Cat's Exercise Diary

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Just want to throw this out since you've had undigested meds in your BM's: 5ASA can sometimes cause a ton of little white dots to appear in your stool...so if you notice that don't be alarmed.
 
Thanks Kel, I'll keep that in mind. This is actually the 4th mesalamine drug I'm trying, so yes, I do have experience with seeing it in my stool. I was on Asacol for a couple years and it kept me in remission during that time. Then they discontinued making regular Asacol in the US due to the patent having expired (but there's no generic available here yet). My GI tried me on Asacol HD (they do still make that one here), but that didn't work for me. When I was on regular Asacol, I was on 6 tablets a day and I'd usually pass 1 or 2 undigested tablets in my stool every day. I was still absorbing more medicine than I was passing, so I managed to stay in remission. But on Asacol HD, I was only taking 2 tablets per day, and I was still passing 1 to 2 tablets daily, so I was getting little to no medication, and I entered a mild flare pretty quickly. So then my GI put me on Delzicol, which is the "new" mesalamine drug meant to replace regular Asacol. It's technically a capsule, but really it's a capsule with an Asacol tablet inside. :p Seriously! So I was on that for about 6 months, still passing 1 to 2 per day, and doing so-so but didn't really get out of the flare. So now I've just started on Pentasa, which is a true capsule and not a tablet, and I'm hoping that'll break down better than a tablet would. I won't be too concerned if I see some of it in my stool, because I'm used to that with the Asacol and Delzicol. I'm on day 3 of Pentasa and haven't seen it in my stool at all, and I'm feeling pretty good so far, so I think it might be working (probably still too early to tell for sure though).

Kel, how are you doing lately? How's the collarbone and the drain? Are you able to lift at all yet or are you still unable to go to the gym?

Update 9/19/13: I went to the gym by myself yesterday and felt pretty great. Arms were oddly a little tired, but legs were fine and I felt strong and energetic overall. After I finished my workout, I went to the stretching area, and it was pretty much only me back there. Then this weird guy came back to the stretching area, and he seemed antsy. All of a sudden, he started breakdancing! :p It was hilarious and so random, I had to stop myself from bursting out laughing. I've seen weirdos do weird things in the stretching area, but mostly stuff like they'll bring dumbbells to the stretching area, etc. I don't think people understand the concept of "the stretching area is for stretching, not other stuff." But breakdancing, that was a new one! Ha ha :p

I'm feeling good today too. A little tired - there were thunderstorms going on all throughout the night, and the thunder kept waking me up. But other than the tiredness, I'm feeling pretty well. :) Looking forward to a restful weekend coming up, as hubby works all weekend. I see that some of the trees here are changing color and it's starting to get pretty, so a bike ride through the arboretum should be in my near future if the weather cooperates.
 
Hi cat and everyone,
I am feeling a bit better today. I can breathe better, but still SUPER tired. Coughing more but throat is less sore. I've been taking zinc every three ours and airborne every six so I'm hoping that will help me kick it faster. Ugh. I have a work meeting this afternoon so I'm just going to go in for that and then come back home. I hate being sick and especially right now when I have no extra energy!

On the plus side, doc's office called. I will be trying lactulose for two weeks, which will fail, and then we can contact the insurance to appeal the denial of Linzess.
 
Update 9/20/13: TGIF! I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend. I'm not feeling very well today, so a couple days of rest are much-needed. I'm having some upper abdominal pain today, and also a bit of nausea, low appetite, and my guts are very gurgly and rumbly. I don't often have upper abdo pains, usually only when I have a gastritis flare, but this doesn't feel like gastritis (plus I usually only have a gastritis flare in conjunction with my GERD going haywire, and the GERD has been fairly quiet lately). I just started Pentasa and I know that in rare cases it can cause pancreatitis, but my pain isn't nearly that bad, so hopefully it's not that. (My pain is tolerable and kind of comes & goes, and I've heard pancreatitis is horribly painful.) I'm just going to keep an eye on things, and will of course go to urgent care or the ER to get checked out if it gets worse.

In spite of that, I'm a stubborn idiot so I'm going to attempt to hit the gym today anyway. I'm hoping it'll help me feel better. Tomorrow, I'm going to lie on my couch and play Animal Crossing all day. :p Oh, and I'll probably walk the dog too. Or if the weather is lovely and I feel ambitious, then I might go on a bike ride. But with the way I'm feeling now, a rest day sounds like the best option to me.
 
I'm doing well, thank you. I needed to have surgery to repair my shoulder about 4 weeks ago and I've recovered nicely. It will be about 10 more days before I can get back to the gym (hopefully).
 
Update 9/22/13: I went to the gym today but it was tough. I woke up, decided I didn't want to miss watching the Packers game at noon, so I thought I might try going to the gym first thing in the morning so that I'd have the afternoon to watch football on TV. I am apparently not a morning-gym person though! I didn't have anything in my stomach, only water (and Tums and Zantac), but wow, I refluxed way more than usual. I was vurping stomach acid and I did not feel well, it wasn't pretty. My guts are never particularly happy first thing in the morning and apparently my stomach/GERD is the same way. I got through my workout, but now I know not to try to hit the gym right away in the morning. I clearly need to eat something and then let my system settle down and go to the gym later in the day like I usually do.

Yesterday I walked the dog and my joints didn't feel great. Anybody else ever get that feeling like a certain joint just isn't fitting together right? I had a day like that yesterday with my right ankle. Every step on it was a bit painful and no matter how I manipulated it or stretched it, I couldn't get it to feel okay. It seems somewhat better today so just one of those days I guess.

The trees have started changing color here - I drove past the arboretum and the trees are starting to look really lovely. Goal this week is to ride my bike through there at some point!
 
I'm no IBD'er Cat, but for me an empty stomach is always more likely to cause trouble.

I'm not a pro football fan either but....are the Bengals actually good this year? or do the Packers just suck?
 
Mark, my stomach *has* to be completely empty before I hit the gym - I have severe GERD which will not allow me to exercise if there is anything in my stomach. I've tried drinking gatorade just before a workout, but even that did not go well and I quickly became too nauseous & vurpy to continue my workout. So I can only have water & antacids in my stomach before hitting the gym, nothing else, and I have to stop eating at least 2 hours before working out. So I figured first thing in the morning would go okay because of that, but it did not. I had a sore throat all day yesterday and I'm sure it was because so much acid came up my throat during my morning workout! Throat's mostly better today and I don't have a cold or anything. So yeah, I won't be going to the gym in the morning anymore. I need to eat something and then wait awhile, I guess that's an important step I can't skip over.

Bleh, the Packers. I think it's more that they're sucking rather than that the other team was good. That game was stressful to my health! A few of the better Packers players got injured in that game too so it's probably safe to expect more suckiness for the rest of the season. And the Packers made a few really stupid mistakes (dropping that punt in the first quarter and allowing the other team to recover it at the 5 yd line - argh!). Ha ha, my hubby had to work all day so he didn't know how the game went. We always have our dog bark when the Packers score or have a really good play, so we like to say that we can tell how well they're doing based on how barky Lily is. :p Hubby came home from work last night and asked if she was very barky today? I just sadly shook my head no. :( Meanwhile, we have a few friends who are Bears fans, and they looooove to rub it in that the Bears are now 3-0. Boo!

Update 9/23/13: It's a rest day today but I'm getting necessary stuff done, not doing much resting. Paid a bunch of bills this morning, running errands on my lunch break, and need to do some food preparation tonight. I'm making a big effort to pack my lunch as often as possible to save money and to eat healthier, and I find it saves me a lot of time if I do stuff the night before. So I'll do things like, take a can of safe fruit (peaches or pears - no pineapple) and divvy it up into little individual servings so I can just grab one in the morning. Or if we make a chicken dinner, I'll sort out the meat from the bones so that I can quickly make myself a chicken sandwich/wrap in the morning. Stuff like that. It's so much easier on me in the mornings if stuff is already at least somewhat ready to go. Mornings are my worst time, my guts tend to be least happy in the mornings, so this is an effort to make my mornings less stressful too. Some mornings I'm pretty nauseous and I have a hard time looking at or smelling food, so on those days, packing a lunch is out unless I can literally just grab some containers and throw them in my lunch bag.

I suppose I should give a Pentasa update too - I've been on Pentasa for just about a week now. I think it's working? I have had one bad day in the last week, which isn't too bad. I'm feeling pretty well as long as I am able to get enough sleep. I'm not having much of any change in bowel habits - I did have a teensy bit of red blood on the TP the other day, but no pain or anything, and my GI had said that I have internal hemmies, so I'm presuming the blood was from a hemmie. Stools are fairly normal as long as I remember to take my psyllium. I've had a couple episodes of d but nothing awful and certainly nothing out of the ordinary for me. I had soup last night which had a little bit of corn in it, and I was worried about that as I know corn is indigestible even to healthy people, but it didn't seem to give me any trouble. If anything, I think my guts are happier - the weather has turned a bit cooler (temps in the 60s) which is so much easier on me than the hot & humid summer weather. So, I think Pentasa is working - if so, it's subtle. But at any rate, I'm not getting worse, so that's good!
 
Update 9/25/13: Did weights yesterday, felt good. I'm having a fairly bad day today though. Having some d, including one episode of urgent & explosive d. Also had a couple dizzy spells earlier today and just generally feeling not so great. Starting to wonder if the Pentasa isn't working, but hopefully this is just a bad day. I was hoping to go on a bike ride tonight, but I don't know if that's wise with the dizziness. I don't want to fall off my bike and get hurt. So I might do yoga or walk the dog, those seem like safer options. I'm really hoping to still do a bike ride soon, maybe Friday if the weather and my health allow it. I had a dizzy spell on the treadmill yesterday too (I was walking on the treadmill to cool down after doing weights), and that's not good. I get dizzy spells in flares, and I am pretty sure I've been in a mild flare since May, but it hasn't been bad enough for me to get dizzy very often. So either it's a bad day and just a fluke, or the flare is getting a bit worse, or possibly a side effect of Pentasa, or who knows. But I hate that it puts fear into me, fear of what if I fall and get hurt, what if I pass out and nobody finds me right away, etc. I don't like that at all, I don't want to let fear restrict what I do.

So I don't know. I'm just taking it day by day and sometimes minute by minute right now. That's all I can really do. Kind of frustrated about it but that's life I guess.
 
Update 9/26/13: I walked the dog last night and I felt better than I expected. It helped that we met up with our neighbor, whose corgis get along really well with our corgi, so it was a corgi party which would cheer up just about anybody! :p I think my weight is starting to become an issue again though. I just haven't had much appetite lately. I had a brownie for dinner and that was it. After doing colonoscopy prep about a month ago, I had lost 2 lbs. I just finally gained those 2 lbs back, and I'm afraid with my low appetite lately that it's getting more difficult to maintain my weight. It's not bad yet, but during my first year of illness the weight fell right off me, so I'm trying to be quite vigilant about my weight, which is becoming more difficult. I don't want to lose muscle mass especially, since I've worked so hard to build it up.

Going to the gym tonight for weights. Hopefully a bike ride Friday evening. I've had one or two very mild, almost imperceptible dizzy spells today, so I think I'll be okay on the bike tomorrow (I hope!). I'll just bring my phone with me and will call for hubby to come pick me up if I fall off or if I can't continue riding for whatever reason. Can't let this flare hold me back too much! Gotta try to get a good bike ride in - every ride I've done through the arboretum, I've thought how pretty it will be when the leaves start to change color in the fall. That time is here now so I just gotta do a ride!
 
Keep on truckin' Cat. you can do it! yesterday and today I was able tp dp 25 minutes on my elliptical. yay! Starting to feel better but hoping it keeps going. Stay with me, strength!
 
Thanks guys! So a bit of an interesting update, I didn't go to the gym tonight. I remembered that I had a rheumatologist appointment this afternoon. I honestly didn't expect to get anything out of the appointment whatsoever, so I didn't even mention it. Rheumy had already said there's no inflammatory arthritis, so I thought therefore he wouldn't be open to trying a steroid injection into my bad hip. But it turned out, he was the one who suggested trying a steroid injection! And he gave me 2 injections (he said there are 2 muscles in the area where my pain is, so he did 1 injection into each muscle). I won't lie, it hurt, and it still kind of hurts. Rheumy said don't do any activity tonight, not even walking around, so the gym was out. But I should be okay to work out tomorrow, presuming I don't have pain, so now that's the plan.

So, gym tomorrow and I was thinking of doing a bike ride on Saturday - but there's an 80% chance of thunderstorms on Saturday, so I'm guessing that's out. So, if I can't do the gym tomorrow due to my hip still recovering from the injections, then I'll rest tomorrow too and do the gym on Saturday and I guess bike ride Sunday. Whenever I'm well enough to go to the gym, I'll do that and a bike ride the day after!

I'm really interested to see what, if anything, the steroid injections do for my hip. I haven't been able to jog for years because of the hip pain. I'm trying not to be overly optimistic, but if I was able to jog? That would be incredible! LMV has been talking in her thread about how she's training for a triathlon, and I'm jealous. I could probably do the swimming and definitely the bike part, but I know I couldn't do the jog, as right now even 1/2 mile of slow jogging will put my hip in pain for days. Heck, I'd be happy just to walk my dog on a cold winter day without having pain - jogging would be an awesome bonus though. :) We'll see what happens! Right now it still feels all painful from the injections so I really have no idea what's going to happen. Worst case scenario, it does nothing and I'm the same (rheumy said the injections could help but wouldn't hurt, so at worst it won't do anything). Best case scenario, jogging pain-free. Realistic scenario, walking the dog comfortably. I can deal with any and all of that, although I will be a bit disappointed if I have to stick with the status quo.
 
I really hope you get something from the steroid injections! And I hope it lasts you a while as well!

How interesting he gave you the injections anyway? What is it with you, Cat? You don't test positive for anything but get treatment for it anyway! :p x x
 
LMV, I'm kind of wondering if my GI wrote something in my file along the lines of, "She's a huge pest and won't leave you alone unless you give her some sort of medication or treatment, so just give her whatever so that she goes away." :p I hate being shuffled away by my doctors so I sometimes get pretty insistent that they actually help me - guess I must have trained them well at this point! Ha ha.

The hip is still fairly painful today from the injections . Think I'm going to skip the gym, although we'll see how I'm feeling by this evening. If the pain is mostly gone by that time, then I might go do a workout (a mostly arms workout). Otherwise, today will be a rest day and I'll see about hitting the gym tomorrow.
 
It's now 1 PM and the hip is still feeling rather sore. Actually, both hips are a bit painful. I spent the evening on the couch yesterday, but I had to get up a few times to use the bathroom etc. I was limping pretty heavily on those few times I did walk yesterday, so I think the left hip is a little upset now because I favored the right so much. The right is still feeling worse of the two though. It's better than it was, and it doesn't feel like arthritis soreness, it feels like injection soreness. You know when you get a flu shot and then your arm hurts for a couple days? This feels like that kind of soreness. Now, I seem to recall that last year, I went to the gym the day after I got my flu shot and that went fine, I just worked through the soreness and didn't have any issue. But since this is a different kind of injection, and I know corticosteroids can interfere with healing (presumably including muscle healing), I'm thinking I should be a bit more cautious.

So, I'm going to skip the gym tonight and will plan on going tomorrow instead. This means my bike ride is now pushed back to Sunday, but fortunately the weather looks good that day. I don't like riding through the arboretum on Sundays because there's so much more car traffic (it's usually closed to through-traffic, except on Sundays). So I'll have that to contend with. But I've ridden through there on Sundays in the past and it's not awful. There are so many bicyclists, joggers, walkers, etc that go through the arboretum that the cars all know to go really slow and be very cautious. Still, I wish there was a separate bike path/lane - it's just a narrow road that cars, bikes, joggers etc all have to share. Anyway, so that's the plan. Rest today, gym tomorrow, bike Sunday.
 
Cat-a-Tonic said:
Update 9/26/13: I think my weight is starting to become an issue again though. I just haven't had much appetite lately. I had a brownie for dinner and that was it. After doing colonoscopy prep about a month ago, I had lost 2 lbs. I just finally gained those 2 lbs back, and I'm afraid with my low appetite lately that it's getting more difficult to maintain my weight. It's not bad yet, but during my first year of illness the weight fell right off me, so I'm trying to be quite vigilant about my weight, which is becoming more difficult. I don't want to lose muscle mass especially, since I've worked so hard to build it up.
Click to expand...

Ugh....feel your pain, I've lost 30 lbs. (from 176 lb to 146) since January (I really only could have afforded to lose about 10 at the max.) I've levelled off but still dealing with low appetite.
 
Update 9/30/13: Well, I had an interesting weekend. Saturday I hit the gym and walked the dog - that was a lot of activity right there, and I was pretty tired the rest of the day. Saturday evening, hubby and I decided to go buy a new door. We're sloooowly remodeling our house, and we need to install a new front door before winter hits. We had a bit of money earmarked for a door, so we went and bought one. It was heavy (steel door) and involved a lot of lifting - lifting it onto the cart, lifting it into the car, lifting it out of the car and into the house. I was totally wiped out after that! And when we got it home? We realized we bought the wrong one! We bought a 32 inch door, when we really needed a 36 inch. Ugh, so stupid of us!

So Sunday, I took the dog on a long walk, and then when hubby got home from work we lifted the stupid door back into the car, took it back to Home Depot, exchanged it for a 36 inch door... which did not fit into hubby's Subaru. By like 1/2 inch it did not fit, no matter which angle we turned it or how we tried to finagle it, it just would not go in the car. Frustrating! So then we found out we could rent a truck from Home Depot for like $20, so we did that to get the door home. More lifting, more carrying that stupid heavy thing. :p So, two days and several hours and more money than I waned to spend later, we finally got our new door home! Just getting the dumb thing took 3 times longer than it should have, I can't wait to see how spectacularly things get messed up when it comes time for the actual install, ha ha! ;)

So yeah, I did a lot of unanticipated heavy lifting over the weekend. Because of that, I didn't have the energy or time to take a bike ride. Weights tonight, also Wednesday & Friday, possibly a bike ride on Thursday. I so need a rest day tomorrow! Guts are feeling better lately, the steroid shots I got in my hip seems to be positively affecting my guts. So there's some good news. Hip feels a bit better but not stellar, which is interesting.
 
Hawkeye, for sure they are. The windows on our house seem to be original to the house (the house was built in the mid 1950s, so all the windows need replacing!). We've replaced a few, we're going room by room and doing what we can. We've replaced 2 of the 3 exterior doors, so this will be the last door to get replaced. Previously, the front door had no insulation around it - the previous owners actually stuck a blanket in the wall instead of insulation! So we put in a bunch of new insulation and now a new door, so we'll be nice and buttoned up for winter and will hopefully save a bit of money on our heating bills. We still need to replace about 7 more windows, we've done 3 so far. Slow but steady. We've owned the house about 5 years now and have been slowly remodeling it as time and money have allowed. My hubby and his father are doing most of the work themselves which saves us a lot of money too.
 
Update 10/1/13: Wow, October already! I really have to get going on making our Halloween costumes. :p Hit the gym last night and felt pretty good. My guts were rumbling and I was refluxing quite a lot, but had tons of energy. If not for the reflux, I could have worked out a lot longer than I did. As it was, I couldn't do the abdominals machine for fear of puking, the reflux was just too much and I might have refluxed right out my mouth. The gym is often quite busy on Mondays, and I didn't want to barf in front of all those people (don't want to barf at all for that matter!) so I played it safe and didn't push it. But yeah, I had great energy - I think that steroid injection is to thank for the energy. It doesn't feel like crazy pred energy or anything, just more energy than I'm used to. I went from being slightly fatigued all the time to being slightly energetic, it's a nice change and I hope it lasts awhile.

I'm thinking today is a rest day. I have to go buy a few groceries and do some things around the house, so once again a rest day isn't going to be all that restful. At least I finally have some energy to tackle the things I have to do!
 
Update 10/2/13: I'm SO NAUSEOUS today. :( Last night as I laid down in bed to sleep, my reflux started going kind of nuts, and then nausea kicked in too. Oh, and then I got chills, which I only usually get in bad flares. I had to get up and take a prilosec and a Zofran, which worked okay and I was able to fall asleep eventually. This morning I was feeling so-so and I tried eating a little breakfast. That did not go well at all. The nausea came pounding back. Zofran is taking the edge off but I still do not feel well. I don't know what's going on - it's been about a week since I had the steroid shot, so is this a side effect? Did the steroids wear off already? My hip has been hurting last night and this morning too so I don't feel like the steroid injections helped. The first time I was on pred, my symptoms came back with a vengeance once I finished the course of pred, so is this something similar? Perhaps the injections wore off already and my symptoms are returning, angrier than they were before? I just don't know. I feel crappy, that's all I really know.

So I was hoping to go to the gym tonight for weights, but that is looking like it's not going to happen. I can work out when I'm in pain or when I'm tired, but not when I'm nauseous like this. So I guess a rest day again today which frustrates me! Ugh. Sometimes I get so sick of living in a broken body. I try to fix my body with exercise, but when I can't exercise then I get really upset. So yeah, I'm having one of those days. My body is hindering me from doing what I want, and I can't do anything about it except deal with it. I swear, the mental & emotional impacts of this illness are often worse than the symptoms themselves! Nausea is bad, but when nausea makes me sad and angry and frustrated then it's terrible. Blah. Sorry for the pity party.
 
Hi Cat! You have really had some rough days recently. I think it's a bummer that the injections didn't work for you, that really sucks after going through the pain of getting them in the first place!
I definitely feel your pain with having a body that won't cooperate when you're trying to be healthy. between my back, my belly and my head I've felt pretty fed up this year. Last night I had bad cramps in my guts, rumbling and pain and then - whamo! - explosve D. So odd for me, I am always constipated. It happened twice within an hour. I've had night sweats most of the week as well and I kept getting hot and then cold yesterday. My husband was wondering if I ate something that was bad but I can't imagine what as I didn't eat much of anything yesterday. I did manage to do 15 minutes on the elliptical this morning but I was drenched in sweat when I was done and felt like I'd just run a marathon. My appetite seems to be on vacation as well. I'm going to make a nice rich beef stew tonight, which is one of my faves, so I'm hoping that will inspire me to feel like eating - and hopefully not have D again later on.

HI LMV! Haven't seen you for awhile, missed you!

Hawkeye - you are so right about doors and windows. We were working on replacing them in our old house, did about 1/2 of them. It made a significant difference in our heating bills. The house we are renting now, we have discovered, needs new windows in a few rooms, because the locks dont' work and they won't seal tight. sucky!
 
Update 10/4/13: I have been feeling pretty terrible for the past few days and haven't been to the gym since Monday. Took a day and a half off sick from work, but resting up didn't help much. I went back to work today and my boss commented on how pale I look. I still have the nausea, the reflux, my bad hip hurts worse than before - I think these are all side effects from the steroid injections I got in my hip last week. My rheumy unfortunately is clueless and said he has no idea why I'm feeling like this, and he told me to follow up with my GP. Ugh! So I'm just hoping that the steroids work their way out of my system soon. I have no appetite so I'm forcing myself to eat every so often. This is so odd because I've been on both pred and Entocort, which both made me feel great and have a good appetite. The injected steroids apparently have the completely opposite effect on me, so I feel like crap with more symptoms and no appetite. Not good at all and very confusing.

As soon as I'm feeling somewhat better, I'm going to go to the gym. I'm just not sure when that'll be! :( Not tonight, I'm too light-headed and nauseous, just can't do it safely. I'm hoping things will be better tomorrow. Wish me luck!
 
Hi Cat,
Injected steroids are unfortunately completely different from the systemic steroids that you take orally. It sucks you are having such a strong reaction. I'd imagine part of that is coming from the fact that your body is reacting to the injections, which affects your immune system, which has a huge base in your GI tract. So the reaction must be triggering the nausea and other symptoms. I hope it clears quickly for you, my dear!
 
Thanks Cindy, that's helpful! That's far more information than my stupid rheumatologist was able to give. :p Someone in the Undiagnosed Club told me about "post-steroid flare" in which the injected steroids apparently crystallize after awhile, which can cause pain in the affected joint. But google seems to indicate that post-steroid flare usually happens 24 to 48 hours after the injection - it was nearly a full week for my symptoms to start after the injection - and google didn't say anything about nausea, reflux, changes to menstrual cycle, etc. (When I googled those things individually then I did find a few results for each in regards to steroid injections - so I apparently just got every single side effect possible??)
 
Update 10/5/13: Didn't make it to the gym today, still not feeling well enough. I think I'm slowly getting better day by day though. Still have no appetite and some nausea, but the nausea isn't as bad as it has been. Hip feels somewhat better, reflux doesn't feel as bad although my throat is still sore so I think it's still acting up quite a bit. (My throat gets sore when acid refluxes up to the top of my esophagus.) We did quite a bit of errands today and I'm exhausted now. Resting up for the rest of the day. Will see how I'm feeling tomorrow, and hoping to get to the gym on Monday if not tomorrow.
 
Update 10/7/13: I'm finally feeling better!! :D I feel like the steroids have properly kicked in, I feel similar to how I felt when I was on pred. Loads of energy and big appetite, feel good but slightly manic. :p Not a lot of focus and not sleeping well, but eating great and feeling quite good. I'm not sure what happened or why - Saturday I still felt so awful, no energy and no appetite, light-headed and nauseous and some hip pain still. We ran errands on Saturday which exhausted me and I spent the rest of the day on the couch, feeling icky and tired. Sunday, I woke up and didn't feel as nauseous, and the residual nausea ebbed pretty quickly. By noon on Sunday I was starving and I ate an entire pizza by myself - and my body didn't punish me for it! Had a huge dinner too and went grocery shopping and did a lot of stuff around the house. I feel good today too - didn't sleep well last night, but still have a good amount of energy today and still feel quite good.

So, I'm going to the gym today! It's been a week since I've done any type of working out, I haven't so much as walked the dog. I wasn't sure if yesterday was a fluke, and I didn't want to push myself too much and then pay for it today. Although I think I still overdid it yesterday with the amount of stuff I did around the house, but I am not paying for it today, so I think that definitely gives me the green light to go lift some weights. I'm excited that I finally get to go back to the gym! I'm feeling quite zazzy today, ha ha, thanks to the steroids for finally kicking in already! :p I'm so, so excited to rock out in the gym with some loud music and work off some of this wacky steroid energy. :)
 
Cat, is it crazy that I'm excited that you get to work out again finally? I'm still getting about 15 -20 minutes per day on the elliptical, which feels good but part of me can't believe I could do an hour and a half only six months ago! Enjoy!

also cool about the pizza. I had a craving for pizza yesterday and the hubs went to the trouble to make me one with gluten-free crust and "fake" cheese. So nice to indulge sometimes.
 
Cindy, thank you for being excited for me. :D As for food cravings, I think the steroids are making me crave weird foods too. This morning I was so craving a hamburger! I haven't eaten beef in years, and I know it'd make me super sick - but my body isn't listening to reason right now. :p I'm definitely not going to give in to that temptation, I already played with fire with the pizza and I've never been able to get away with eating a hamburger, not once, so I know not to even try it. I packed myself a safe lunch (tuna sandwich) and I'm going to have a safe dinner too (pasta). Steroids sometimes make me feel like I'm superwoman, and I need to remind myself that I'm totally not!
 
Thanks LMV! I did make it to the gym today. I had lots of energy, presumably due to the steroids, but my acid reflux was playing up more than usual too. I had a few moments where I had to stop and take a drink of water and try to get my stomach contents back down into my stomach, including one particularly worrying reflux episode where I felt acid and stomach contents (water) come shooting up my throat fast - it made me very worried that I might puke and not even make it to the garbage can, it was that fast - but I held it together and didn't puke, fortunately. The reflux was worst after I did the abdominals machine. But, I got through it, did everything I wanted to in my workout, and I felt pretty good aside from the reflux. I did have heart palpitations, I think that's due to the steroids too. That wasn't too bothersome though and went away after a few seconds.

I recall that last time I went to the gym, which was a week ago, my reflux was worse than usual then too. So I'm thinking this must be related to the steroids also, and I'm thinking of taking extra pre-meds before working out for the next little while. I usually take a 300 mg Zantac (Ranitidine) and about 10 Tums just before hitting the gym. I might add a Prilosec to that as I still have about half a bottle of that (I used to take it before I was on Nexium). I think I'm going to try that next time I hit the gym and see how it goes, and kind of play it by ear.

So some of you may recall that walking team thing I was doing at work? That was over at the end of September. A lot of people were using the gym at work during Sept, and now that the contest is over, the gym in my workplace is basically deserted again. There is one co-worker who I'm pretty proud of, though. She seems to be really sticking with exercise! At first I would sometimes see her walking on the treadmill in the little gym in our workplace. Then a couple weeks ago I saw her jogging a little bit! And today, I ran into her on my way out of the gym as she was on her way in - she was talking about getting a proper gym bag and lock and gym clothes so that she could do a better workout with out messing up her work clothes - I thought that was really cool and I hope she does it! Bringing a gym bag to work was one of the first things I did when I decided to start working out in earnest.

(Yes, I keep a fully stocked gym bag in my locker at work, I just bring home my dirty clothes to wash and bring in clean clothes but everything else like my shoes, lock, etc just stay at work - and yes, I have a separate gym bag for bringing to the other, larger gym that I pay to belong to! :p I know, I'm a little OCD, I feel the need to have a designated gym bag for each gym I go to.)
 
Hah, Mark, I don't do designer anything (not on purpose anyway!). I'm a VERY thrifty person and I don't care about brands/labels. The gym bag that I keep at work, I got that bag free from my mom as she wasn't using it anymore. My other gym bag that I take to the big gym, I bought that at the thrift store for about $3. Both pairs of gym shoes also came free as hand-me-downs from my mom (we wear the same size shoes fortunately). Most of my workout clothes come from the thrift stores or garage sales - I do have a few articles of clothing that I got new for cheap on the clearance rack at cheaper stores like Old Navy & Target. And a few workout tops also came from my mom. If I can get something for free or cheap, why would I pay full price? I just got a really great, like-new, high-quality pair of workout capri pants at the consignment shop last week for $5. The cheapest non-clearance workout pants at Target cost like $28. There's just no way I can justify paying $28 (or more!) for something that, when with a little patience and perserverance, I can find the same or better for much cheaper. Plus, as you already know, I can sew - so if I find something and it's not quite perfect (needs to be shortened or taken in or whatever), then I usually buy it anyway and tailor it myself. Last weekend I hit a few garage sales, and I found a new workout top in my size for 25 cents. It needed a minor repair to the bottom hem - took me all of 2 minutes to sew that up, and now I have a new workout top for almost no money. Yeah, I'm rambling again, but I definitely don't do designer stuff! I don't need overpriced crap that someone else dictates as being fashionable when I can get really cute stuff on a shoestring budget and rework it if need be. :)

Update 10/8/13: My body didn't like what I had for dinner last night (stuffed shells - there was mostly goat cheese in it which is safe for me, but there was a bit of regular ricotta and there were also mushrooms which can be iffy). I had quite a bit of cramping and d last night, and then I couldn't sleep hardly at all for most of the night. I think the steroids are preventing me from falling/staying asleep. I might take a sleeping pill tonight as I really need sleep!

So I'm thinking today is a rest day and that I'm going to try to go to bed early tonight. I hope to hit the gym again tomorrow. Not sure about Thurs, would like to do weights Fri, maybe a bike ride Sat if the weather and my body are cooperative.
 
One thing I miss is going to the gym. I enjoyed being a member, and going there and working out on the 3 diffferent machines I used. Probably wouldn't be much good to me now, as I can't work out nearly as long as I used to, but it was fun. My elliptical at home is great and it is nice to be able to just do it at home and be done, but there is something about the experience of going to the gym that is just missing now.
 
Cindy, I know what you mean, there's something about the gym atmosphere. I know when I put on my workout clothes, I feel like I'm putting on a work uniform. And when I go to the gym, I'm all business - something about the atmosphere and the clothes, it just puts me in the mindset that I have to work hard now and make myself sweat! I don't get in that mindset as much when I work out at home. I'm still wearing the clothes, but I'm at my house with all the distractions of home. So sometimes when I'm going to do a workout at home, my pets get in the way (my cat and dog both feel the need to plop down on my yoga mat at inopportune times) or I feel like I want to throw some laundry in the washer first or stuff like that - a million little distractions to take my mind off the job I have to do. And when I go to the gym, there aren't any distractions like that. It's just me and my music and my workout! I purposely keep the distracting stuff away - I tend to work out by myself (sometimes hubby comes with but he's not a distraction, he does his own thing and I do mine and we basically do not talk at all during workouts), I leave my phone in my locker, etc. The only thing I have in hand are my ipod, my water bottle, and my towel to wipe the machines down when I'm done using them. I hate going to the gym and seeing people who are chatting with their friends or playing with their phones rather than doing any actual exercise! The gym only contains distractions if you bring distractions with you, and I try to leave all that stuff at home. :)

Sorry, that was a ramble! What machines did you use when you were going to the gym? I think in the past you've mentioned the Arc trainer? I love that one, I use it to warm up before doing weights. I try to do at least 10 minutes, and I set it on a pretty high setting. It's tough and it gets me nice and sweaty and out of breath, so I'm all warmed up for weights!

One thought for you - I belong to a gym called Planet Fitness, it's a chain of low-cost gyms. The reason I joined that gym is because it's only $10 a month, and it's open & staffed 24/7. If you're tempted to join a gym again, and if there's a PF near you, it might be worth looking into. It's not a fancy gym, no pool or anything like that, mainly just cardio & weight machines and that's about it (that's all I really need in a gym though!). Anyway, just a thought for you.
 
Cat, you and I would be great workout buddies, because we feel exactly the same way about our working out! YOu are right, the workout clothes feel like a uniform at the gym. I would have just my water bottle, towel and my Kindle and just get into the groove of working out. Those chatty clusters used to drive me bananas. When I'm at home and I put on the clothes it's not quite the same, and I do have the habit of finding some little task I need to do before I jump on the elliptical. And the dogs... yep they can be a big distraction.
I used the Arc trainer for 20-30 minutes, then the elliptical for 20-30 minutes, then the stair climber for 20 -30 minutes. Man I miss that routine. The Arc trainer was definitely my favorite because it was so tough and a great warmup. The other two machines seemed easy after starting out on that one!
One thing I found that sucked about moving from a city to a smaller, more isolated town is access. There are a couple of gyms in town but they aren't as nice as what I had access to back in Wisconsin. I'm thinking though, that when I am able to get back to the point where I can workout for a good long amount of time again, I might check into them. Your Planet Fitnes sounds awesome and right up my alley. Wish we had one here.
 
We would totally be good workout buddies, Cindy! :) Do you try to keep your dogs out of the room when you're on the elliptical? I just have a stationary bike at home, and I have to keep my pets out of the room when I'm on the bike - if I let them in the room, they try to sit right next to the bike - my dog especially - and then they get bonked with the pedals. So my cat knows to stay out, she doesn't care too much, but my dog gets so sad about it. She sits in the doorway and gives me the saddest look ever and just sighs and sighs. She gets upset when I take my real bike out, too - she apparently really wants to come with me, but she's too big to ride in my basket and she's just not a runner (she's a corgi, so very short legs plus she's kind of fat) so she can't run alongside my bike either. I'm actually thinking of getting one of those pull-behind kid carrier things for my bike so I can stick my dog in it and take her along on bike rides! :p I realize that's very silly, and those things are crazy expensive (like $300 for a used one!) so that probably won't actually be happening.

Yeah, I hate when there are chatty groups at the gym. There's this one guy I see at the gym regularly - when he's with his friends, all they do is talk, talk, talk. In fact I had to shoot the guy a death glare once when he was chatting with his friends but then claimed to be "using" a machine I had just hopped on - funny how you can use a machine while standing 6 feet away from it and having a half hour conversation while doing zero exercise! :p But recently, I saw this same guy by himself - and he actually did a proper workout! He'd be in great shape if he just ditched his friends while at the gym. I'm all for having friends, but there's a time and a place to have a conversation. At the gym (and at the movie theater too) is not that place!

Speaking of the gym, I'm going tonight. I feel quite good today - I finally slept well, I'm feeling okay overall, not having hip pain and the guts feel pretty good too. The reflux will be the one big question mark, is it going to behave during today's workout or will it continue to be worse than usual? I'm going to take extra reflux meds ahead of time just to be safe. And if it is bad during my workout, then I'll adjust accordingly (meaning I'll probably skip the abdominals machine).
 
My dogs did finally learn (after getting bonked a few times by the elliptical foot pedals) to stay away. They usually play with each other, or lay on their dog pillow I put in the corner. The only annoying thing is that as soon as I stop the machine they both jump up and run over and try to lick the sweat off of my legs! weirdos. :D Not something that you usually have to worry about at the gym!
I have sent a few death glares about during workouts at the gym. I used to have to crank my iPod because a couple of ladies would invariably jump on machines next to me and then move slowly on the machines while loudly chatting. So distracting! I guess that is one thing I don't miss. I really like to get into the zone with my Kindle and lose myself in the workout.
I hope the reflux stays down for you tonight and you are able to get in a really good workout!
 
Yeah, I crank my ipod too when I'm at PF. There's a lot of noise there, from the radio playing in the overhead speakers, from people talking, from the machines, etc. When a lot of the treadmills are running, that's a lot of noise by itself! And weeknights can be really busy there so it can get noisy. I like going there on the weekends because it's usually pretty empty and quiet! I guess a lot of people like to go to the gym after work but not so much on a Saturday afternoon. Friday nights are usually pretty quiet too. So I try to go when it's quiet, but that doesn't always happen. I'm expecting it to be pretty busy there tonight but I'll deal with it. I hate having to wait for a machine I want to use, so that's my big qualm - if somebody parks themself on a machine and just sits there texting or whatever, that's a massive pet peeve! I can't use the machine because some idiot thinks it's a chair. :p

That kind of stuff is why I like working out in the little gym in the basement of my workplace - there's hardly ever anyone else there and I can do exactly what I want without other people cramping my style, and I can crank my music up loud (I usually pop in music DVDs, so I use the TV's speakers to rock out during my workout). The downside of the little gym is, it's only open during work hours (so I can't head in to work on a Saturday for a workout) and it's really small, only 8 weight machines, 2 treadmills, and 1 stationary bike. No arc trainer, no elliptical, and not many weight machines. PF is a huge gym and I can go anytime I want, lots and lots of machines, but the downside is I have to play nice and share with others. Hmm, oh well.
 
Hey guys, just thought I'd drop in and share that this morning I finally made it to 30 minutes on my elliptical! Yeah! :dance: Felt so good to make it that far!
 
Yay Cindy! :D You rock! I saw on your caringbridge page that you're back to working 8 hour days again too? Sounds like you're doing great and getting your energy back!

Update 10/10/13: I hit the gym last night - it was super busy, so many people. I had to wait ages to use the assisted chin-up bar. I had a good amount of energy but the reflux was worse than it ususally is - this seems to be a new pattern with me since the steroid injections into my hip 2 weeks ago. I even took extra reflux meds beforehand - I popped a 20 mg Prilosec in addition to my usual 300 mg Zantac and 10 Tums. All those meds and I was still refluxing off the charts! It was so bad, by the time I was done with weights and went to stretch, I had to keep drinking water to try to get the stuff coming up my throat to go back down. I'd do one stretch, take a gulp of water, do another stretch, stop halfway through and drink more water, etc. It was bad! I got through my whole workout, but it was not pretty.

I slept well last night, but woke up with a little headache that's gradually gotten worse throughout the course of the day. I was thinking about going down to the gym on my lunch and riding the stationary bike for a half hour, but now I don't know if that's wise. Will it make my headache worse or better? And will my reflux go absolutely nutso? I'm still thinking of trying - I know I need more cardio, and I felt great while warming up on the arc trainer last night. So I don't know, I'm not even sure where this headache came from - the weather is stable and not rainy (so not a barometric pressure headache), I haven't had any caffeine, I didn't eat anything weird, I slept fine, I'm not dehydrated. It's not a migraine and it doesn't quite feel like a sinus headache so I don't think it's related to my allergies - I hate when I can't figure things out! At any rate, when I get a headache, nothing usually stops it - tylenol does nothing and I can't take NSAIDs, so I just have to deal with it. I suppose exercise probably won't make it worse, right? Could help? I'm very tempted to give it a try.
 
Hey, Cat. It's quite possible that working out will make the headache go away. It might get a little worse right at first as your blood pressure rises, but the endorphins released by the workout will probably give you some relief. You might just have slept in a funny position that brought it on, and working out might relieve some muscle tension and make it better too.

I am glad to have more energy these days! Every week it's a little bit better. By the end of the month I'm anticipating being back full time with no more limitations!
 
Thanks Cindy - this headache is still a mystery. I got hit with a massive wave of nausea about 30 mins before I hit the gym. Took some Zofran and stool softeners (since Zofran tends to constipate me), plus my usual Zantac and Tums. I felt like I was popping so many pills! Got it under control enough to get down to the gym. As soon as I put my gym clothes on, I felt better. Must be psychological, but I swear the headache eased somewhat and the last of the nausea left as I was changing into my gym clothes. So I rode the stationary bike for 30 mins, got nice & sweaty, then did a little stretching and walking to cool down. As soon as my body was cooling down, I could feel my guts cramp up and the headache come pounding back stronger. I guess I just need to always be exercising and in my gym clothes and then I'll be fine! :p The guts are a little wonky still, mostly I just have no appetite right now, and the headache is back to about where it was before I hit the gym. Well, I tried! And at least I got a good quickie workout in!

Speaking of no appetite, I am having a hard time with my weight lately. I had lost a couple lbs when I did colonoscopy prep back in August, and it took quite awhile for me to be able to gain it back. Well, with the nausea and low appetite etc that I've been having lately thanks to the steroid injections, I weighed myself in the gym today and it looks like I'm down about 3 lbs. Great, now I get to try to gain that back and not lose any more. On a somewhat humorous note, this is the first time I've ever lost weight while on steroid treatment! :p I gained about 25 lbs when I was on Entocort, so this is ridiculous.

My potassium levels are a bit lower than usual too. I don't even need to have bloodwork done to tell me that, I can tell by my toes & feet cramping. My potassium is usually borderline, and if it drops too low then my toes & feet cramp up which is both annoying and somewhat painful. I had been doing pretty well up until the steroid injections - I hadn't had toe/foot cramps in quite awhile. But recently I've had them often, particularly when I'm working out (sweating seems to make my potassium drop a little bit, so if it's borderline, then sweating can make it drop too low and trigger the cramps). I had a massive foot cramp last night after lifting weights - it was my left foot though, so at least I could drive home safely as it wasn't my driving foot. Today just a little bit of toe cramping after riding the bike, I got it under control with a bit of stretching. Oh, and yes I am eating high-potassium foods - I blend a banana into my breakfast smoothie every morning, and I try to eat sweet potatoes as often as I can too. So my potassium is low in spite of me trying to get it in dietary form - maybe I need to look into getting a supplement.
 
I love this guys!! I want my energy back and I know exercise and healthy eating is the only way to go!! I'm starting tonight with a good walk/jog tonight for about 30minutes then some stretching I'm gonna get in a good routine of this for about a week then start factoring in some weights what kinda supplements would u guys suggest for a chronie needing energy daily without drinking a ton of coffee!! I'm willing to try any of them.
 
Hi Jison, as for supplements, have you had any bloodwork done lately? I would say just check on your vitamin levels. If you're low on things like vitamin D, B12, iron, then supplementing those might help your energy levels. Otherwise, just make sure to try to eat something with protein (lean meat, poultry, eggs, etc) right after a workout as that will help your muscles recover faster. Good luck!

Update 10/11/13: I'm doing slightly better than yesterday - headache is still lingering but is a little better than it was. I took some tylenol PM last night which helped me sleep and I think it took a bit of the edge off the headache. I'm not nauseous so far today - guts were really rumbly last night but have quieted down, but I don't trust that my guts will stay quiet. In spite of me sleeping well, I feel pretty exhausted this morning. So I'm feeling so-so, better than I was but not great.

If things stay relatively calm with my tummy and my headache then I'm going to hit the gym tonight. I don't know how much I'll be able to do, but I'll give it my all. I was kind of hoping to do a bike ride tomorrow, but it'll all depend on how I'm feeling and on the weather (there's a 40% chance of thunderstorms). So I may end up taking a rest day on Saturday instead.
 
Update 10/12/13: I was so exhausted yesterday evening that I just could not envision myself going to the gym. I slept about 10 hours last night and woke up with the same headache, now in day 3, and still felt kind of exhausted. I decided to try to go to the gym anyway. It was rough - I didn't have much energy and felt constantly out of breath, but at least my reflux was finally quiet! So I made it through, it was tough but I did it. My dog is antsy so I think I might take her on a quick walk soon. I'm sure doing a lot today for someone with not much energy! :p But hubby is working so he can't walk her, and I feel bad if my dog is cooped up in the house all day with no stimulation and no exercise - that's totally unfair to her. So, we're going walkies. The weather is nice for now - it was raining this morning but it's sunny out right now, so good walking weather.
 
Cat- maybe if the headache continues, it's time for the doc? Never hurts to get it checked out. I know peeps like us hate going to the doctor since we have to go so often, but don't wait if the headache doesn't go away. Sorry that it came back after the workout. I tend to have low potassium too, with foot cramping after workouts.

Hope the walk went good for you, it's not too bad of a day in our part of the world.
 
Cindy, I think the workout and the walk blitzed the headache. I noticed while on the walk with my dog that I felt pretty good and my head wasn't throbbing anymore. Not sure if it was the fresh air or the exercise or what, but hopefully it won't be back! This sometimes happens, the Amitriptyline that I'm on prevents most of my headaches & migraines, but the ones that manage to slip through anyway usually turn out to be doozies and can last for days. So I don't get headaches very often, but the ones I do get are pretty awful.

(I never ever got migraines up until this presumed IBD came along, so I have to assume the two are related in some way, and so I think this headache came about because my stomach has been messed up lately thanks to the steroid injections. Just my guess though.)

Yeah, the weather is pretty nice today! Rainy in the morning but it became nice & sunny this afternoon, and I think it was in the upper 60s when I walked the dog. I didn't need a jacket, I was just wearing a fairly thin sweater, and I rolled up my sleeves during the walk as I was getting a little bit warm. My dog seemed to have fun too, she likes the cooler weather so it was probably a bit too warm for her, but she had a good time nonetheless.
 
Update 10/14/13: Had a rest day yesterday - didn't do anything but lie on the couch and veg out! I meant to be more productive, really. It didn't happen though. At least the headache has stayed away!

I'm feeling pretty okay today. A bit tired and my reflux is bothering me somewhat (woke up with a sore throat, which happens when I've been refluxing in my sleep). Going to head to the gym tonight, hopefully the reflux will be quiet and my energy level will be okay. I never quite know what to expect of my body when I head into the gym, so we'll see what happens tonight!
 
Ever try Tylenol Headache (Tylenol with caffeine)? I've tried it a few times for bad headaches.

Is today (Monday - Columbus Day) a holiday there for everyone? It's Thanksgiving here so a long weekend for us.
 
sadly, it is a holiday here as it is "Columbus Day". I'm one of many here who is ready to abolish a holiday celebrating the man who practically single handedly established the Atlantic Slave Trade. Nobody really gets the day off except for mailmen.

Cat, sometimes a rest day is a good thing! I overdid it yesterday and torqued my back a bit. I'm also having some trouble finding my appetite lately. I don't know if it's a physical thing, or if it's because I'm tired of the about seven things I can actually eat these days.
Still managed to hit the elliptical this morning so that was a good thing! After a super busy day at work, I'm exhausted though.
 
Hawkeye, I can't handle caffeine at all anymore unfortunately - it triggers migraines for me, so it would make a bad situation even worse! I have sinus issues and most of my headaches end up affecting my sinuses even if it doesn't start out as a sinus headache - so as a result, sometimes Tylenol Sinus helps.

I believe today is a federal holiday here, meaning places like the Post Office is closed - but most businesses stay open and most people still have to work. Happy Thanksgiving to you!
 
Cindy, I have similar thoughts on Columbus Day - and on (American) Thanksgiving too. As a descendant of a couple of Mayflower Pilgrims, I think it's cool that my ancestors survived the journey and that I can trace my lineage back to famous historical people. But on the other hand, I totally hate just about everything they did (the "real" Thanksiving did NOT involve inviting friendly Indians to a feast, it was more along the lines of, the Pilgrims likely found a cache of food that the Indians had stored, and they stole the cache of food which got them through that first rough winter). So yeah, I know what you mean about celebrating very iffy history like that - it's not really anything to be proud of or to celebrate.

Update 10/15/13: I finally had a really good workout last night! Went to the gym, and did really well both with my energy levels and my reflux. I had enough energy to do the things I wanted to without feeling like I might die, and the reflux stayed relatively quiet (or at least it was on par with how it typically has been before I got the steroid injections). As I was changing back into my regular clothes and leaving the gym, I kept thinking how great I felt! :) I haven't had a workout like that in awhile, and I really neeed that!

We haven't turned the furnace on in our house yet, but it's starting to get really chilly at night (lows in the 40s and soon to be in the 30s, brr!). So I decided last night to put my brand new electric blanket on the bed. It works great - I have a hard time sleeping if I'm cold, and it felt so chilly in my house last night that I was afraid I wouldn't be able to sleep. The electric blanket fortunately let me get a great night's sleep. So I'm feeling pretty well today - it's raining right now so my bad hip is aching, but otherwise I feel quite good. I had a good workout and a good night's sleep, can't ask for much more than that!

I'm thinking I'm going to hit the exercise bike this afternoon. I want to do as much exercise as I can while I'm having a good day, and some cardio sounds appealing. So that's the plan. Will hit the gym for weights again tomorrow, and I'm hoping to have another good day.
 
Cat-a-Tonic said:
We haven't turned the furnace on in our house yet, but it's starting to get really chilly at night (lows in the 40s and soon to be in the 30s, brr!). So I decided last night to put my brand new electric blanket on the bed. It works great - I have a hard time sleeping if I'm cold, and it felt so chilly in my house last night that I was afraid I wouldn't be able to sleep. The electric blanket fortunately let me get a great night's sleep. So I'm feeling pretty well today - it's raining right now so my bad hip is aching, but otherwise I feel quite good. I had a good workout and a good night's sleep, can't ask for much more than that!
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No heat turned on here yet either. It would be nice if I could get another couple of weeks to say we made it to November.
 
Hey all,
I'm a big baby and always cold, so I've had the heat on for a couple of days! My hubs didn't know so yesterday he was like, "if it stays ok for the next couple weeks we'll hold out but if it gets colder maybe we'll turn the heat on". I was just looking at him, not saying anything and he looks over at the thermostat, and says, "oh, I see you've already turned it on!" We had a good laugh about that.
Cat, when it comes to Thanksgiving and Christmas, I pretty much just view them as family days. I'm not Christian so Christmas is just a great time to get the whole family together, have some fun and exchange gifts to let each other know how much we care. Plus I really enjoy finding just the right gift for each person. Honestly if I were to celebrate it as more than that I would celebrate it as the Pagan holiday it was originally. :) I'm not trying to offend anyone, I respect the religious beliefs of everyone! I tend to definitely feel on the side of the Native Americans when it comes to Columbus Day and Thanksgiving, because the European settlers did kill over 98% of the existing Native population after settling here and it really is awful to celebrate things like the genocide of several nations, as well as the slave trade.

So glad, Cat, that you're feeling so good. Workouts and good sleep, what an awesome combination! I made it to 30 minutes on my elliptical this morning, and yesterday and today I noticed just how much stronger I'm feeling than I was even a month ago. so yay me! :D
 
Ha ha, Cindy! I'm usually like that too, but this year I've decided to try to tough it out a bit longer before turning on the furnace. I'm utilizing blankets, electric blankets, fuzzy slippers, big sweaters, etc. And exercise of course gets my blood moving and warms me up too, so if I'm really cold, I'll do a few push-ups or squats which helps a bit.

No worries about offending, I'm an atheist and my hubby is too. We celebrate most holidays, but like you said it's more about family & tradition than it is about anything to do with religion. I like seeing my nieces & nephews on xmas (I have a brand new niece in fact, she'll be 1 week old tomorrow!). And I like seeing my grandparents on Thanksgiving (my grandpa "died" the day before Thanksgiving 7 years ago - he went into cardiac arrest and was technically dead for a few minutes, no pulse and no breathing - he got defibrillated and was resuscitated and is still alive, so I really am thankful for him each Thanksgiving).

Update 10/16/13: I did the stationary bike for 30 mins yesterday, and I felt mostly good - my left knee was pretty painful during & after my ride though. My left knee usually gives me trouble on bike rides, but it usually waits until I've been riding for 45 mins or so to start hurting. It started aching around 20 mins in this time, not good. Maybe it's just because I haven't been doing the bike so often, I'm not used to it. I'm definitely NOT going to get a steroid shot in that knee, so I guess I just have to either work around the knee pain or deal with it or whatever!

Headed to the gym tonight for weights. Rest day tomorrow I think, or maybe yoga. Weights Friday, Saturday not sure, and Sunday I'm heading out of town to visit my parents and grandparents. I might need a good gym session after that stressfulness, as my grandma has been having some mental decline and anger issues lately (we're suspecting she's in the early stages of Alzheimer's). So possibly gym Sunday evening. That's my plan for the week so far! I kind of want to do a bike ride outside on Saturday, but it's supposed to be quite cold (high temp is something like 48 degrees, brr!) so I don't know if that'll happen. Bike riding outside may just be done for now until springtime rolls around!
 
congrats on the new niece! that's exciting. And thanskgiving certainly does have a special meaning for you with your grandpa, doesn't it? Personally I think the world would be a better place if holidays were made to be about family and friends and not about heritage or history or religion.

Hang in there on the knee, maybe it was just from a funny position or sleeping wrong! I'll keep my fingers crossed that it improves. have fun with your weights, I know that's your favorite thing to do!
 
Yeah, for the longest time I hated Thanksgiving because one of my best friends died just before Thanksgiving in 1998, and then because of my grandpa too (I literally was in the shower that morning trying to tell myself that I shouldn't hate Thanksgiving, and then the phone rang and it was my grandpa saying he was in the hospital - yes, he called me himself right after his cardiac arrest!). So I spent that Thanksgiving in the hospital and helping my grandma out (the cardiac arrest had happened in the airport, so I had to go get my grandparents' car and luggage). I've just never had a really happy Thanksgiving because of stuff like that - I hate stuffing myself with food, and after those bad experiences with my friend and my grandpa, I feel like I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop. And add in my "white guilt" about being a Mayflower descendant and it just adds up to Thanksgiving being my least favorite holiday. So yeah, I celebrate most holidays, but oddly enough one of the least-religious holidays is also my least-favorite. :p

I just remembered that I definitely need to take a rest day tomorrow - because I'm getting my flu shot tomorrow morning! My arm is always so sore after getting my flu shot, so I'll be resting up and not doing anything physical for the rest of the day so that my arm can heal up. Hopefully the arm is feeling up to lifting some weights on Friday!
 
Cat- ugh, those flu shots. When I got mine my arm hurt enough to wake me up every time I rolled on that side! I guess it's a much better alternative than getting the flu.

I've started doing some stretches/calf raises/squats every couple of hours at work. I realized, now that I'm working full-time again, that I sit on my butt a lot every day without getting out of my chair!
 
Ha ha, Mark. :p Cindy, I do that kind of stuff at work too - it's hard to sit all day! A little bit of stretching or squats in my cube, or walking up and down the stairs for a few minutes and I'm refreshed and good to go. :)

Got my flu shot, and yep, my arm is feeling pretty sore! I get a flu shot every year and some years it's worse than others (I'm never sure, is it the vaccine itself or is it the way the nurse administers the shot, or is it a combination of both that causes that achiness?). This year, not too bad so far. Some acheyness but nothing awful. If I feel like this tomorrow, I'll be okay to go lift weights.

The hip is not great today. It's been rainy all morning (it's been rainy all week!) so the hip is acting up a bit. Apparently the steroid shot did absolutely nothing for my hip pain because it's behaving just like it has for the past 3 years - aching more when it rains or snows. Oh well, at least I know what to expect with it. Hmph.
 
It's the injection that causes the pain. The needle really just makes a hole, but the injection of the medication actually makes a tear in the muscle itself. This is what causes the pain. Fortunately muscle tends to mend quickly so the discomfort only lasts a day or two.

I'm not looking forward to the incoming weather we have here tonight and next wee (which will probably come right over to you, Cat). Supposed to be rainy and (NOOO!) snowy. When weather systems move through, the changes in barometric pressure cause havoc with my poor, still-healing skull and head. I'm sure that's not helping your hip either Cat! I've never been that much of a fan of steroid shots- they seem kind of hit or miss as to who they help. I've probably had thirty of them in my back and they really haven't ever helped me at all.
 
Cindy, thanks for the info about the injection - that makes sense, I know that muscles heal quickly, as I've read that weight lifting essentially makes tiny tears in the muscles that then heal, and that tearing and healing process is what causes soreness after a workout. So I'll just think of this as being like a little workout! :p The arm is already feeling a bit better, so I think I'm on the mend. Oh, and I feel for you - I get barometric pressure headaches too, and I can imagine it'd be a lot worse for someone who has had skull surgery! :( That has to be awful.

Eek, no, not the "S" word! I had checked the forecast this morning and it said sunny tomorrow, rain Saturday and sunny Sunday. Nothing was said about snow! So hopefully it will miss us or maybe it'll convert into rain? But for the sake of your head, I hope the weather is nice and stable, no rain and no snow!

Speaking of the weather, the rain stopped and it got sunny out this afternoon! My hip improved and so did my mood. Went out shopping for a bit on my lunch break, and got some really cute new yoga pants. They're robin's egg blue in color! Maybe I'm boring for being excited by that, but pretty much all my other workout pants are either black or grey (I do own one red pair of workout pants, but they don't fit the best so they're like my "backup" pair in case all my other pants are in the laundry). So yeah, bright blue is a new one for me, I'm going to have to figure out which of my workout tops look cute with blue. The pants fit really well though, they seem to be very high quality, and they were a thrift store find so they were only $4.75. :) Can't beat that!

I think I forgot to say earlier how my workout went yesterday. It went quite well! For the 2nd time in a row, my reflux stayed within its normal limits (not great, but not absolutely crazy either) and my energy level was good. The gym was a bit busy, so I had to wait for a couple of machines I wanted to use. (I just do other machines while I'm waiting for the desired one to open up, so I'm not just standing around waiting.) The assisted-chin up bar was being hogged by this one guy, I've seen him before and he was hogging the same machine last time too! He hogs that machine for literally 20 mins at a time, it's ridiculous. And the guy is ridiculous too - he wears these icky shower sandals into the gym, and then he takes them off and walks around barefoot and does his workout while barefoot! Eww! Next time I see him barefoot, particularly if he's hogging the stupid chin-up machine again, I'm going to report him to the staff. I think even sandals aren't allowed, I'm pretty sure athletic shoes are required. But I'm sure bare feet cannot be allowed in the gym! Hah, I'm tempted to walk past him and "accidentally" drop a weight on his bare feet. :p I wouldn't actually do it of course, but I will report the jerk next time I see him with his icky bare feet. The gym is gross enough with all the sweat and stuff, but bare feet are just a whole new level of gross.
 
Update 10/18/13: Eek, October is flying by so fast! And it's getting cold out, I've worn my wool coat the past couple days. I wore a scarf this morning too! Brrr. The furnace still hasn't been turned on in my house, but I don't think I'm going to make it until November. I will probably turn on the heat within the next few days.

Had a rest day yesterday because I had gotten the flu shot and I didn't want to put too much stress or strain on my sore arm. The arm is doing a lot better today, it's barely sore at all. So I'm going to go hit the gym for weights this afternoon, and I'm looking forward to it. Not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow - I was hoping to take a bike ride, but there's a 50% chance of rain, so the bike ride won't happen if the weather is bad. I'll probably end up staying in and working on my Halloween costume tomorrow. I might do yoga, or if there's a short break in the weather then I might get outside and do a bit of yard work (I need to trim down my lilac bush a bit more before winter hits, and this time of year there's always raking to be done!).
 
Is it weird if I'm excited for you to get to the gym and do your weights? :D
Weather wise - it was in the upper 30s last night here and rainy, they're saying by Monday the high will be 41 and it will rain that night and we could get a dusting of snow. :( boo! I'm thinking you're far enough south of us that you won't get the snow stuff, but stay warm enough for rain?
Cool on your new workout pants. Sometimes I have a hard time being brave and grabbing a bright color (other than light pink -I have a thing for light pink ) so kudos to you! And it's so great to find pants that fit and feel great, like a little reward for yourself.
I am going to use my last Halloween costume again this year, because we are going someplace different and no one there has seen it before! So I will be a pirate again. Hope it's not too cold, because it's kind of a short dress!
 
That's funny you always go for light pink - with clothing, my eye is always drawn to blue. In fact one of my friends used to joke that I'm like Picasso because I'm going through my "blue period". :p At one point about half my closet was blue! I'm better now, I have many other colors in my closet besides blue, but my eye is still drawn to it. Still, I didn't even know they made yoga pants in bright blue and I was a bit leary of buying such a bright color of pants! But they are super cute and fit great, so I just need to build up a bit of confidence in order to be brave enough to wear them to the gym! I've already figured out what to wear with them, too - I have a black workout tank with a built in bra, it's pretty plain but it has a flattering cut to it and fits well. I think a plain black fitted tank with blue yoga pants could be so zazzy and cute!

Ha ha, maybe I get too excited about workout fashions, I'm such a girl. :p My hubby owns 2 pairs of workout shorts, which I bought for him. I got him a pair of grey shorts and a pair of black shorts. Apparently grey is just too "out there" for him, because he only ever wears the black shorts to the gym. He's worn the grey shorts around the house and that's it. Good thing I didn't get him the navy shorts I was looking at, way too crazy for my fashion-backward hubby! :p Ha ha. Here I am thinking robin's egg blue is maybe a bit much for me, and grey is even too much for the hubby.
 
Laughing here - sounds like your hubs is a lot like mine! he usually goes for gray, black or white. Every once in a while he'll get really crazy and wear brown. I can get him into blue but it takes bribery and coercion!
I tend to like gray and black myself, but throw in a dash of color (usually pink imagine that) :D. I do like blue sometimes because I have blue eyes and it does make them stand out a bit more! I will not wear yellow at all, it makes me look funny with my skin tone. Yep, kind of a girl myself too apparently!
 
I have brown eyes & brown hair, so there's not really a color that makes my eyes stand out (my hubby does have blue eyes, and the rare times he wears blue his eyes totally pop and look gorgeous, so I know what you mean!). I am slowly going grey, so I tend to dye my hair darker reddish-brown (my natural hair color is light brown but I like darker browns better, they feel richer and warmer to me). So with the hint of red that's usually in my hair, I feel like that contrasts in a very flattering way with blue. I agree with you about yellow, I look terrible in yellow! I don't look good in white either, it just doesn't work with my skin (I'm kind of tan and kind of peach and kind of pale - my skin doesn't really know what its doing, ha ha). I don't really go for pink, but if I do I tend to go for fuchsia or coral pink, as I think those work best on me. Blue, brown, grey, black, and purple are the main staples of my wardrobe color palette. (I'm wearing a black & grey striped sweater right now!) I know that those colors are fairly basic and neutral and boring, so lately I've been trying to zazz up my (non-workout) wardrobe with accessories. Big blingy costume jewelry rings or statement necklaces are my thing lately. I get lots of compliments, especially on my rings, so I think "operation zazzy accessories" is going well. :)
 
Okay, so it's a good thing I've been buying more workout clothes! I just got back from the gym. As I was getting ready to go to the gym, I reached into my gym bag to grab a sports bra. I tried to put it on, but the elastic totally gave out! It gave that sad ripping dying elastic sound and did not spring back. Good thing I had other sports bras in my bag!

Other than that, I had a good workout. I felt fine - my sore arm that had the flu shot didn't bother me one bit. I tried jogging just a little. I walked for a minute, jogged for 90 seconds, walked for a minute, jogged another 90 seconds. That was my warm-up. The hip doesn't feel too angry about that, yet anyway. I tried to do some leg-lifts near the end of my workout, and my right leg was noticeably weaker than the left (my right hip is the bad one that had the injections). So I'm not sure what's up with that. I know corticosteroids can weaken muscles, so maybe this is still fallout from the injections? It didn't hurt, it was just weak and shaky - the left leg felt strong and steady by comparison. Hmmm.
 
That ripping sound is a sad one, isn't it? I realized I need to buy more sports bras when I was hunting for them and only found one that has hooks in it that are falling out! Time for some good new stretchy ones.
Your weakness could be from the steroids. Also remember that with the pain you've been favoring some for a while and that can cause weakness too. ;) Keep working on it and rebuilding, it should come back in a week or so.
I had lots of houseguests over the weekend so I took two days off of working out - probably shouldn't have as my back was unhappy, but the good side of it is that I didn't lose any weight, since my appetite is still off. This morning was a feeling-good half hour of elliptical work and I didn't feel exhausted when I got off of the machine. I've been so tired by nine at night I've been falling asleep in a room full of people. It's all part of gaining my stamina back, I'm sure. The last two weeks have had a marked improvement so hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll be feeling stronger and almost back to normal. :D
 
I had a busy weekend too so I also ended up not making it to the gym. The hubby worked Saturday, so I spent the day doing stuff around the house & running errands. Went across town to buy hubby some hot melt glue sticks at the place that carries them cheap, only to find out that they're all out! Went and bought pumpkins too, because it's that time of year and I freaking love Halloween. :) Worked on my costume a bunch too and made some good progress. Made dinner and walked the dog also - busy busy!

Then yesterday I went to visit with my grandparents. My grandma is starting to suffer from dementia or maybe Alzheimer's and her memory is bad and sometimes her moods go a little crazy. My grandpa is really sick and is in a wheelchair. They're both falling apart and it's hard to see them like that. Seeing them and the rest of my family, plus the 90 min drive each way, made me pretty tired so I ended up just sitting on the couch and watching movies for the rest of the evening once I got home.

Going to the gym tonight for sure. Going Wednesday and Friday too. Saturday, we're heading downtown in costume for the huge Halloween street party that takes place in my city every year. The hubby and I are costuming afficionados, we try to make cool costumes every year. Going downtown is always exhausting to me - walking around outside for hours in 30ish degree temps makes my joints hurt. We usually duck in a coffee shop to warm up at least once during the evening, so drinking hot chocolate and then going back outside into the cold can sometimes screw up my guts with all the wacky temperature changes. Still, it's fun to "wow" people with our costumes and it's also fun to see other people who have put a lot of thought and effort into their costumes, and I wouldn't miss it for the world. So I'll suffer a bit on Saturday night and will likely spend Sunday recovering!
 
I've heard crazy things about Madtown and the Halloween craziness that happens there! Sounds like you'll have a lot of fun. We are also planning on coming back to WI for Halloween, to our old stomping grounds. It'll be a late night so Sunday will totally be a rest day for me as well. But it will be fun to dress up and see our old friends again so it will be worth it.
 
Yeah, fortunately the Halloween madness has been somewhat better here since about 2007. Prior to then, people would run wild in the streets all night, the drunks would go crazy, there were riots, people breaking windows and lighting things on fire, police in riot gear spraying people with pepper spray, it was just insane! (For the record, hubby and I do not touch alcohol when we go downtown in costume, and we leave before midnight as the crowd gets too drunk and rowdy the later it gets.) In about 2007, they started fencing off downtown, only letting people in if they had bought a ticket, they put people through metal detectors and didn't allow in anything remotely weapon-like (even pink plastic swords get confiscated), arresting anyone causing trouble and throwing lots of people in the drunk tank, and they shut things down at about 1 AM and start making people leave the area. That has put a stop to the rioting and mayhem, although the crowd still gets a bit too drunk and rowdy for my liking. I'm rambling but I've got a much longer Halloween thread with links to photos here:
http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=22552

I'm heading to the gym in about an hour. Can't wait! Not brave enough to wear the blue workout pants just yet - I'm thinking, I have the day off work on Friday (so that I can do last-minute costume work if needed), and I'm going to go hit the gym around lunchtime on Friday. I think it'll be nice and quiet in the gym at lunchtime on a weekday. So I think I'll wear the blue pants then, as there shouldn't be many people there to see me and I'll feel less self-conscious.
 
Ack, I was writing a longer post and then lost it! Here's the short version:

I did have a good workout last night, felt great, had lots of energy and the reflux was fairly quiet. Guts aren't great though and I think I'm coming down with a cold. I've felt sniffly and had messed up sinuses for a couple days now, and my guts became unhappy last night. My guts usually act up more whenever I catch a cold/virus. I was thinking my allergies were just going nuts, until the guts started acting up too. So it's looking like I have a cold, bleh. Hopefully it goes away by Saturday! The good news is, I can work out just fine with a cold as I did great last night. So I should be okay to go to the Halloween fun on Saturday too.
 
Bleh. Earlier today I was thinking of going and riding the stationary bike for a bit, but some fatigue & nausea has settled in now so I'm thinking I should take a rest day instead. I definitely have a cold or something along those lines - the sad part is, I only feel sniffly and a tiny bit headachey, the cold itself isn't so bad. The gut symptoms however are starting to really annoy me! Guts are still bad, stools are totally unformed and full of mucus, and some gut cramps too. A bit of nausea, my face has gone a bit pale, appetite is all messed up, and I'm feeling pretty exhausted. And I'm a bit chilled too which also sometimes happens when I get gut symptoms. :p Just lovely. I want to go to the gym tomorrow but I will have to see how I'm feeling. I hate skipping a gym session, but I know at times like this I need to let my body rest and recover, rather than push it too much. That's frustrating though! Well, hopefully I'll be feeling at least somewhat better tomorrow and will be able to make it to the gym anyway. Gotta stay positive!
 
Thanks LMV. Unfortunately I'm still feeling pretty icky today too, so I'm going to have to skip the gym. I was so nauseous earlier this morning that I had to take 2 Zofrans just to be able to get my breakfast smoothie down. I'm feeling exhausted and still having mucusy d too. (The cold part is fine, I'm a bit sniffly and coughing a tiny bit but it's barely even bothersome - the gastro symptoms are really crappy though!) I just need to rest and get better, so sadly the gym is not happening today. I may attempt some light yoga tomorrow if I'm feeling at all better to ease myself back into exercise, and I'm still hoping to go do weights on Friday. If need be, I'll take another rest day tomorrow, but still holding out hope for Friday.

And no matter how I'm feeling, I *will* go downtown in costume for the Halloween shindig on Saturday! I may need to take a bunch of dayquil and zofran and whatever else to do it, but I absolutely refuse to miss my favorite holiday of the year. 2 years ago I went down to the Halloween street party while I had bronchitis, and my costume that year was not warm (I was princess Belle in her yellow ball gown, so I had bare shoulders and only thin satin princess gloves on my arms). That was not easy to do while I was sick and it was so cold out, but I still had lots of fun and looked awesome. It's going to be really cold again this year - right now the weather report is saying 27 degrees for the overnight low temp (for those who do celsius, I know that 32 F is 0 C, so it'll be a bit below 0 C - brr!). So, it'll suck, but I'm looking forward to resting up on Sunday. And then next week, I only have to work Mon-Wed, and then I'm taking like 10 days off as I have to burn up some vacation days before the end of the year. I'm totally looking forward to having a bunch of relaxing days off! :D
 
So, I hate taking medicine for a cold. I know I have to take meds for the IBD, that's never-ending, but a cold usually ends fairly quickly and I feel like I hate to take more meds and risk more side effects. I hate taking acetaminophen because I already have liver issues, and of course I can't take NSAIDs. But today I just couldn't stand the symptoms any longer, so I took some Dayquil (which contains acetaminophen plus some other stuff, but is not an NSAID). And wow, I feel great now! Still sniffly and a bit of a cough, but my nausea and fatigue pretty much went away. :p It seems ridiculous to me that that worked so well. I caught a cold, which made my guts angry, I took cold medicine, which didn't treat the cold symptoms, but did make my guts happier? That's just silly. :p But I'm glad it worked!

I still think it's probably wise to skip the gym tonight, as I know the medicine is probably just masking the symptoms and that resting is still the best course of action to actually get rid of this cold.

Oh, and this is random - but it just snowed here! :( Nooo! It was snowing quite heavily for a few minutes, and then the snow got lighter and fluffier and it was really pretty. It's stopped now and it didn't stick or anything - and hey, my bad hip didn't hurt like it usually does before/during snow. Maybe there wasn't enough snow to affect my hip, as it only snowed for like 5 mins, but maybe this is a good sign that the stupid steroid injections actually did me some good. That's probably just wishful thinking, but it'd be nice to get some benefit out of all those annoying side effects!
 
Cat-a-Tonic said:
Oh, and this is random - but it just snowed here! :( Nooo!
Click to expand...

Nooooo exactly, they mentioned snow on one of the weather forecasts here last night and on the radio this morning. Almost time to get the snow tires on.

The cold is going through our house too, but I have managed to avoid it so far.....knock on wood.
 
Hawkeye, the snow here took everyone completely by surprise, no mention of it in the weather reports! The weather report only said 30% chance of rain, it said nothing about snow. I looked out the window this afternoon and saw it was suddenly snowing rather heavily! That was a shock. Fortunately it didn't last long, and it didn't stick either. It seemed way too early in the season for it to snow like that though. It's not even Halloween yet, usually there's not snow at least until after my birthday (which is in early November).
 
Snow?! What! I'm not ready for winter yet.

For colds, if there is a David's Tea near you, try the organic cold 911 tea. It's amazing. You can also buy it online.
 
Thanks Alli, I'll look into that tea - haven't heard of it before but it sounds intriguing. Offhand, do you know if it's caffeine-free or not? I can't do caffeine at all (even "decaf" tea contains some caffeine, and it's enough to trigger my migraines - there's apparently a big difference between "decaf" and true "caffeine-free"!).

I'm feeling somewhat better today. Stiff a bit sniffly, and guts are still a bit wonky, but feeling better than I have been the past few days. Not nauseous and got some pep back in my step and feeling just generally more human. Seems like the cold is on its way out! :D So I'm planning to hit the gym tomorrow, and am looking forward to it.

So far no snow today, but the sky is overcast and it looks like it could snow if it wanted to! I hope it doesn't!
 
Update 10/28/13: Phew, I survived the Halloween madness! We hit the gym Friday as planned, that went okay but my energy level wasn't great and it was a bit of a struggle. Saturday, we went downtown in costume and walked all around. It was quite cold and windy, but my costume kept me pretty warm so I felt okay. Legs & hips got pretty tired, and we called it a night around 10:30. I didn't sleep well and was pretty exhausted all day yesterday. I mostly rested yesterday.

I feel okay today, still a bit tired but not bad. I think I'm going to do a quick cardio workout today. I'm thinking mostly bike, but I'm tempted to try jogging a bit again too. It went okay when I tried to jog a week or two ago, although I didn't jog much at all that day and I think I'm going to try to do a little more jogging today. I did 3 mins last time, so I'm thinking 4 or 5 mins today. I definitely want to ease into it, and if my hip hurts then I'll back right off. But I have to try! So I'll jog for my warm-up and then hit the bike for a bit. Weights tomorrow, not sure about Wednesday.
 
Hey, Cat. I thought about you over the weekend, hoped all went well for you Saturday at the Madtown event! Sounds like you had fun.
I did manage to get on my elliptical Saturday morning before we headed back to Wisconsin. Glad I did because I think it helped my back, with the long car ride and then our adventures throughout the day. We had fun at the various bars we went to, I had quite an interesting experience at one - but I'll document that further in the Undiagnosed feed. Yesterday I was exhausted after our late night and driving back so I vegged.
Back at it this morning, I do have to say I am really enjoying working out again finally! Starting to feel strong and I'm not fighting to finish my half-hour. I am thinking I'll have to stick with just that 1/2 hour because I'm struggling to keep weight on, what with my loss of appetite from the Keppra. Over the weekend I dropped two pounds - back down to 134.
 
My weight's been iffy lately too. My appetite seems to go away whenever anything happens - when I was having steroid side effects from the injections, no appetite. And then I had a cold last week, and no appetite then either. I've got my appetite back, for now. I usually tend to scarf as much food as I can when I have an appetite and no nausea, because I don't know how long that's going to last! So my weight normalizes when I am in scarf-mode, but it starts to drop when I have no appetite/am nauseous. My "healthy" weight is about 136 (I'm 5'8") and I know a bit of weight gain is okay if I'm putting on muscle as opposed to fat or water retention or whatever - and likewise, weight loss worries me because I'm afraid I might be losing muscle mass. I think right now I'm hovering just below my healthy weight (haven't weighed myself in a few days, but will do so when I go to the gym). But yeah, I can relate to having no appetite. Some days it's an uphill battle just to maintain my weight!

Blargh. I'm feeling crampy! (Any guys reading this may want to skip this paragraph!) Remember last month, the steroid injections had messed with my menstrual cycle, and the result of that was that I had a very light period that barely lasted a couple days? Well, it's making up for that this month! It's much heavier and crampier than normal. I usually start out with a light flow day and then have a couple heavy flow days, and then another light day and then it's done - that's almost always the pattern for me. But it started today, and it started heavy right away! Eek, not fun! I'm still going to go do some cardio, hopefully that'll help me feel somewhat better. I think I have a date with my heating pad tonight, too.
 
Ahhh. I did 10 mins run/walk and 20 mins bike (and 5 mins stretch/cool down) and I feel much better! :) That was exactly what I needed. I think the jogging is going okay so far, too. I did 1 min walk/2 min run, I did that 3x. Felt pretty good - hip wasn't really hurting during and isn't really hurting now either (maybe the slightest twinge but nothing major at all). In the past, my hip would start hurting while jogging and would continue to hurt for hours or even days afterwards. So maybe the steroid injections did do some good for me after all! I think it's still too soon to tell - but I'm encouraged to continue trying to jog.
 
I don't think the cold 911 tea has caffeine.. But it's not avail right now. Winter teas are out next week, so should be available then. I love David's Tea!
 
yay Cat! I'm glad you're feeling better. We must be pretty close to the same size. I'm also 5'8" and 136 (most days).
Your crampy post reminded me to be grateful again that I had a hysterectomy eight years ago! I do NOT miss my period! :D
Alli, I've never liked tea but I've found I love chai tea with soy. Tasty ;)
 
Update 10/29/13: I felt great during that cardio session yesterday, but today my stupid left knee hurts. That's the same knee that always hurts when I ride the bike. Hmph! Well, I'm going to go do weights today anyway, I can do that regardless of how my knee feels. I think tomorrow will be a rest day. I'm taking some vacation days from work starting on Thursday, so I'm thinking I'll go do weights Thursday around lunchtime, so that I can get home in time to hand candy out to the cute little trick-or-treaters. :)

Hopefully we get lots of trick-or-treaters this year - they're currently saying 70% chance of rain/thunderstorms, so if it's raining or storming then I may be stuck with a lot of candy! I never know what to expect, one year we only had like 2 trick-or-treaters and another year we had like 50+ kids come to our door, so I always err on the side of buying a lot of candy as I don't want to run out. The downside is, that's a lot of candy for hubby and I to eat or get rid of if we end up with most of it left at the end of the night! And I can't eat a lot of candy, it doesn't do great things to my stomach.

I might not be on the forum much during my days off from work (I'll be off through Nov 10th). I'm planning on doing a lot of stuff around the house which will keep me very active. I need to clean and organize my craft room and catch up on a bunch of sewing projects that got pushed to the backburner while I was making my Halloween costume. I need to organize my closet, take stuff to goodwill, and just do a lot of general cleaning and organizing and purging. I come from a family of hoarders, and I try very hard not to be one myself, although admittedly I am a pack-rat (the difference is, I save useful things and try to be organized, rather than saving everything and piling it up everywhere!). So, some of my time off will be spent doing that. I'm also going to get out of the house and do fun stuff too, and will of course keep up on my workouts and also relax. But, I may not be around the forum as much for the next little while, as I want to get away from the computer for awhile during my days off. I'll still check in, but probably won't post as much.
 
Quick little update: It's day 2 of my nice long stretch of vacation days. I'm doing fine on exercise - hit the gym yesterday and pushed myself pretty hard, then took the dog on a nice long walk today. But I'm having trouble with food & appetite. I still don't have much appetite, and without a structured day like a workday, I find I just plain forget to eat! On days I work, I've got everything on a set schedule. I drink my smoothie when I get in to the office first thing in the morning, I drink my psyllium at 10 AM and have my snack at 11, etc. Today I woke up, had my smoothie... and then forgot to eat anything for quite awhile. It's 3 PM and I'm just eating lunch now!

I think part of the problem is that my hubby is working all day every day for the next little while (his boss is at a convention so he has to run the shop). If he were home, I'd see him eating or we'd make lunch together or whatever. Being by myself without structure to my day, I just plain forget about food! There's so much else to do, and my appetite isn't great, so it doesn't occur to me that I haven't eaten all day or for quite awhile. Not good - I see my GI on Monday and if my weight has dropped too much then he's going to get concerned, so I have to try to pig out over the weekend! :p Yikes, I don't think that's going to go well.
 
Hey, Cat. That's a tough one. I have the same issue since I lost my appetite a couple of months ago. If we're busy I forget about eating. My hubs isn't a great reminder either, he sometimes doesn't eat lunch at home if he had a lot for breakfast, and so if he doesn't eat, I don't either. Except in my case it leads to weight loss. This is my hormonal week, so I'm bloated and breaking out, and I'm kind of waiting to see what happens after I do that day of peeing constantly and getting back to my weight without the bloat. I'm only at 137 with the water weight, usually I'm at or just over 140 with it, so I guess I usually gain 4-5 lbs with the water weight. I haven't been able to eat much this week either so I'm hoping that when I do dump the water weight I'm not sitting at 132 or something like that. Probably will be because even with the bloat and water weight my belly is still flat. That is not normal for me.

Anyway, try to eat some goodies that agree with you this weekend and beef up a bit! :D Have a good time, been thinking about you and hoping you're having fun with your time off.
 
Well, unfortunately I think my weight issues are going to continue. :( I ate a big dinner last night... then felt so sick I couldn't sleep, had a few episodes of d, including one with blood. Finally got to bed around midnight and managed to sleep some, but still feel rather icky this morning. I was hoping to get to the gym today - I put some new songs on my ipod and everything and was really excited to listen to them during my workout! But it's looking like the gym may not happen. I have zero appetite and am still kind of nauseous and I'm sure I'd be weak and rather worthless in the gym. So my goal has shifted, I'm hoping to be able to walk the dog today at some point, and hoping to hit the gym tomorrow. Bleh! Not sure if it was from overeating or if I ate too much fat content or what, but my body totally hated me stuffing myself with dinner. I haven't weighed myself but it's probably not going to be good when I see my GI on Monday.

This is one of the new songs I put on my Ipod, and it pretty much sums up my mood. "Black" by G-dragon (featuring the adorable little Jennie Kim). I may have listened to this song about 20 times last night - hey, if I can't sleep, I'm going to listen to the song I'm currently obsessed with! ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI7seBPTh5Q

This is the other song I put on my playlist. Pretty much the polar opposite of the other song! Same singer (& songwriter) though, G-dragon. He's a versatile guy! The very peppy and bouncy "Who You" by GD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pB95JrrT8w
 
mccindy said:
yay Cat! I'm glad you're feeling better. We must be pretty close to the same size. I'm also 5'8" and 136 (most days).
Your crampy post reminded me to be grateful again that I had a hysterectomy eight years ago! I do NOT miss my period! :D
Alli, I've never liked tea but I've found I love chai tea with soy. Tasty ;)
Click to expand...

I love tea. I bought the entire winter collection at David's Tea today,.. Amazing!!!
 
Yeah, we turned the heat on a little while ago. It was just getting too cold in the house, even when I was wrapped up in blankets I was still chilly. We have it set pretty low though to try to save a bit of money.

I'm feeling somewhat better today. Had a rest day yesterday, didn't do much of anything. Sat on the couch and crocheted and that was about it. Today I've been much more ambitious, walked the dog and did a bit of raking in the yard, and did some sewing too. Feeling okay, so I think I'm going to try to hit the gym tonight. I know my legs won't be super strong since I already went out on a walk today, so I'm going to concentrate more on my arms. I'm excited, whenever I feel crappy and can't go to the gym, I feel so lazy. And then when I'm feeling better and can go work out again, I feel so excited, like I'm going to go see an old friend! :)
 
Hi Alli, sounds like you had a great time buying tea! Since you bought the whole collection you'l have lots of days getting to choose which one to savor. Enjoy!

Cat, hope the workout went well. I skipped mine yesterday, due to dizziness and nausea, and ended up getting sick last night after dinner. So much for those calories.... I didn't lose it all and didn't any pill pieces in there so hopefully I didn't lose my meds either. I slept terribly last night also, I usually fall asleep and hardly move but last night I tossed and turned quite a bit. Had some bad dreams too. HOping today is a better day, I started it out with a workout on the elliptical, so that should help.

We've had the heat on here for a couple of weeks, and now they're saying we have a WINTER STORM WATCH out for tomorrow night..... Yech! :( Seriously, it's too early... although maybe it's our fault because we were hanging out Christmas lights on the front of the house yesterday. :D
 
Well, I didn't make it to the gym after all on Sunday evening. I tried, but I just felt so exhausted and it seemed like I probably wouldn't be able to do much of anything at the gym. So I went yesterday around lunchtime instead - and I was very low-energy and couldn't do a whole lot. :( Had a GI appointment yesterday afternoon after my gym session, and he switched my meds up a little bit, but I asked if I could go back on Entocort to get this stupid flare over with already, but he said no to that for now. I think I'd have more energy if I could get my guts fully under control, it's frustrating that my GI said no to Entocort when he knows it's a mild med and I've done well with it in the past. He's having me stop amitriptyline and take nortriptyline instead for now, to see if that does anything. I don't think it will, but I have to humor him I guess and maybe ask again at my next GI appt for Entocort, if things aren't better by then (I see him again in February).

Today I've been a bit better - walked my dog and then did some yard work. Raked a bunch of leaves by myself, as hubby is at work. That was a lot of work and I could tell my GERD wasn't super happy about it, but it's settled down now. My GERD really, really dislikes when I rake or shovel - I guess it's the bending and the use of my core muscles? But raking is such a good workout, I got really sweaty and tired! Feel pretty good. Hubby's at work all day and my birthday is tomorrow, so I'm thinking of pampering myself a bit today. I have an episode of a Korean drama that I really want to watch, I have a box of hair dye, I have some mud mask for my face, and I've been wanting to paint my nails. That plus a bubble bath and some hot chocolate sounds really nice! I think I'll turn on my fireplace, light some candles, and settle in and pamper myself and relax. :)
 

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