makes me sad, I love love love spicy food but can't have it now? Ugh!
 
Yeah, I don't really understand pizza night. My gym offers tanning too, and I swear a lot of people go just for the tanning & pizza. :p They also offer free bagels at the gym on a certain morning each month, I don't remember when as I never go to the gym in the mornings. It's a no-frills gym except for that stuff so I don't really get it! I don't do tanning, pizza, nor bagels. I'm there to work out and that's it!

Ooh, homemade pizza is so yummy! I am lactose intolerant so regular pizza is problematic for me. Sometimes we'll make homemade pizza using goat cheese - I haven't had any issues with goat dairy, and it melts & tastes so much better than the other dairy alternatives like rice cheese, soy cheese, etc. It's really yummy! :)
 
That does sound good! I'm also lactose intolerant, so he would buy the good imitation mozzarella, and we'd add gorgonzola and sharp cheddar. OMG so yummy! So goat cheese works for lactose intolerance? I've never tried it.
 
It works for my lactose intolerance! I'm not sure if it works for everyone or not. Give it a try. If there's a Trader Joe's near you, they carry goat gouda which is so yummy. We also have a Woodman's store here which carries goat muenster - I think Woodman's is a Wisconsin-only store though (?). And if I'm remembering right, Whole Foods carries goat mozzarella & goat cheddar. I can't find goat cheese at a lot of grocery stores, but those are the places I've had luck with. Have a look around and give it a try.

I will say, be prepared for goat cheese to have a slightly stronger taste than standard cow cheeses. It's not bad though, it's stronger if you eat it as-is and gets milder if it's melted like on a pizza. Some goat products are wayyy too strong though. I tried goat yogurt once on a whim, and it was terrible! The taste was so strong I was gagging as I tried to eat it. My hubby will eat just about anything, but even he had a hard time choking that stuff down. :p So go for the cheeses but skip the yogurt!
 
Yumm... I had Pad Thai. It wasn't spicy at all so it was perfect for me.
I'm quite well atm so I probably would have been ok with a little bit of spice. But I don't want to have something spicy the night before work in case the worst happens! I'll save those things for the weekends if I have to. Now I need to try and chill a bit before bed coz it totally feels like a weekend night!! I'll feel shocked when the alarm goes off in the morning. I've had a really nice weekend though.
 
Another quick update for today: The gym was surprisingly not busy! I think it's due to the warm weather? It's usually busy on any Monday and more busy on pizza Mondays, but it was the quietest I've ever seen for any Monday. I didn't have to wait for any machines to open up! And usually on a Monday, every treadmill is filled, but today only about half were occupied. Very odd! If it's going to be like this all summer, I'll be quite happy. :)
 
Cat - that's one thing I've always liked about this time of year. As it starts to warm up more people decide to run outside or bike or other activities, so that the gym is not as busy and hectic. Bonus! I hope it keeps up for you.
 
Mccindy, yeah, I like to get outside this time of year too (I'm planning on a bike ride tonight and I'm hoping to get my kayak out on the water this weekend!). But I lift weights every other day and you can't really do that outside, I have to go to the gym for it. :p On my cardio days, sure, I will be outside on my bike or in my kayak. But I'm still at the gym at least half the time. So yeah, bonus! :) Weight lifting is my #1 favorite type of exercise, so the fewer people there, the better for me.
 
I am not able to do much weight lifting at all because I have a 20 lb. lifting restriction and no repetitive lifting. :( If I want to use weights I have to lie on the floor to do it. I've done it but it doesn't work the same! I love my elliptical and I used to really like the arc trainer at the gym. Biking is fun too. I don't think I could kayak with my back but the people I know who do it seem to really enjoy it! I miss running outside but inside working out is cool too, I get to watch movies while I work out!
 
Oh yeah, I love the arc trainer at the gym! It's challenging but fun. I usually do that as my warm-up for 10 or 15 min before lifting weights. That sucks that you can't lift! I have some sort of back issues too, I think related to my arthritis. I have arthritis in both hips - it started on the right and more recently spread to the left, and I think it spread to the lower back too on its way to the left hip. Not sure though, but I see a rheumatologist in a couple months so hopefully I'll find out more then. Fortunately, exercise usually makes my arthritis feel better (jogging makes it worse).

Kayaking is super fun. I used to kayak a lot before I became ill - then when I got sick, my kayak just sat there and collected dust in my basement for a few years. We finally took it out a few times last year (it's a 2-person kayak) and it was just like old times again. :) We even brought our dog with us in the kayak - we weren't sure if she'd freak out, as she doesn't like water, but she loves it. She likes looking at ducks but will not bark at them ever (I think she doesn't want to scare them away?). And she sits behind me, so if I stop paddling, she'll start nudging my elbow with her nose. Too cute!

It's funny, when we bought our house, two of the big selling points for us were that there's a dog park right nearby and a creek next to the park which looked ideal for kayaking, so we had dreams of getting a dog and a kayak. I obviously didn't plan to get sick, but when I'm in the kayak with my dog, I feel like I've accomplished something that I set out to do and I didn't let illness get in my way.

Quick update for today: Crazy work stress! I definitely need to take a looong bike ride tonight to work through this stress! Fortunately the weather is beautiful and absolutely ideal for a bike ride.
 
That is wonderful. You did accomplish exactly what you wanted! We have two dogs and we are considering taking them out in the boat this summer. A little worried that they will freak out and jump out but maybe we'll give it a try.
It's hilarious that your dog nudges you to paddle. Mine will come up to me and nudge me in the leg with her nose if I'm late feeding her or she really wants to go out. It's better than barking I guess!
I hope you get a nice long ride tonight. It's supposed to rain here so I will be hanging out in the basement on the elliptical. I'll think of you!
 
Update 5/8/13. I did go on a long bike ride last night, and it felt good for the most part. For some reason though my booty really was not liking the bike seat on yesterday's ride though! Things are quite sore and a bit swollen back there now. I thought I might have a new hemmie, but fortunately not. Still, not good. I'm lifting weights tonight, that's never rough on the booty so that'll be fine. Tomorrow I was thinking of taking another bike ride, but I'm going to switch to yoga to let things heal. I may take a bike ride on Saturday if things are feeling better.

Mccindy, I would say give it a try with taking your dogs in the boat. Do they have life jackets? My dog is a corgi so she is not a strong swimmer with those stumpy little legs, so we got her a life jacket "just in case". She's never tried to jump out of the boat though, she hates swimming. She just likes to sit there and look at things and sniff the air. She's sort of a spazz sometimes so I'm glad she's so well-behaved in the boat. :)
 
Cat - I'm so sorry to hear you're having trouble "back there"! That sucks. At least you got the ride in that you were looking forward to. Do you have a gel seat on your bike? I have one on mine and it does really help with the comfort.
I don't have life preservers for the dogs, they are pretty good swimmers. I think we'll try it close to shore the first time though, so they can swim to shore if they do jump out! I can imagine a short-legged dog would find swimming challenging! It's cute to think of a life preserver on a dog.
 

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